NEW YORK, NY.- C24 Gallery announced the publication of their new catalogue, Christian Vincent: Culture Keeper, following the success of Vincent’s recent solo exhibition at C24, Culture Keepers. The catalogue shares Vincent's newest collection of oil paintings along with an overview of other related work, as a celebration of his unique style that continues to deepen, even as it evolves. It also features an insightful essay by Audra Lambert, New York City based independent curator, art critic and Founder/Curator of Antecedent Projects. Here is an excerpt from Lambert's essay, along with some selected catalogue images:
"Never brash or confrontational, Vincent’s work nevertheless addresses the lingering weight of memory, with glancing impressions of the past infusing the fleeting brushstrokes and the pastel swaths of color comprising his recent paintings. This newest body of work often focuses on a lone figure or a cluster of figures dwarfed by the surrounding scene. The artist also frequently disassembles this landscape through repetition. Patterns of nature captured through light and shadow bedeck his compositions, extending the real-time “memory” of physical presence out into the wider landscape. In sylvan scenes such as “Myth Keeper” (2019), the artist inserts a shadow-like figure dappled in repeating patterns, while in compositions such as “Breaker’s Edge” (2018), he creates repetition with the row of figures’ legs emerging from underneath the shadow of the jungle and jutting out into the light.
"Vincent allows room in his works for the viewer’s gaze to wander, placated and massaged by the repetitive elements present throughout his compositions. Over time this relaxed scenery entices the viewer, allowing one into a space of comfort — a cathartic and relaxed mental space in which one can dwell on personal memories. Vincent’s use of repetition thereby constructs a singular space for potentiality in his paintings. The near-infinite expanse stretching across many of his works creates an open-ended narrative and invites the gaze to linger. This offers all who encounter his work the chance to construct their own narrative about what it is they are perceiving.
"This wide realm of potential, combined with the subtle, permeating repetition in his practice, is evidence of Vincent’s careful approach to the socio-political: he presents topics in a non-threatening manner by utilizing these spatial concepts. Vincent enables the viewer to manifest their individual experience within a greater conceptual and political framework in relation to the scenes they are presented."
— Audra Lambert, 2020
