Brad Lochore’s paintings combine light and shade, illusion and reality, leaving us uncertain about what we are seeing. Shadow No.52, 1994, one of the largest canvases in the Arts Council Collection, has been made to the scale of a cinema screen reflecting Lochore’s interest in film technology.
The light grey tones of the grid-like shadows emerge from the stark white ground dazzling the viewer and creating a connection with the surrounding space as one is drawn to the source of the shadow.
However real they appear, the paintings are illusionary made by projecting digitally altered photographs onto the canvas; the ‘real’ shadow is made virtual and hence a new reality is created on the canvas. As Lochore describes: ‘I want to foreground the image as being a site of simultaneous seduction and betrayal for the viewer with the slightest and least meaningful images such as shadows and reflections as a pictorial source’.
Born in Wellington, New Zealand, Lochore moved to England when he was 17 years old. He began his career as a film set designer later studying art at the Byam Shaw School of Art in London and then at the Kunstakademie Dusseldorf under renowned German visual artist, Gerhard Richter.
Shadow No.52 (pictured) can be seen in the Arts Council Collection National Partners Programme exhibition, Occasional Geometries: Rana Begum Curates the Arts Council Collection at Yorkshire Sculpture Park from 15 July until 29 October.