Chris Hawkes
My practice works towards highly processed paintings, predominantly created in oils with mixed media elements. Using bright colour and multiple visual styles I play with ideas of the sampled image, gender, taste and Queer identity.
I see my paintings as heavily connected to Pop Art; as I consciously acknowledging the role of signs and simulations within representation, however I deliberately re-engage with the auto-biographical and personal behind the ‘empty signs’.
Sampling and reference to past art movements is also integral to my practise. Painted gestures both reference and mock the machismo of Abstract Expressionism, appearing camp when rendered in mint green or pastel pink. While a feminine, opulent aesthetic shows the influence of queer artists such as Marc Camille Chaimowicz and Rococo painting. Allow the images I collage together in my paintings are heavily edited and carefully curated, the paintings themselves are predominantly image led. With the aesthetic experience being of greater importance than a given meaning.
Since graduating in 2017 from the Fine Art Painting BA at University of Brighton, I have exhibited in both London and Brighton. As well as completing a two-month residency in Chongqing, China which culminated in the MORE + MORE + MORE and recently took part in the UKYA City Takeover in Nottingham.
Website: www.christopherhawkesart.
Instagram: www.instagram.com/
