Untitled Gallery occupies an unassuming basement spot just off Albert Square. Opened last year, it represents three Manchester based artists and runs a programme of mainly solo exhibitions. The current show, by Rick Copsey features his ‘Paintscape’ series of photographs. Like fellow Untitled gallery artist Evi Grigoropoulou, the artist is occupied with the tradition of painting; its limits and possibilities. Taking inspiration from Baudrillard’s postmodern musings on the nature of our mediated reality, as well as the Kantian concept of the sublime, the images appear at first to be photographs of water – for instance an ocean in a state of flux – but are actually digitally manipulated wet paint. Deconstructing the idea that a camera or a paintbrush can offer us the truth, the images are alluring on their own terms even as they obscure and subvert their origins. Copsey studied at Manchester Metropolitan University where he received his MA Fine Art in 1994. He has exhibited in St Petersburg, Berlin and Leeds. Musings on the nature of reality aside, these are beautiful works. Watching paint dry has never been so enticing.
Until Sat 27 Oct, Untitled Gallery, Friends’ Meeting House, 6 Mount Street, Bootle Street Entrance, M2 5NS. www.untitledgallerymanchester.com
Image: Paintscape 4 2012 Digital Macro Photograph of Oil Paint
- Words:
- Caitriona Devery
- Published on:
- Sun 21 Oct 2012
