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‘John Devane: Fragments of Truth'. A solo exhibition of 30 new works made during 2011-2012

The imperative of the exhibition is to demonstrate how painting occupies a culturally compelling position within contemporary discourses on art. The paintings make manifest the specificity of the representational painter’s response to generating objects for visual attention in the context of a culture increasingly understood through the mediating prism of digital technology. The scale of the exhibition provided an opportunity to present a coherent body of Devane’s figurative painting generated over a three year period. The thematic content was characterised as a contemporary study of the language of figurative representation in painting.

The language of representation in painting has been an enduring concern underpinning the works of Lucian Freud, David Hockney and Paula Rego – it continues to drive the agenda of painting and stimulate innovation. Through the exhibited work and related research papers presented at The Representational Art Conference (TRAC) series, Devane considers how digital technologies have enhanced or diminished our capacity to interact with original works of art. He contends that the experience of interacting with paintings in a gallery differs from the interaction with artworks through digital technologies and that there are material differences to works informed by digital media and those informed by direct observation of the visual world. The artistic practice is the ‘test bed’ for looking at this in a systematic way, with clear differences visible in the levels of layering and working in the paintings and collages presented. Whilst there is a great deal of extant critical research examining ‘authenticity’ and mediated imagery (eg. Baudrillard’s simulacrum or mirror and screen analogy) at one remove from the maker, this work contributes a practical exploration of the topic with intention, with informed reflection on outcomes documented in ancillary material presented at the exhibition and through subsequent conference contributions scheduled for TRAC 2014 in Ventura, California.