06 september 2022, Flor Linckens
Vicken Parsons: “When I’m working, I'm losing myself into what I always feel is a deeper part of me."
From 11 September, Kristof De Clercq Gallery in Ghent is presenting a solo exhibition with new work by British artist Vicken Parsons.
Parsons is known for making small, intimate paintings that are carefully constructed using thin, nearly transparent layers of oil paint. These paintings, often executed on small but thick wooden panels, are characterised by a neutral and muted palette in which flashes of colour are occasionally visible: yellow, blue, red, orange.. On other canvases, the artist reveals larger areas of colour. The paintings often reminds us of landscapes or interiors, but perhaps even more of the memories of those landscapes or interiors. For other works, Parsons relies purely on her imagination.
Vicken Parsons, Untitled, 2019, Kristof De Clercq gallery
Parsons is particularly fascinated by the ways in which light penetrates a space. She hopes to create a certain depth, using colours, layers and focus, among other things. The paintings radiate a certain peace and quiet, but at the same time a certain unease. For earlier works she used flint and white Chinese clay dust. In the past, Parsons also made a foray into the medium of sculpture, creating what she called 'painted objects'.
The artist makes her paintings in an almost meditative state. Parsons in an interview with Ivorypress:
“When I’m working, I'm losing myself into what I always feel is a deeper part of me, which is beyond consciousness. I suppose that eeriness that you see is the eeriness of the interior in a way.”
Vicken Parsons, Untitled, 2019, Kristof De Clercq gallery
Parsons grew up in Hertfordshire and studied at the Slade School of Fine Art in London, where she met her husband, British sculptor Antony Gormley, with whom she occasionally collaborates. Together they made the famous sculpture "Bed" (1980-1981), which consists of six hundred slices of industrially produced Mother's Pride bread. The work is part of the Tate collection.
Parsons' work has been exhibited at Tate St Ives, Tate Modern, the Royal Academy, Turner Contemporary, ICA, Whitechapel Gallery and Kunsthalle Mannheim. Her work has also been included in the collections of, among others, Tate, the Government Art Collection, the Arts Council Collection, Museum Voorlinden and the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art.
