Brian Ashing shows The Nature of Power at Loftt

BRIAN Ashing will hold a solo exhibition titled The Nature of Power at Loftt Gallery in Woodbrook.

This is Ashing’s third solo exhibition, featuring paintings produced during 2024.

He has been honing his craft during the two years since his last solo exhibition, from painting live portraits of friends to completing a workshop in Florence, Italy. He returns with a new body of work, a media release said.

While his previous exhibitions, The Solid Shadow in 2022, and Prelude in 2021, focused on subtlety and stillness, The Nature of Power makes a concerted effort to be louder and more energetic. It sees Ashing further contemplating darker facets of human nature through the creation and depiction of a world ruled by gods in a struggle for power, the release said.

Ashing uses fantasy as a mirror to reflect various relationships humans have with power therein creating a volatile world at the mercy of supreme beings. This sees the artist making a slight departure from a reliance on observation and turning up the dial on imagined elements in his paintings.

The significance of the title becomes more apparent when one considers the power dynamic between human nature and the natural environment. The exhibition presents a world on fire as part of the fallout of a war between the gods. Here, the artist’s academic background (a UWI degree in environmental management) comes forward as clear nods to environmental crisis are folded into the paintings. However, the blazing world goes deeper than this: fire here is truly a symbol of beauty, chaos and transformation, the release said.

The artist expands on his language of painting, embracing looser finishes to convey the emotional impact of the subject matters. From burning landscapes to beautifully rendered figures, Ashing now incorporates bold impressionistic passages, but also retains areas of more conventionally refined details found in his earlier works and portraits. This delicate balance can be attributed to influence of Manet, Sargent, Degas and Velazquez.

The Nature of Power sees Ashing further expanding his palette with punctuations of calming blues and greens or raging flecks of fiery orange signifying the artist turning his gaze towards his Caribbean surroundings.

Ashing confronts the seemingly innate human desire to seek power and warns of the perils of a selfish pursuit. The show allows viewers to question the various ways in which power influences their lives.

“Like fire, power can be a force of immense transformation, beckoning change in those who possess it or tempting us to bend the world to our desires. Power is an enigmatic concept, and at times can be both beautiful and chaotic,” the release said.

The exhibition opens November 2 with a reception, 6 pm, at 63 Rosalino Street, Woodbrook. It continues until November 15. An artist talk will be held on November 9 at 6 pm.