John Stark’s Apiculture @ Charlie Smith London

John Stark is back to London’s Charlie Smith gallery with his second solo exhibition…. Beekeeping, a surrealistic Dalinian approach to honey bee maintenance.

For this exhibition Stark has created a body of work that gravitates towards the centre of his preoccupations of the last three years. Stark’s paintings transcend time by navigating the historical, the contemporary and the futuristic. At once his content recalls the Flemish landscape painting of Patinir; the figure work of Zurbarán and Sassoferrato; and the minimal Modernism of Judd. We are invited to assume that these depictions are posited at some point in an imagined future…. post-apocalyptic  22nd century where beekpeepers have to wear flashy suits rather than standard white.

 Colonies of beekeepers tend to their colonies of bees. Hooded and masked figures labour in the landscape in a collaborative enterprise to create liquid gold. Analogous to the intensive work of the artist, all are toiling here, all creating. Stark has also begun to provide more information. There is no doubt that we are exploring a utilitarian society consisting of communities inhabiting historic towers and fortifications; postmodern and prototype dwellings and units; and everyone and everything has its function.

Now for you to interpret the rest of the scene and proposed world you’ll have to drop yourself by London’s Charlie Smith Gallery and use your own psychology and imagination, they may not be as complex as Hieronymus Bosch’s paintings but John Stark’s oils certainly contain a high degree of heretic sophistication.