Jack Trolove with Bones (left) and Aerial Roots. Hear him discuss his work at Te Manawa Art Gallery at 1pm on Saturday. Photo / Rebecca Swan
Jack Trolove with Bones (left) and Aerial Roots. Hear him discuss his work at Te Manawa Art Gallery at 1pm on Saturday. Photo / Rebecca Swan
Have you ever seen a piece of artwork that so exactly captures what you're feeling – or what you want to feel – that you experience a physical reaction?
Any one of the pieces in Jack Trolove's new exhibition Keening, opening at Te Manawa Art Gallery on December 11, couldprovoke that in someone viewing them. Most are more than a metre across and composed with assured strokes of boldly coloured paint. The face could feel familiar to you; it could be a stranger. Yet each one is filled with a kaleidoscope of emotion, waiting for the viewer to unlock it.
If you were to visit Trolove's Northland studio, it is his palette that gives the first clue about the link between his practice and his finished works. No dainty hand-held object for him: instead he uses a large table, where browns and pinks mix with blue, purples, greens and oranges. From these colours emerge the depths of expression to be found in every one of his works.
"I can tell when a painting works because my heart beats a bit faster," Trolove says. "When the paint is really tactile and seductive, it can hold a lot - it can carry unsettling or disturbing or painful."
Just like a real human face, there's a lot to unpack in any given moment while looking at these paintings.
"The paintings are who they are. I don't get much say over that, to be honest, but I feel like we've done our collaborative job well when, at the end, they are really sentient and alive, but not settled."
Trolove has been painting for more than 20 years, and has held exhibitions in Australia, France and Spain. This new show will be his first solo New Zealand exhibition outside one of the main centres.
At 1pm on Saturday, Trolove will give a talk about the exhibition. Entry to the gallery and the talk are both free.
