An exhibition of new paintings by Merlin Carpenter

Posted by Fabio 19 November 2019

An exhibition of new paintings by Merlin Carpenter. The show considers the handmade object’s capacity to engage with and complicate the language and history of the readymade.

Merlin Carpenter’s work grasps with the potential relationship between painting and the readymade; and the possibility of collapsing the ideas that distinguish these practices. Since the 1990s the readymade object has been an integral line of inquiry in Carpenter’s work; and in more recent years he has presented a number of readymade works that hang flat on the wall like a painting. Carpenter’s new hyper realistic paintings push the boundaries of painting into the discourse of the readymade in another way: the five works are so highly finished that they appear like a product, delivered from elsewhere. In this stark new presentation, Carpenter encourages the audience to both critique the authenticity of the paintings and simultaneously accept the role of the artist’s hand.

Merlin Carpenter
Simon Lee gallery, London
22 November 2019 – 18 January 2020