Themes of urgency (I WANT YOU TO PANIC) and despair (BLAHBLAHBLAH) have featured prominently in the recent works of artist John Reynolds. This malaise continues with an animated sense of precariousness, even stupor, at play within his new series of painting. Reynolds has mined similar territory before, drawing on ruinous moments and misalignments of fate in politics, the art scene, and popular culture. The six new paintings created with metallic marker and acrylic on canvas feature nocturnal grounds that loom dusky and pungent.

Against a scaffolding of collapsing structures, fragmented texts, and a dazed attempt at way-finding, the new body of work casts an elegant and hallucinogenic web of imagery and association. And yet Reynolds seems to suggest that despite this shadow play of slow-dawning alarm, we may yet stumble toward the light. Quoting the UK’s National Health Service, the artist comments “If you talk to a person who is sleepwalking, they may partially respond or say things that do not make sense”. Are we sleepwalking towards disaster or change this new body of work asks, or are we just asleep?

John Reynolds will share an artist talk in the closing week of the exhibition. Details to come.