John Hurrell – 11 May, 2026
Here it is a ‘double game' to critique the role of the artist while still embracing an unavoidable romantic ethos through the act of participation. (Assuming that the word 'cult' is denigratory.) Such written actions are obviously sticky. It can even be claimed they speak louder than non-written ones.
The twenty new emblematic paintings from Ralph Paine upstairs in St. Kevins—lined up in a row—all display the distinctive Paine graphic sensibility with its oblique semiotic symbols and unusual ‘sociological’/journalistic’ titles. Mainly figures and faces rendered dramatically on ‘pages’ in watercolour and gouache, they are framed, painterly and well considered as a unified conceptual project. Entry to the show is via the stairs from K Rd leading directly up alongside St Kevins Arcade.
Against an almost invisible backdrop of parallel ruled horizontal pencil lines, a hunched feeding eagle on the show’s invite is presented as a symbol of imperialist fascism. (My guess!) It is framed by an octagon and vertical columns on the two sides.
It seems to be overseeing the planet earth trapped in a ring of vegetative/combative chaos. Maybe this ‘ring’ is a symbol for an ecological nightmare and an even wider cosmic ruin. Perhaps the circle defines the limit of the artist’s limitations. (Though I can’t imagine this artist being daft enough to self-flagellate.)
Focused lenses continue looking at the activity of the gaze in this figurative, overtly symbolic, myth-oriented but ‘Poppy’ show. There are no geometric abstractions within the 20 works, of which there are five in each of red, yellow, green and blue. The gouache provides a warm granular opaque texture, not wispy and ethereally liquid—as in translucent watercolour.
Here it is a ‘double game’ to critique the role of the artist while still embracing an unavoidable romantic ethos through the act of participation. (Assuming that the word ‘cult’ is denigratory.) Such written actions are obviously sticky. It can even be claimed they speak louder than non-written ones.
Curious readers can also see Charles Ninow’s website for a short but excellent essay by the artist that discusses the implications of painting in a series, and the relationships between the included components.
<https://www.charlesninow.com/content/exhibitions>
John Hurrell
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