Neil Gall
Neil Gall
Farewell, Farewell
2009
oil on linen
41 3/8 x 30 1/8 inches
105 x 76.5 cm
NG2472
Neil Gall
Figure Squatting
2010
oil on linen
28 x 23 1/4 inches
71 x 59 cm
Neil Gall
Accommodations in Time
2009-10
oil on linen
42 1/2 x 32 1/2 inches
108 x 82.7 cm
NG2937
Neil Gall
The False Mirror
2009
oil on linen
39 1/8 x 32 1/2 inches
99.5 x 82.5 cm
NG2865
Neil Gall
The Great Constructor
2009-10
oil on linen
48 x 31 1/8 inches
122 x 79 cm
NG2926
Neil Gall
This Heat
2009
oil on linen
41 x 39 3/8 inches
104 x 100 cm
NG2864
Neil Gall
Blind
2010
graphite on paper
15 1/16 x 12 11/16 inches
38.3 x 32.2 cm
NG2929
Neil Gall
Encounter with Matter
2010
oil on linen
26 x 35 inches
66 x 89 cm
NG2928
Neil Gall
Nostalgia for Space
2009-10
oil on linen
26 x 23 1/2 inches
66 x 59.5 cm
NG2927
Neil Gall
The Unity of Life and Death
2010
oil on linen
25 5/8 x 23 5/8 inches
65 x 60 cm
NG2939
Neil Gall
Guardian of the Threshold
2009
oil on linen
41 x 31 1/4 inches
104 x 79.3 cm
NG2925
Neil Gall
Separate Identities
2009
graphite on paper
15 x 12 5/8 inches
38.2 x 32 cm
signed, dated and titled on verso
NG2727
Neil Gall
We Know What You've Seen
2009
graphite on paper
15 x 12 5/8 inches
38.1 x 32.1 cm
signed, titled and dated on verso
NG2946
Neil Gall
Lunar Human Spectral
2009
graphite on paper
15 3/8 x 15 inches
39 x 38 cm
signed, dated and titled on verso
NG2866
Neil Gall
Helmet
2010
colored pencil on paper
26 1/2 x 27 1/4 inches
67.3 x 69.3 cm
NG2947
Neil Gall
Atom Head
2010
colored pencil on paper
26 1/2 x 36 1/2 inches
67.3 x 92.9 cm
NG2975
Neil Gall
Unable to Separate Their Own Identities
2008
Cast and painted resin
4 1/2 x 4 1/2 x 3 1/2 inches
11.4 x 11.4 x 8.9 cm
edition of 5
initialed and numbered in ink
NG2930
Neil Gall
Stal
2010
graphite on paper
12 5/8 x 11 inches
32.1 x 27.9 cm
NG2980
David Nolan Gallery is pleased to announce the opening of "The Great Constructor," the first solo exhibition in the United States of the British artist, Neil Gall (b. 1967, Aberdeen). Gall specializes in the magical transformation of the everyday, turning the ordinary into the extraordinary through a complex process of assemblage, photography, collage, painting, and drawing.
The title of the show is a tribute to Ferdinand Léger's "Les Constructeurs" (1951), a painting that reveals Léger's preoccupation with the mechanical and geometrical aspect in the human environment. Gall shares in Léger's enthusiasm, finding beauty in manufactured products and found objects such as wire baskets, cardboard packaging, paper towel tubes, plastic toys, and colorful ribbons. He invests the unmonumental objects in his work with the uncanny, with an otherworldliness that elevates them to a level of sophistication on par with modernist abstraction and figuration. Gall defamiliarizes the banal objects in his paintings by fragmenting them, generating a kaleidoscopic effect that dazzles the eye. The exquisite detail and precision of his technique are seen most clearly in his "S & M sculpture paintings," originating from models made of ping pong balls bound in colorful tape. The luscious surfaces and voluptuous volumes of these staged still life paintings bring to mind the Surrealist "doll" project of the German artist, Hans Bellmer. Gall states: "In our very un-magical world, making illogical artworks or paintings is a totally mad thing to do. I do believe there is a hint of real madness in creativity."
Neil Gall received his BA in painting at Gray's School of Art and then attended Slade School of Art in London in 1991. He has received numerous awards including the Abby Major Award in 1993 from The British School at Rome, the Jerwood Painting Prize in 1999 and was the artist in residence at Durham Cathedral in 1993. Gall's work has been featured in numerous museum exhibitions and has been the subject of several monographs including Shelf Life (2007) from Black Dog Publishing.