Annet Gelink Gallery is proud to present Dweller, Leo Arnold's first solo exhibition at the gallery, following his participation in the group exhibition Dancing with Octopuses in 2021.
Leo Arnold's works are the result of a romantic and emotional response to his immediate surroundings. He approaches and reapproaches his environment, often creating multiple works on one theme.
Curiosity, intuition and opportunism act as the engine of Arnold's studio practice. Beginning from reality, he works in a receptive and open manner, responding to the paint itself. The paintings are not premeditated therefore offering the viewer a record of a discovery. In this sense, unforeseen moments, accidents, and mistakes have become essential to his newest body of work.
Dweller describes the everyday subjects from Arnold's personal environment that inhabit his paintings. In his paintings, public and private worlds collide. Windows crop up regularly, the view from which might be occluded, or else a patch of light is cast on the floor. The title also implies a human presence, which can be found lurking out of sight, at the edge of the works, glimpsed in a reflection or shadow. Reflection is a recurring theme in Arnold's work, utilized either to portray a fractured image of self or lay bare his surroundings. In this way, his work touches upon both a physical and mental space, in which reflections facilitate a moment of contemplation.
Dweller encapsulates Arnold's receptive working method, through which he returns to a painting time and again. By revisiting, erasing, adding or letting go of his work, he embraces seemingly negative qualities such as anxiety, regret and uncertainty. The paintings are the outcome of Arnold's efforts to grasp at something, his trying to pin it down and make sense of his everyday surroundings and experiences. In that sense, the works are psychological rather than merely observational, capturing a state of mind.
On May 14, during Amsterdam Art Week (May 11 until May 15), Leo Arnold will host a walk-through in the gallery. Visitors will have the opportunity to meet the artist and learn more about his work.
Leo Arnold (1993, London, UK) lives and works between Amsterdam and London. He studied at Glasgow School of Art (UK) and was resident at De Ateliers in Amsterdam (NL). In 2020 Arnold received the 'Buning Brongers Prijs' and the 'Koninklijke Prijs voor Vrije Schilderkunst' in 2019. In 2021 he participated in his first group exhibition at Annet Gelink Gallery.