Bourouina Gallery is pleased to introduce Chicago based artist Paul Nudd with his first exhibition in Europe.
Paul Nudd's work might rather reject than attract at first glance: mold, excrements, bacteria and other disgusting substances of biological origin come to mind. But the viewer should look twice: Nudd's works are carefully and meticulously composed portraits - of filth and decay.
In 2008 Nudd started his series Dirty, monochrome black paintings with various elements such as scraps of textile or fake hair glued on canvas. In combination with puddles of paint, bladders and scums rise and create what could be best described at molecular landscapes or extraterrestrial/subterrestrial sceneries. While the Dirty-Paintings seem to have reached a final state with their crusted traces, the more recent Mutant Drawings seem to be caught in a process of bubbly decomposition. These bright green and yellow paper drawings in vertical format show more or less human figures suffering from injuries and outgrowths, exploding into lumps and cells. The small size Slug Text Drawings combine type and language in descriptive phrases: Hair & Skin Pie or Thick & Meaty Pig & Dog Tongues in Pink Pastes and Horse Jelly, reminding of school yard contests to see who can gross out more. The exhibition will be complemented by a selection of short films: “DIY”-style Super 8 movies with sceneries built in painted polystyrene and special effects created by such help as of shampoo.
Nudd draws inspiration from Horror Movies of the 80's such as Cronenberg's The Fly or Carpenters The Thing as well as from documentations on medical phenomenons or natural history. He also follows the Chicago tradition of the grotesque coming up in the 1960's with groups like the Hairy Who.
Nudd's work is about more than just turning the viewers stomach. He sets against slick, neat and tidy art with crusts, slops and fake vomit and invites the viewer to explore the combinations, forms and textures arising of such materials. Peversly attracted, he is eaving the viewer giggle, panic and squirm at the same time - like the laughter when watching a Splatter movie.
