James R. Ford, Buddy Disown Cotton Ruse, 2022 Acrylic on linen, 300 x 300 mm.
Photo Credit
{Suite} Wellington is pleased to present Epiphany Apophany, a solo exhibition by James R. Ford exploring ideas around language (visual or written) and perception. Apophenia is the tendency to perceive meaningful connections between unrelated things, and an epiphany is a moment of sudden and great revelation or realisation when those connections are formed.
Over the years Ford’s artistic practice has become more minimal, both in aesthetic and narrowing of intention. Simply put, he paints dots, writes words, and sometimes creates objects and videos.
Ford’s dot paintings have no obvious answer or interpretation. It is human instinct to search for patterns, recognisable shapes, and formal figures within the abstraction; to impose a rational explanation. Like a prize to be unlocked - if you can figure out the connections, you win!
Ford’s recent text-works are in the form of hand-painted or stencil-sprayed graphic typeface on canvas. The works consider the pursuit of happiness, the search for meaning, and the general stress and confusion of it all.
James R. Ford studied at Nottingham Trent University and Goldsmiths, University of London and currently lives and works in Wellington, New Zealand. Ford has exhibited widely throughout the United Kingdom, New Zealand and internationally, and in 2013 was winner of the inaugural Tui McLauchlan Emerging Artists Award from the New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts.
{Suite} Wellington is pleased to present Epiphany Apophany, a solo exhibition by James R. Ford exploring ideas around language (visual or written) and perception. Apophenia is the tendency to perceive meaningful connections between unrelated things, and an epiphany is a moment of sudden and great revelation or realisation when those connections are formed.
Over the years Ford’s artistic practice has become more minimal, both in aesthetic and narrowing of intention. Simply put, he paints dots, writes words, and sometimes creates objects and videos.
Ford’s dot paintings have no obvious answer or interpretation. It is human instinct to search for patterns, recognisable shapes, and formal figures within the abstraction; to impose a rational explanation. Like a prize to be unlocked - if you can figure out the connections, you win!
Ford’s recent text-works are in the form of hand-painted or stencil-sprayed graphic typeface on canvas. The works consider the pursuit of happiness, the search for meaning, and the general stress and confusion of it all.
James R. Ford studied at Nottingham Trent University and Goldsmiths, University of London and currently lives and works in Wellington, New Zealand. Ford has exhibited widely throughout the United Kingdom, New Zealand and internationally, and in 2013 was winner of the inaugural Tui McLauchlan Emerging Artists Award from the New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts.
