Artist Review

John Crawford – Between Seeing and Knowing

At The Arthouse – 11th February – 1st March 2009

Reviewed by Jamie Hanton as seen in the Press Wednesday 18 February 2009

The welcome mat has been put out in John Crawford’s latest show at The Arthouse. One of the artist’s designs has been woven into to a Dilana rug, it doesn’t quite do justice to Crawford’s nuanced and subtle technique – stripping away the detail that makes the work on paper in the rest of the exhibition so enthralling.

With the addition of the rug Crawford has three different mediums on show. And as Crawford is recognised as a ceramicist first and foremost three ceramic pieces are provided to create a neat context for the works on paper. The works in Between Seeing and Knowing, while containing the same intuitive mark making spirit as Crawford’s ceramics, flourish on the flexibility and expansiveness of a flat surface.

There is a joy in the number and diversity of techniques Crawford uses and a feeling of a printing process throughout. First nature embeds itself in the environment, then these ephemeral visual vignettes are impressed into Crawford’s mind, mingling with his experience, which is then expressed on paper. We can see the delicate imprint of detritus in the sand near Crawford’s home on the West Coast or the beauty of a solitary leaf. Here there are similarities with Richard Adams and J.S Parker, Crawford’s work at times focuses on exploring the features and secrets of specific locales that are known only to the artist through their own experience yet have a binding universal quality.

Indeed, there is an alchemy of paint in Crawford’s work. Employing a number of elements including gesso, oil pastels, and printer’s ink Crawford lets the natural attributes of his materials prevail. The process of creating becomes a delicately managed piece of timing for all to see. The application of the printers ink while the oil is still wet lets the ink bleed, soft and seeping. Each work is testament to a precise yet expressive nature. In Dangerous Red sweeping – arcing strokes swish through the geometric backgrounds that could only have been achieved by considered and extensive layering.

The images Crawford has chosen are an intriguing mix of natural and manmade, Box is a wonderfully incongruous piece placed between Leaf and Stone – two simple yet remarkable representational pieces, their particular textures can almost be touched with eyes alone.  The English Indian Wedding is a triumph of colour, purples and oranges seem to sash by, frozen in time and memory. The muted works however, demand more from the viewer, lacking the dynamic colour contrasts and relationships of the more vibrant pieces.

That minor personal preference aside Between Seeing and Knowing is a cohesive show that occupies the gallery space without trouble, no small achievement for a solo show that encompasses three different mediums. There is enough variety across palette, emotion, and form within the works on paper to satisfy an extended visit yet Crawford also uses arcs and decisive lines as motifs that thread the exhibition together into an intimate and continuous narrative of experience.