Boredom and alienation, the symptoms of the capitalist consumerist are weighted alongside themes of invention, re-creation and renewal, humanity and the inhumane, so the images are mediatised, cropped or zoomed-in, portraying only elements of the complete observed landscape which would otherwise come to form the high street or the shopping centre, the office block and the tower block, the throws of 21st Century daily existence.
“Streets are 'lovingly' swept clean each morning, so that they may suffer the horrors played out each night before. There can be no true beauty in this, only beauty within the decay.”
These visceral surfaces are at once apocalyptic and rejuvenated. Areas of marked intensity are nurtured and supported by areas of flat colour blurring the foreground with the background while matt and gloss fight for domination of the final surface finish. At times paint is scraped from the canvas surface as if to purge a memory or sanded flat in a hasty cover up to re-address the balance. Francis states “Streets are 'lovingly' swept clean each morning, so that they may suffer the horrors played out each night before. There can be no true beauty in this, only beauty within the decay.” He offers no comfort to the viewer, only a confrontation with facts stripped of emotional propaganda.
'Untitled 16' was selected as the winner of the inaugural Needhams Open Art Competition 2009, for new and emerging international Artists. Nash went on to feature in several exhibitions with us, including his solo exhibition 'The Ultimate Crumbling' and 'The Old Palace Art Exhibition' in the Long Gallery at The Old Palace in Ely, Cambridgeshire. He has recently been showing his amazing work in 'Art At The Bridge', an exhibition inside Tower Bridge, London. He has also been selected to take part in 'Parallax AF', a showcase of international contemporary art at La Galleria in London and was the juror for the Needhams Emerging Art Competition 2011.
