We've featuerd the works of Irish-born, London-based painter Chloe Early throughout the years at Juxtapoz, and we are excited to share works from her series "Phoenix," part of a group show at Corey Helford Gallery called Sixth Sense.
Currently living and working in London, Early is known for her figurative paintings with street art influences. Working in oils on aluminum panel, the artist adopts tropes from the history of Western painting, seamlessly merging figuration and abstraction. Drawn from her own photographic sources, Early’s meticulously rendered figures evoke both romantic and renaissance paintings in their allegorical functions, suggesting pleasure or pain, agony or ecstasy. Says the artist, “I’ve always been interested in opposites in my work and exploring themes which can have a dual interpretation.”
Regarding her new five-part mini-series depicting a female figure in various states of rise and fall, Early shares: “The paintings take inspiration from the ‘phoenix’ (an immortal bird associated with Greek mythology and many other cultures). Phoenix is associated with the sun and is destroyed by flames only to rise again reborn from its ashes. The predominance of red and warm tones throughout these paintings are a reference to fire; from embers to roaring flames, these paintings aim to portray the cyclical nature of life; a continuous cycle of birth, death, rebirth, and resurrection. The figure spins solitarily through the darkness, alluding to our sun and the infinite other stars in deep space and drawing a micro and macro parallel between the individual experience and the totality of the universe.”
