|
Andrew Lakey : Brilliant Nature Collection
In late 1996 artist Andrew
Lakey commenced
a prodigious painting
cycle that continued (in
its first phase at least) until November 1997,
and which resulted in thousands of colorful
works of art.
Andrew Lakey's organic and nature bound
subjects in Brilliant Nature were derived using
an improvisational process employing the unconscious, his memory and imagination. The sheer volume of subjects painted in this collection, including flowers of every type, exotic fish, mythical birds, idyllic animals, magical crickets, psychedelic snails and countless other-worldly flora and fauna, represent a whole taxonomy of an artist's known and imagined world. Lakey does not simply sample his universe, he exhausts it completely.
What began as a methodological color study using nature icons has become an obsessive-compulsive journey into a vast and phantasmagoric world of enchanting and utterly original, new form factors of botanica and beings, detailed in sumptuous color and signature line work.
This extraordinary uber compendium
of paintings are works in total referred to as Unencountered. The first monograph, Flora & Fauna
is broken down into two discrete sections: Part 1 - Tokyo
Flowers and Part 2 – Unencountered, and has been meticulously
catalogued.
These works are a revelation - as they have remained unseen for nearly a decade. Andrew Lakey's immense creative drive transformed an otherwise ordinary project into an impressive oeuvre of work that challenges any of his other major painting phases. Brilliant Nature – a total of 200 original paintings carefully and chronologically culled from the Unencountered archive are full of narrative form and seductive surprise.
|
Flora – Tokyo Flowers
Though Andrew Lakey was born in Chateauroux France, he spent
his much of his early childhood years living in Japan. His formative
world was instructed by Japanese culture and style. For the artist
these primal experiences and recollections greatly affected his
creative vision and personal reality. A powerful receptor, Lakey
began his ascent into the world of art making simple drawings
and pictures that were constantly flowing from his head, through
his hand and onto paper. While none of these early images presently
exist, his tactile remembrance of Japan’s sights, sounds,
smells and senses still inform his work in Brilliant Nature, stylistically
and aesthetically.
What began as a disciplinary effort to master color and content
became a frenzy of prolific creation using the medium of acrylic
paint on small (mostly 4” x 4”) wooden canvases that
would occupy a period of two years where the artist painted almost
continuously. It is estimated that Lakey painted nearly 25,000
original works during this period – an almost unbelievable
output save the fact that these works exist, are painstakingly
and individually catalogued and archived (each painting is hermetically
sealed in private storage vaults which are security protected
with video cameras, sprinkler systems and 24-hour guards).
In fact, his obsession to master his painting craft and record
his real and imagined world, has caused him to move from the more
comfortable surroundings of an artist’s studio, to a specially
designed painting facility that he fashioned out of several contiguous
storage rooms. Lakey was generating art at such pace and proclivity
that his need to be close to his paintings changed his entire
work process.
Douglas Brown |
