British painter Jake Wood-Evans recently added final touches to a new body of work that will be exhibited at Unit London. "Subjection and Discipline" will be his first major London exhibition, showing his relationship with 18th century painters and their work.
Taking these classics as merely a base for his work, Wood-Evans is more interested in the original artist and his craftsmanship, rather than the story behind the piece. Still, by scrubbing, scratching, erasing and repainting areas, he creates a sense of history behind the images depicted. Primarily a figurative painter, he took more abstract approach this time, modifying and reinventing these images along the way. Stepping away from the restricting portraiture painting that he studied, he entered the area of more intuitive, accidental process which has its own, unknown course. By showing what's "behind" the painting, the artist exposes the hidden parts of the image, and in some sense, the real face of the person portrayed. Haunting and beautiful at the same time, these re-worked classics suggest how the view on these post-colonial heroes changed or faded over time. —Sasha Bogojev
