NEIL FARBER
Ruby Throats
8 September – 6 October 2006
50 Pall Mall Deposit, 124 Barlby Road, London W10 6BL
t 020 8969 6166
f 020 8969 6209
e gallery@houldsworth.co.uk
w http://www.houldsworth.co.uk
Houldsworth is very pleased to launch its new programme and premises with solo exhibition Ruby Throats by surrealist comic bad boy Neil Farber, of Canadian Collective, Royal Art Lodge. This will be Neil Farber’s first solo exhibition in London.
Farber’s work tessellates an astounding array of imagery to form surrealist fantasies, where material acts as foil to his audacious desire to push a cast of frogs, boys, birds, fried eggs, blood and bones to the extremities of decency. The figures in the images seem sorry, hapless subjects of their inner disorders and the alienating confusion of their external realities. Just when we feel we may have a grip on Farber’s work he surprises us by producing a piece of profound morbidity or, conversely, picturesque delicacy.
Ruby Throats echoes the beguiling and disturbing nature of Farber’s works. The diaphanous pools of paint swirl around the hunched figures of round headed boys, humming birds and long haired maidens, but all too easily these pools of flowing colour become the excesses of bleeding necks and drowning seas. Farber explodes illustration outwards, creating a spiralling coil of tragic-comic absurdity and gesture, with a poetic sensibility.
Canadian born Neil Farber has shown internationally both as a solo artist and as part of the infamous comic collective the Royal Art Lodge. Farber has recently had solo exhibitions with Clementine Gallery, New York, Richard Heller Gallery, Santa Monica and Alice Day Gallery, Brussels. He was also part of recently ended Darkness Ascends at Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art, Toronto. His work has been widely reproduced, most recently as the cover artist for Comic Release: Negotiating Identity for a New Generation and a monograph published by Richard Heller.
For further information or images please contact Pippy Houldsworth on 020 8969 6166 or gallery@houldsworth.co.uk
Forthcoming Exhibitions at Houldsworth
Dynamic Entropy 11 October – 18 November 2006
Gordon Cheung, Laura Ford, Robert Platt, Hiraki Sawa
New Paintings Alicia Paz 24 November – 6 January 2007
Some of our current projects include .. Jonathan Callan… Special Collection Scheme catalogue, CAS … exhibitions at Martin Kudlek, Cologne, Hosfelt Gallery, San Francisco…. Installation Mattress Factory, Pittsburgh ..Gordon Cheung…John Moores 24, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool 16 Sep-26 Nov…British Art Show 6, organised by Hayward Gallery, touring….Laing Art Solo Award, Newcastle 2007…..Fresh! Contemporary Takes on Nature and Allegory Museum of Glass, ICCA, Washington to Dec 06… Dalziel Scullion Naturally! Mogadishni, Denmark … Laura Ford .. commission Visvim, Tokyo July 06 …solo exhibition Armour Boys, RSA Edinburgh 2 Aug – 10 Sep 06 with catalogue … Armour Boys New Art Centre, Roche Court 18 Sep – May 07 … Size Matters.: Exploring Scale in Arts Council Collection, ICA & touring ….Sculpture Today by Judy Collins publication Spring 07 .. Matt Franks … Metropolis Rise: New Art from London, Shanghai, Beijing & publication launch ICA, London ..Outdoor Sculpture, CAS, Economist Plaza Feb 07 concurrent New Works @ Houldsworth . Craig Kalpakjian solo project Houldsworth April 07.. Kounosuke Kawakami solo exhibition Houldsworth March 07 Clare Langan Art at the Rockface Norwich Castle Museum & Art Gallery until 3 Sep… Shaun O’Dell… new drawings Houldsworth March 07 ..Julie Nord New Works Houldsworth June 07..monograph published by Mogadishni 2006…. Alicia Paz …John Moores 24, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool…Solo Show @ Unit 2, London March 07….Royal Art Lodge new publication Perugi Artecontemporanea …Claire Sherman solo exhibitions Kavi Gupta, Chicago 2006 and Houldsworth, London early 2007… Zoe Walker….Love Cannon performance Camden Arts Centre, London… Panacea Hothouse Cornerhouse, Manchester 6 Oct – 19 Nov 06 and catalogue…Wellcome Trust Grant 2006….Walsall Art Gallery publication/Scala publishing 2007 ….
