Shouting Quietly by Clive Wright

Clive has held many solo exhibitions, each displaying a small sample of his total output of more than 500 pictures. On this occasion we see a collection of paintings chosen to reflect the range of his recent work. He often paints up to half a dozen pictures on a common theme. Here, single pictures have been selected to represent groups of related canvases.

The ordinary events that he sees often become the subject of Clive’s work, such as people that he has observed in a coffee shop, or someone receiving a covid jab. Even in these everyday subjects there is often a hint that something more complex might be going on beneath the surface. Other pictures relate to important world events, challenging social issues, and uncomfortable aspects of human behaviour. Clive reads daily newspapers diligently and listens to current affairs programmes; it is from these sources that many of his pictorial ideas emerge. The painting of asylum seekers and refugees arriving on our shores after a traumatic channel crossing is a good example.

Harder to define than his subjects is the painter’s love of ambiguity and nuance. Sometimes symbols are employed to give clues to meanings that lie just out of reach. In a few pictures that represent uncomfortable issues, Clive has used seductive colours to draw us in. This deliberate disconnect between subject and painting style might, at first, seem a little puzzling. He argues that where people are concerned, things are rarely simple and that in art, as in life, meanings are often confused, contradictory or elusive.

Although he shows us particular scenes that interest and move him as an individual, Clive hopes to communicate some universal values with which we can all identify. Overall, we are left with a sense of intelligent thought and great visual energy.