CHARLIE DUTTON GALLERY 1a Princeton Street, London WC1R 4AX www.charlieduttongallery.com new work by MIKE SILVA Private View 24th October 6-9pm 25th October - 8th December 2012 Mike Silva's work represents an art without ideals; that is to say without a transforming imaginary, or a formal symbolic, but an attempt to picture the world as he finds it, without embellishment. For Silva the photograph is a source of realism, precisely for what it does not show. In the nineteenth century, realism was about building a totality, finding within the contingency of the world a universal principle. Today, the photograph is the only realism we trust; yet we are also aware that the photograph is only a fragment. Silva revels in this fragmented realism, and builds his pictures from disparate parts, parts that we may wish to piece together, or form a narrative around, but are unable to. The pictures embody a sense of random urban encounters, whose ultimate meaning is absent- we are left with something akin to raw experience.!silva's paintings are!demonstrations!of a technical mastery that has always come naturally to him. What gives his work its edge, however,is his refusal to sublimate or romanticise. There is no art in his compositions- not even a postmodern poetry, as one might find in the work of David Salle for example. What we are presented with is a kind of raw data of the artist's life, presented with an apparent neutrality- its the straightforwardness, the ordinariness of the artists imagery, whether it be personal or political, that allows us the viewer to connect directly with these works. A lack of gloss! or pretension however, does not finally mitigate against the artists real intentions; a desire to find beauty in the everyday, to present this beauty as it is!found. Without morality or meaning, beauty nevertheless provides sustenance, an elusive goal, waiting to be uncovered in the ordinary world of people places and things.never taking the aesthetic for granted, Silva seeks it out in the world- these paintings are a record of that quest. Dan Coombs Opening times Wednesday Friday 11-6pm Saturday 11-2pm
Landscape, Cityscape, Interiors 123 x 153cm Berlin 40 x 30cm
Landscape, Cityscape, Interiors 2 120 x 170xm Lilies 41 x 30cm Oil on canvas
Portraits 127 x 102cm oil on canvas
Born: 1970 in Sweden Lives: London Education 1988-1989 Hastings College of Art 1989-1992 Middlesex University (B.A. Fine Art) 1992-1994 Royal College of Art, London (M.A. Fine Art) Solo shows 2012 - Charlie Dutton Gallery- London 2011 - Charlie Dutton Gallery- London 2007 - Galleria Enrico Astuni - Pietrasanta, Pietrasanta (LU) 2004 - Wilkinson Gallery, London (England) 2002 - Wilkinson Gallery, London (England) 2001 - Thumm - Dircksenstraße, Berlin 2000 - Thumm - Dircksenstraße, Berlin 1998 - Wilkinson Gallery, London (England) 1997 - Stephen Friedman Gallery, London (England) Group shows 2012-10 for no 10- Whitechapel Gallery London 2010 -Super Natural - Charlie Dutton Gallery, London (England) 2008 -Collettiva - Galleria Enrico Astuni - Pietrasanta, Pietrasanta (LU) 2006 -The Triumph of Painting - Part 6 - The Saatchi Gallery, London (England) 2005-Twilight - Galleria Alessandro de March, Milan 2003-Yes! I Am A long Way From Home - Herbert Read Gallery - University College for the Creative Arts at Canterbury, Canterbury, Kent (England) Mike Silva - Christopher Bucklow - MITTERRAND+CRAMER/FINE ART/GENEVE, Geneva 2000-Annäherung an das Portrait - Monika Castillo, Moyna Flannigan, Konrad Klapheck - - Galerie Albrecht - München, Munich (closed) 1999-Group Show - - Thumm - Dircksenstraße, Berlin (closed, 2009) 1996-Sad - Gasworks, London (England) A Group Show - Stephen Friedman Gallery, London (England) Mike Silva graduated from the Royal College of Art in 1994 and was included in the 1995 New Contemporaries. Since then he has had a one person shows here at The Charlie Dutton Gallery and Galerie Barbara Thumm, Berlin (2001/2000), Anthony Wilkinson Gallery, London (2004/2002/1998/1995), Galeri Bouhlou, Norway (2002), Stephen Friedman Gallery, London (1996) and has been included in a number of group shows including Lombard Freid, New York, Barbara Gillman Gallery, Miami. Victoria Miro Gallery, London. His work is in a number of collections including: British Council, British Airways, Government Art Collection, Simmons & Simmons and the Saatchi Collection.