Proving that there are many ways to skin a bear, LUAP’s most recent crop of works take a nuanced approach to the presentation of a motif that, otherwise, might have become a millstone.
Moving away from the sculptural and performative iterations of his oeuvre, multi-disciplinary artist, Paul Robinson (LUAP) returns to painting, finding in the form another way to draw out the often fragmentary nature of the psyche. Mental damage, elusive as it is to portray, becomes a foreground to his portraits, forming a recurring theme in his work as a larger whole, but especially in his current collection: Life Lines. The Pink Bear, with which LUAP is most readily associated, is now a background figure. Given the symbolism of the figure — chosen by Robinson in a cognitive behavioural session as a comforting persona to banish negative thoughts in times of need — the placement is significant. Available and on call, but not prominent? Omnipresent but marginalised? Well-forked but not dead?
See them in person, and make up your own (fractured?) mind.
Extract from press materials:
Life Lines is an exhibition by multidisciplinary British artist LUAP (Paul Robinson), curated by Guerin
Projects. Three years in the making, this entirely new body of work features sixteen large scale
abstracted portraits alongside a series of photographic portraits, and marks a distinctive departure for
the artist, who is perhaps most widely known for his signature Pink Bear photographs and mixed media
pieces. Although the Pink Bear remains present in these new paintings, here he sinks into the
background, a silent guardian rather than the focal subject.
Curated by Guerin Projects, the exhibition will take place in The Bottle Factory – a grand 1895
warehouse in Peckham near the Old Kent Road, restored by Fabrix – and runs 6 – 21 December 2024.
The artist’s process is complex, involving both incredible technical skill and an extraordinary capacity
to invite openness from people as they share their life stories. Over the past few years, LUAP’s artistic
practice has evolved from a representational approach to an expressive, deconstructed style, and here
the works are abstracted both theoretically and visually. LUAP’s works explore the mechanisms of the
human psyche, with sitters represented through a fractured lens that reveals the infinitely multifaceted
nature of personality, as the artist explains, “the fractured parts of our psyche, piecing them together,
and understanding them.” These pieces delve into the various aspects, life events, and responses that
shape a personality, investigating our own individual, fragmented storylines and how they weave
together to form the tapestries of our identities.
Life Lines
Curated by Guerin Projects
6 – 21 December 2024
Open Wednesday – Sunday, 11am – 7pm
The Bottle Factory
12 Ossory Rd, London SE1 5AN
The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance. – Aristotle
