London’s Arcade are currently presenting a solo show by Peggy Franck, the Dutch artist whose lusciously coloured works offer an unusual combination of painting, installation and photography.
Franck’s works, in this instance, large-scale C-type prints, begin life as paintings, with vast, bright strokes of colour, an abstract composition and a play with surface texture and the everyday–hula hoops and carpets have previously been employed as materials. For gallery presentation, the works take on aspects of many mediums, the original paintings photographed to convey some of their surrounding space, some hanging in front of crammed bookshelves, others shown within a wider studio setting. Paintings become installations which in turn become photographs. The point at which a work is deemed ‘finished’ comes into question here, and Franck is known for her unconventional modes of composition within these photographs, some cut off in unexpected places as though existing as a mere test image.
The attractiveness of the works is also a noticeable factor, marks laid over gleaming metallic surfaces, some pieces employing pastel petrol spill effects. The colours pop, yellows, purples and blues laden heavily next to one another and avoiding dulling or mixing. Her past work with sculpture is evident also in her attention to form and space, and her love of artists’ studios—in particular, Eva Hesse and Helen Frankenthaler—appears here and there, in her focus on the space surrounding the ‘work’, and the occasional appearance of the artist herself.
‘With no hands. Like a sea’ is showing at Arcade, London until 17 December. All images courtesy of Arcade, London
