Artist Statement
Adrian Coleman makes large-scale watercolors that address urban disjunction. His current work considers the paradox of his relationship to Britain, as a native and an outsider. He make paintings of South London in which he combines tropes of “Britishness” with themes of transplantation, belonging, and estrangement. His chosen medium is a reference to the English picturesque tradition. Unlike those bucolic images, however, his paintings suggest hybrid, disparate topographies rather than idealized landscapes. He highlights the intersections of contrasts: the built and natural environments, privilege and disadvantage, myth and reality. Sometimes he employ a cross-sectional cut to anatomize these encounters.
