John Hurrell – 11 June, 2024

Within this new show and its mix of quatrefoil and rectangular paintings, Max Gimblett presents twenty works, all typically celebrating rapid paint application (too fast for preplanning) via spontaneous calligraphy, gridded metal-leafed surface sheen, stringy paint liquidity, muscular physical size and the transitory effects of ambient light.

Most are quatrefoils, greatly varied in size and made with highly focused, compressed (then released) muscular energy. The result: often a curved, drippy cascading streak, sometimes rendered in two colours; a zigzagging, loose, floppy, splatty line made with wide brushes—dragging with it, splashy disintegrating specks, droplets and smears. All celebrating the sacramental. A mix of Zen Buddhism with hints of Christianity

Of the two rectangles, the two metre high The Wild One, is grossly over-complicated from a distance—seemingly nonsensical—yet it suddenly makes gorgeous sense close up, with its myriad juxtaposed textures, iridescent sheens, and ferociously competing (granulated, tonally contrasting, jostling) fragmented vectors. It is a whirlwind of overloaded vibrating sensation, blasting the viewer with vivid optical patterned energies.

This particular painting represents the extreme side of Gimblett’s practice, the bombarding overloaded aspect, but there are lots of subtle, restrained and delicate (even understated) paintings here too.

Be that as it may, I think that it is nevertheless inevitable that Gimblett be seen as excessive in his rapturous enthusiasm for gold leaf (his seemingly persistent indifference to unabashed vulgarity) and that in today’s extremely harsh economic climate, his practice will infuriate many art lovers who perceive it as being wilfully gross, if not callous.

Yet no one is forced to visit his shows and they are unusual sensual experiences anyone can try out. Everyone should. Their materiality is enjoyable as part of a temporary gallery encounter that is absolutely impossible to photograph—all are welcome—and it would be foolish to try and sanctimoniously thwart it.

John Hurrell

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