Winter Pride Exhibition by Reid Boultbee
Artist Statement
Multi-media conceptualists, Reid Gordon Charles (nom du plume), resides in Manitoba. His art education began in 2002; under the tutelage of Perri Gardner. Developing a keen instinct for storytelling and dichotomy.
Consistent playing with themes of self worth, vanity, abuse and reinterpretation. These concepts have been staples, of the Artist, since 2003.
Currently, mainly palette knife work is favoured. The blade, a metaphor for self harm. Allowing therapization of himself. Colour stories, layered paint, and unifying washes all contribute to the realization of self concept. Reference points are The Devine Comedy (mainly inferno, as the artist is a martyr), and Geothe’s Faust.
Defining colours include deep violets and blues, violent magenta’s and neons. Heavy body media alludes to trauma of past and present. Varnishes create textural demons. Visualization of the layers of growth and pain. Crescendoing in a wash, an analogy of acceptance.
Alexander McQueen, Pollock, Warhol and Tolstoy all deeply inspire the Artist. Romanizing of death, disenfranchisement and etherealness being the common talking point of these artists.
Arbre Généalogique (Throughbred)
A heavy body series focusing on artistic self therapy.
Danté’s journey to salvation being referenced. Reid Gordon Charles’s relates to the disturbing enlightenment of the epic poem. Goethe’s Faust being the subplot of the body of work.
Singular colour stories create allegories. Magenta being violence and rape. Neons:vanity. Mica, textural rock, atonement and Sisyphus. Paradiso pastel work being release, growth and amelioration. Climaxing in metallic leaf, the joining of Id, ego and super ego.
Subtle nods to Plath, Anna Karenina and 18th century libertinism. Giving beautiful sorrow, creatively cruelty and elegant penance. Edie Sedgwick being a creative muse and thematically similar.
Conceptualization of abuse, transactional sex, atonement, love and self awareness dominate. The Artist hopes the series connects to an audience seeking growth. To change the world, you only need to connect with one person.