Timothy Gatenby
Living and working in London UK, Gatenby works with an approach of collectively harnessing his trained techniques of classical painting in conjunction with his interest in modern comical parodies. His paintings find themselves in the middle, between lighthearted colours and sarcastic eye contact to heavy consumeristic modern day worries and light fluffy airbrushing. The paintings ask us where we position ourselves within our consumerist lifestyle whilst allowing the viewer to acknowledge the strong nostalgia and humour ever present in Gatenby’s works. Working predominantly in oil paint Much of Gatenby’s work borrows images from popular culture which he reinterprets to create humorous blurred out parodies. A playful nostalgia can be found in Gatenby’s work which subverts not only subject matter, but also technique; his visions challenge art’s relationship with the Internet world we now inhabit. Often combining deconstructed pop cultural characters with dark humour, Gatenby’s work reflects the pressures of consumerism and modern societal tendency towards over indulgence. Fast food is an ever present theme in his paintings and is used as a vehicle to convey the easiness of modern life, in his words, ‘in the age of ordering fast food from deliver on the sofa, never has it been so easy to become obese’. Despite the darkness found in the various styles and themes explored, there are often playful, idiosyncratic moments that crop up, as if for his own amusement as much as the viewer’s. A joke or pun can be found through a depicted object seen out of place, or an expectation subverted by an oddity, giving the work a comedic touch of the absurd to cleverly contrast the darkness found elsewhere.
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