Alex Giles

Alex's goal as an artist is to deliver a sense of innocent, joyful escapism for the viewer. He found a way to convey these sensations by revisiting and recreating memories of the tactile, vibrant shapes and colours absorbed during his childhood. Through the years these memories became jumbled into a long-running daydream. Alex taught himself to enter a lucid, meditative state, and started to extract usable reference points. His admiration for the work of artists such as Victor Vasarely, Bridget Riley and Michael Craig-Martin strongly influenced by his desire to paint with a high level of precision and technical prowess.

Executing his paintings to their potential takes a two-part process that feels strangely counter-intuitive in the sense that the conceptual phase requires total zen-like freedom, and the fabrication demands absolute control. At a glance, Alex's paintings may seem completely flat, almost printed, but on closer inspection there is plenty of texture to enjoy, in both the layered shapes and rhythmic brush strokes.   

As his practise has developed, finding the starting point has become more natural, as he builds a clearer picture of his daydreams.

Certain forms, themes, and colour combinations now reoccur as his visual language and sense of identity as an artist matures. Likewise, as his technique improves, the limits of what is physically achievable have begun to recede.