Luke Frost in Residence

Luke Frost in Residence

On Friday 23rd January I made the trip down to Tate St Ives to see the Private View of Cornwall based artist Luke Frost’s exhibition, the result of a year long residency in the neighboring Porthmeor Studios.

The exhibition features a number of canvases with his signature flat field of colour each with a contrasting stripe crossing from top to bottom disrupting the otherwise faultless plain of colour. A number of panoramic format canvases are hung one above the other climbing the tall gallery wall linking the space with the balcony level through a large nautical style porthole window peering down at the work. The bright orange colour in these paintings have the look of a changing sky of the evenings sun, while the hang is reminiscent of Donald Judd’s stack works. A new development from the residency are Frost’s corner pieces, these aluminum panels were designed and built by John Jones in collaboration with the artist creating two equally sized panels welded at right angles to sit flush in the corner of the room. The larger of the set, a 4 x 4 ft corner piece is constructed out of 2” deep welded subframe with 2mm primed aluminum sheet, the finished piece installed in the exhibition draws the viewer into the space with eyes sprawling across the two walls it bridges. Confronted with the work the viewer is engulfed by the deep blue huw built up with multiple layers of thinned paint application, drawn in by the flatness and richness of colour with a two tone stripe this time running through the centre between the 2 plains.

The show runs until 4th May and what better reason to go than to take in the dramatic seascape and a yummy Cornish pasty.

Andy Wicks