James Aldridge

Flower of Disease, 2010, acrylic on canvas, 175 x 200 cm

Black Ark, 2008, acrylic on canvas, 200 x 250 cm

Feeders, 2008, acrylic on canvas, 200 x 250 cm

Prodigiosus Ord0, 2010, watercolour on paper, 65 x 50 cm

Wreck and Murder, 2010, watercolour on paper, 65 x 50 cm

Black Sun, 2010, acrylic on canvas, 250 x 200 cm

Altar, 2009, acrylic on canvas, 200 x 175 cm

Wolf, 2008,  paper cut out and acrylics, dimensions not known

Sacrifice, 2008, acrylic on canvas, 210 x 175 cm

The Gathering, 2010, acrylic on canvas, 175 x 150 cm

About the work of James Aldrige

Aldridge’s recent paintings and paper cut-out installations have been made in isolation in a Swedish forest to a soundtrack of heavy metal. They reveal a beautiful but morbid world filled with black crows, spider webs, moths, weeds, flowers, skulls and mountain ranges. This world appears to be personal and also universal, mundane and fantastical, contrived and emotional. His crisp yet unexpected palette includes wine, pink and mauve alongside blood red, black and steel grey. (Gabriel Rolt)

James Aldridge’s paintings on canvas are influenced by imagery from natural history field guides, Renaissance landscapes, John James Audubon’s watercolours and heavy metal album covers. Inky backgrounds, washes, and soft smoky areas of paint are offset by more graphic and silhouette forms, and his juxtaposition of realistic and heavily stylised depictions of nature invite us to reassess our relationship with the natural world. (fad website)

Two skeletal arms reach up from the bottom corner of Sacrifice, stretching upwards into the heart of the canvas. They look gruesome, as if they recently unearthed themselves from their grave. Acting as a guide, these bone-y hands lead us through the visual mash-up of James Alridge’s work where symbolically rich animal imagery such as the crow, the wolf, and a goat’s head are layered with trees, branches, and a myriad of skulls. By constructing this layered symbolic world, Aldridge eludes to contemporary society’s displacement and disconnection to nature. It’s a new kind of landscape: one that embraces the inherent terror and the beauty, the strength and the vulnerable, the light and the dark. Consider this the new Gothic Romanticism. (Goldmsith’s)