JOE FAN RSA

4th – 21st November 2014

THACKERAY GALLERYEST. 1968

With Love from Ithaka

I admired Joe Fan’s work for many years and essentially placed myself in theposition of saying hello every time I met him. Over a period of time we bothpersuaded ourselves we knew each other and have been talking about the worldand art ever since.

This body of work represents a considerable evolution of style from the humanform into a more transformational range of themes. His painterly narrative,redolent of Breugel, Goya and Bernini, explores themes of deconstruction of formwithin a metaphor of travelling that is ‘With Love from Ithaka’.

Joe’s art reflects greater themes of the personal odyssey framed within the smallercompassionate scale. His pragmatic references here relate to gardens, but notgardening, where the Homeric and Hellenic tradition is played out within themesof the mundane – the fence, the cloud lantern and the organic form with the all-pervading sense of the broken journey. The everyday event takes on the epic; thejourney across the playground; the reflective walk and everywhere that sense thatnature is encroaching and encompassing a sense of growth and belonging. Theviewer should also not underestimate Joe’s sense of humour with his fracturing ofscale and form and the recurring theme of the rabbit. The love of the journey toIthaka, that is the metaphor for this exhibition, is not about the arrival but thejourney that is manifest through this group of paintings. These gardens of earthlydelight become real within the confluence of the practiced mark and the reflective,crepuscular grey tones.

Joe refuses to explain or interpret his art other than through the randomness of hisindividual mark although organic forms present in challenging degrees ofperspective. The journey is a consistent theme here and Joe’s odyssey is played outwithin the thoroughfares of his personal journey, the playgrounds of the world andthe seeking for the journey’s end. From a post-wasteland sense of despair comes asense of hope. Shape and form coalesce into the deconstruction of space and scalewith that sense of upward movement that is redolent of all Joe’s work. Joe’s simpleassertion that his art should reflect a ‘truthfulness’ to self is critique enough.

The work transmutes itself from that unconscious desire of feeling connected tonature to the transmutation of nature itself through the cloud-flower and the snailfinger. The whole is exemplified by those recurring themes of the ascending anddescending form that is indicative of the human condition of feeling constrainedand the wish to break free. This is a body of work of the road less travelled. It isless to do with the narrative distance and more related to the art of being andbecoming. Joe’s art sings the body electric of hope.

Rory LynchNovember 2014

PAGE ONE:

Spring Time Chaosconté on hand-made paper 50x49cm (20x19ins)

4

Night Curtain with Floating Feather

oil on canvas

91x71cm (36x28ins)

6

Poetry Reading for Beginners

oil on canvas

76x107cm (30x42ins)

8

Winter Harvest

oil on canvas

71x91cm (28x36ins)

10

Babel Reconstruction

oil on canvas

122x153cm (48x60ins)

12

July the 3rd from Ithaka with Love

conté on hand-made paper

63x47cm (25x18ins)

The Faithful

conté on hand-made paper

46x49cm (18x19ins)

LEFT TO RIGHT:

Winter Tale

conté on hand-made paper

46x54cm (18x22ins)

14

Night Bath

oil on canvas

23x30cm (9x12ins)

16

Ghost

oil on canvas

30x23cm (12x9ins)

18

Bridge above the Hidden Book of Wonder

oil on canvas

91x71cm (36x28ins)

20

23 Miles to the Beach

oil on canvas

101x76cm (40x30ins)

22

The Garden that I Built

oil on canvas

91x71cm (36x28ins)

24

Rehearsal for a Feast

conté on hand-made paper

28x51cm (11x20ins)

26

Kite

oil on canvas

153x122cm (60x48ins)

28

From Ithaka with Love

oil on canvas

127x102cm (50x40ins)

30

Chasing the Rain

oil on canvas

71x91cm (28x36ins)

BIOGRAPHY

Joe Fan, born in Hong Kong in 1962, came to Scotland to study Graphic Design at AberdeenCollege of Commerce. He was then advised by an Aberdeen College lecturer to apply for aplace at Gray’s School of Art to study Fine Art. After successfully gaining a place at Gray’s,one of his teachers was Gordon Bryce. Following graduation in 1988, Joe won the MillerHomes Young Scottish Artist of the Year, and was sent to Paris to spend time at the CiteInternationale des Arts from 1989-1990.

From 1990-1997, Joe returned to Aberdeen and became a Lecturer at Gray’s School of Art inDrawing and Painting. During this period, Joe also spent time as a visiting Lecturer at CyprusCollege of Art, Paphos in 1994.

