Sunday Salon 21

The curatorial and editorial project for systems, non-objective and reductive artists working in the UK

Website: Chestnuts Design

Sunday Salon 21 | Laurence Noga

Saturation Point Studio, 3 -10 July 2022.

Sunday Salon 21, The Found and Forgotten, at Saturation Point Projects. Deptford.

A selection of works by the artist, writer and curator Laurence Noga.

My recent paintings and constructions interact with a long-term interest in the Bauhaus:

artists such as Moholy-Nagy, Josef Albers and Paul Klee. The systems artists Michael

Kidner, Natalie Dower and Colin Cina also influence me. My work engages with memory and

personal themes; many of the items used in the work come from my father’s systematic

collection of objects in his garage: hundreds of packets, sheet music, tools, washers, menus,

books and photographs. These objects inspire an open approach, using the found and forgotten. Multi-level surfaces/peripheral associations are interplayed with an industrial /geometric aesthetic, with an unpredictable approach to colour that poses a visual / retinal problem for the audience, focusing simultaneously on converging layers of tonally dazzling colour, while emphasising a psychological stimulus for the spectator.

The curation of the show aims to bring together the themes and series I have been exploring

over the last four years. In particular, the lockdown period infiltrated undercurrents

and elements into the way the works were developed and constructed, and allowed the

suggested colour of the found items to develop the palette of the work – perhaps evoking a

certain time or place. I want to bring a physicality and sound to the feel of the approach, which subtly draws the audience into the history of the work.

I am interested in how peripheral associations and imperfect colour choices draw the

audience into the surface implications of the work. These geometries are often merged

optically across the surface to activate the layered compositions and develop the luminous

states of spatialisation and ambiguity. I like the idea that the approach towards memorabilia

(such as tools or packets) is subtly embedded into the making of the painting, building a

human response to the mysterious, forgotten items and their poetic sense of history.

My ongoing research into the Bauhaus artists (Klee, Kandinsky, Albers, Moholy-Nagy) drives

the unpredictability/predictability of the colour handling. These relationships aim to

unbalance the viewer as surface facture is used translucently or with sudden density. The

colour is often disbursed, or used in compartments to create a deliberate, and odd, depth of

field.

Deep Blue Filtered Green (2022). Acrylic, wood and collage on panel, 25 x 35 cm

Soft Red Filtered Orange (2021). Acrylic,collage,vintage papers,wood, plastic. 20x 20 x 7 cm

Deep Black Filtered White (2022)