Rob Lyon: When there were more moons

Hales is delighted to announce When there were more moons, British artist Rob Lyon's debut exhibition in New York. In his second solo show with Hales, Lyon continues his exploration of abstraction, shifting towards a more internal reflection of the spirit and energy of place.  

 

Lyon (b. 1982 Lancashire, UK) lives and works in Sussex, UK. He has developed his own painterly lexicon of mark making, composing landscapes from dots, dashes, triangles, and crosses to more referential repetitions of clouds, moons, and tree shapes. Although drawn from his locale and walks through the countryside, Lyon's paintings are imagined, his compositions inheriting the rhythm, texture, and interplay learnt through writing music. Through this, each painting becomes a complex arrangement of simplified and reassembled motifs.  

 

When there were more moons features a new body of work in which Lyon continues to develop a distinct language, in paintings which lie on the threshold of form and genre. While rooted in landscape these works recall the tradition of still life painting, an assemblage of forms which appear as though objects placed upon a surface. Lyon's focus on his subject and the repetition in meditative paintings of muted tones draw similarities to the practice of Giorgio Morandi, where subtle configurations possess a quiet poetic quality.  

 

Playing with spatial ambiguity, Lyon has moved away from purely expansive vistas toward environments that balance density and openness, creating a nuanced feeling of closeness. An intimacy and insularity emerge from the encasing of forms in the picture plane, where thin washes of colour are layered before adding details of patterning and dappled brushstrokes. Moons or glowing orbs are suspended in skies, generating an unusual scale and light source. 

 

Constellations of conical and triangular shapes are drawn from Lyon's observations of small groupings of trees-known as copses- found in the landscape. These clusters of trees are rich with folklore and are commonly associated with ideas of mystery and the spiritual. The trees also symbolize a deep connection between the land and its inhabitants, past and present. They have been a subject for many artists, particularly the British surrealist painter Paul Nash, who often depicted the copse-topped hills in Oxfordshire known as the Wittenham Clumps.  

 

For Lyon, the clusters of trees act as everyday thresholds within an open vulnerable landscape. They hold a pull, a yearning for potential for refuge and concealment. He is drawn to these places of reflection and transformation or where memories and stories can be bestowed. Lyon communicates the experience of how natural features in the landscape can almost act as a portal for spiritual connection-a mystical presence emanates from the paintings' soft scumbled surfaces, inviting stillness and contemplation.