Rene Daniels at Camden Arts Centre

The Rene Daniels exhibition was split into three main groups, dependent on the aesthetic, and the context, of the works. Unfortunately I lost all the photographs I took at the time (thank you Lumix), so once again Google has saved the day.

The first "section" of the exhibition was very intense; the paintings all contained heavy but bright colour schemes. The room felt quite gaudy and intoxicating as red was the main colour in the room.  

This piece "Cocoanuts" grabbed my attention with it's incredibly bright colours and the crazy upside down beard. The subject matter could be painted for humour or simply non-sensical imagery. Another painting "Untitled" was a scene of a farm, covered in smoke and creating a picture of destruction.

The second "section" of works were identified by images of repitition, usually with bright colours and broad strokes aesthetically. Much of the subject matter appeared to me to be about the idea of what it is to be human; whether creating a dialogue about society or exploring the process of thought. The namesake of the exhibition, "Painting on Unknown Languages" featured what appeared to be many panels of glass on a plain blue background. The pattern of the panels tapered each side (like a slideshow sequence on Mac Pro). I interpreted the painting as a dialogue between the conscious and the unconscious, with the glass panels representing frames of thought.

This painting (above) was the most interesting to me, as I interpreted the aggression and a certain cannibalistic connotation, as the fish appear to be eating each other, and become some sick scene of human nature, where mankind seems to destroy each other. Many of the paintings appear to be friendly but menacing, with bright coloured acrylic paints and a dream like way of painting.

The third "section" was a lot more childlike, but looked like cartoons, as the black and white sketches were quite rough but with splashes of colour they were refreshingly simple. The white temporary walls were in diagonal angles and images were painted onto them; figures, trees and words were painted in quite a childish style as the words became another (or made up) language. I liked how different this part of the exhibition was, a complete contrast to the first section.