In 1997, Joe gave up his role as a Lecturer to pursue his own full time career as an artist.Joe continues to live and work in Aberdeen

SOLO SHOWS

1989 Cite Internationale des Arts, Paris1989 Peacock Artspace, Aberdeen1991 Compass Gallery, Glasgow1991 Thackeray Rankin Gallery, London1994 Royal Overseas League, London and Edinburgh1995/1996/1999 Rendezvous Gallery, Aberdeen2000-2012 Thackeray Gallery, London2005 Rendezvous Gallery, Aberdeen2007 Open Eye Gallery, Edinburgh2011 Fraser Gallery, St. Andrews 2014 Thackeray Gallery, London

SELECTED GROUP SHOWS

1985 Rank Xerox Marlow Art Collection, National Theatre, London1986 Grays Sketch Club Student Exhibition, Aberdeen Art Gallery; Wood Group

Young Artist Competition, Artspace, Aberdeen1987/1988 Royal Scottish Academy Student Exhibition, Edinburgh1988 New Generation Artists, Compass Gallery; Richard Demarco Print

Exhibition, Edinburgh1989 Grays Former Students Exhibition, Aberdeen Art Gallery1990 Wild Boar Gallery & Restaurant, Aberdeen1990-2012 Aberdeen Artists Society Annual Exhibition, Aberdeen Art Gallery1991 Royal Society of Watercolourists, Annual; Royal Glasgow Institute of

Fine Art Annual Exhibition1991,1992 Sue Rankin Gallery, London1992 Aberdeen International Youth Festival, Aberdeen Art Gallery1993 Royal Overseas Annual Exhibition, London; Ten Years of WASPS,

Aberdeen Art Gallery 1993-1995 Scottish Society of Artists Annual Exhibition, Edinburgh1993, 1995 Morrison Portrait Exhibition, R.S.A, Edinburgh1994-2010, 2013 Royal Scottish Academy Annual Exhibition, Edinburgh 1995 Scottish Society of Artists Selected Touring Exhibition, Piers Art Centre, Orkney1996 WASPS Studio Artists Aberdeen, Peacock Gallery, Aberdeen1996-1998 Noble Grossart Painting Competition Exhibition, RSA, Edinburgh1997 Festival Exhibition, Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh 1997,1998 Open Eye Gallery, Edinburgh1998 Hunting Art Prizes Exhibition, Royal College of Art; ‘On a Grand Scale’,

John Martin Gallery, London1999 Northern Lights, Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh; Gallery 44, with Thackeray Gallery,

Suffolk; ‘Connections’, RSA, Edinburgh; Noble Grossart Exhibition, RSA,Edinburgh & Glasgow School of Art

1999-2011 LAF with Thackeray Gallery, London1999-2014 Gallery Artists, Thackeray Gallery, London2010 Jerwood Drawing Competition Travelling Exhibition2012 Meffan Winter Exhibition, Forfar2014 The Lyth Arts Centre, Wick; Enclosures, Elsewhere, The Lion & Lamb Gallery, London

AWARDS1985 Rank Xerox Selected National Competition, (1st Prize) Commonwealth Section1987 Wood Group Young Artists Award, (1st Prize)1988 Carnegie Travelling Scholarship (Royal Scottish Academy)1988 Miller Home Young Scottish Artist Award1993 Royal Overseas League National Art Competition, (1st Prize)1994 The Guthrie Award, R.S.A1995 The Morrison Portrait Award, (1st Prize)1997 Portland Gallery Award, R.S.A Annual Exhibition1998 Noble Grossart Painting Competition, (3rd Prize)2002 Shell Expo Premier Award, Aberdeem Artists Society, (1st Prize)2003 Elected Associate of the Royal Scottish Academy2004 The Sir William Gillies Bequest, Royal Scottish Academy2009 Aberdeen Artist Society Annual Exhibition, (2nd Prize)2010 John Maxwell Travelling Scholarship, R.S.A2010 Aberdeen Artists Society Annual Exhibition, (3rd Prize)2012 Meffan Winter Exhibition, (1st Prize) 2012 Aberdeen Artists Society Annual Exhibition, (Commended)

PUBLIC COLLECTIONSThe Scottish Arts Council Collection; Rank Xerox The Marlow Art Collection; Miller Homes Art Collection; Aberdeen Royal Infirmary; Grays School of Art; Aberdeen Art Gallery; Unilever Art Collection, (London); Jones Day (London); Soho Hotel, (London); Ham Yard, (London), and Crosby Street Hotel, (New York), as well as numerous Private Collections.

The entire exhibition can be viewed on our website www.thackeraygallery.com