Ed Hodgkinson
Education1992-95 BA Hons, Fine Art, Painting, Camberwell College of Art,London
Critical Acclaim
Ed Hodgkinson (1973) currently lives and works in London. He has exhibited widely both in London and internationally, showing in New York, LA, Tokyo, Cape Town and Reykjavik. He studied at Camberwell College of Art.
Large-scale, enamel on aluminium, Hodgkinson’s paintings are strikingly graphic. Using a pared down but powerfully descriptive line against a backdrop of flat colour his work is fundamentally concerned with drawing.
Sometimes seen as secondary, drawing becomes the principal focus in Hodgkinson’s work. He takes the qualities found in line drawing - spontaneity, simplicity,abbreviation & experiment, and incorporates them directly into his painting. For Hodgkinson, drawing is an abstract translation from the seen, the drawn line like a stream of consciousness, or as Erika Naginski describes it ‘...an activity that exemplifies an imagination influx’.
Hodgkinson’s work strongly conveys reality but rather than seeing representation as a constraint, he sees it more as a spurto improvisation. He uses line without preconceptions, allowing it to surprise him as well as the viewer. His line is daring, elliptical,sometimes surprisingly abstract, subtly textured, controlled but never controlling, above all, felt. This is direct, sensual work, with no apologies made for it. He addresses us directly through the senses;there is no political correctness in his conception of the human form.His nudes are tactile, sensual and honest.
The resolved appearance of his paintings belies the improvised complexity that occurs whilst drawing, the monochromatic colour field accentuating the economy with which his line conveys three dimensional space. But there is also a lyricism in the way he brings line and colour together, Hodgkinson is a painter of lightness, emotion, and musicality.
-Paul Wuensche
