Theistic Craft
Irvin Pascal
9 February to 4 March
Opening evening with performance: Thursday 9th February from 6pm
Theistic Craft is a presentation by Irvin Pascal of several aspects of his practice. The project incorporates site-specific installation and performance, painting and woodcut print making. Pascal will also be recording sound experiments in the project space
Irvin Pascal’s work is a synthesis of formal influences and personal experiences. Classical accents and elements of neo-expressionism meld with his deep interest in the evolution of contemporary music from Africa and its diaspora. Percussive patterns of the African drum resonate throughout his practice, inextricably entwined with patterns of his past lives.
The Artist’s bold use of a limited colour palette and enigmatic repeating motifs, shapes and symbols produces an uncompromising effect. Undeniably powerful, these signature markings and gestures are met with an equally profound reverence for his chosen materials that imbues his work with sincere emotion and a delicate sensitivity.
Known primarily for his large-scale abstract canvases comprised of geometrical forms, numerical symbols and hieroglyphs, Pascal incorporates a variety of diverse media into his artwork: ink, papyrus, leather, wood and Pascollar (an amalgamation of natural materials and Pascal’s own hair). In recent years his practice has been shifting towards a more earthy colour palette whilst retaining a distinct visual language and style that is identifiably his own.
Curriculum Vitae
Irvin Pascal (b. 1987) lives and works in London, he holds a BA in Architecture (2008) and MA Fine Art, University of Brighton (2017).
He is engaged in an exploration of his African and Caribbean roots through the representation of the black body, the nature of masculinity, sexuality, personal agency, the place of community and the reverberations of art history.
A multi-disciplinary practitioner of art forms including performance, painting and collage and sculpture utilising his own unique material Pascollar,
Pascal was included in Bloomberg New Contemporaries (2017). He created a performance - Royal XX XX - at the Royal Academy of Arts (London) in 2020. Notable recent exhibitions include: Grand Style X (2022), Simchowitz Gallery, LA (2022); Motherland (2022), Firetti Gallery, Dubai; The Nenaissance, Niki Cryan, Lagos (Eko Atlantic), Nigeria (2019); Young Monsters, curated by Marcelle Joseph, Lychee One, London (2019); The Sweetest Taboo, GNYP Gallery, Berlin (2018)