Leigh Artist short-listed for Royal Academy

May 7, 2013

Simon Kirk exhibited and sold at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition in 2010. His work has been sold at the New York, Hong Kong and London Affordable Art Fairs. In August 2012 he exhibited at ‘Art Hvide Sande’, a two week art exhibition and festival in the harbour town of Hvide Sande on the west coast of Denmark (www.kunstislusen.dk). 

He is currently showing work in Flagstaff, Arizona as well as the Estuary Gallery Collective in Belton Way, Leigh.

His work draws from images and text collected in his sketchbooks which through free association create playful abstractions. He is interested in narrative, specifically the ambiguous, subjective ‘hidden’ narrative - glimpses of an altogether different narrative order; where the 'story' remains oblique or partial, ambiguous and undeclared. The work is multidirectional and open ended. Meaning is inherent but impossible to pin down precisely. 

The work is primarily layers of painting combined with collaged elements. However, he also uses the decollage technique - cutting, tearing or sanding away parts of the built up surface image to reveal layers below. 

Much of his work is on a small scale format because it offers the freedom to explore a range of painting possibilities very quickly. He combines this work with larger pieces based on the same material.