U/C: UNDER CONSTRUCTION, an unusual exhibition of
paintings by British artist Michael David Bosworth opened last night at the
Coral Beach Resort - Sharjah and will run until December 16, 2013. Held under
the kind patronage of H.E. Sheikh Mohammed bin Faisal Al Qassimi, the week-long
exhibition is a tribute to Dubai, a city that Michael has been painting for the
last four years. His striking exhibits take you through the many construction
sites of Dubai that to him bear testimony to its extraordinary development.
He
states, "My work makes the most of the opportunity to witness and record
the emergence of a world city that is Dubai. The UAE has a distinct landscape, one that we should
look to for a kind of poetics of impermanence. We should celebrate the time we
live in. For the foreseeable future residents here will be surrounded by the
raw materials of an emergent world city. I feel fortunate to be living here and
to have so much material for visual meditations right outside my door."
Jean
Pierre Simon, Regional General Manager, Northern Emirates, Coral Hotels &
Resorts, said, "Michael's paintings are truly fascinating and in a way
chronicle the emergence and growth of Dubai through the many construction
sites. The depth and imagination of his creative expressions display a unique
sensitivity to the subject at hand. We at the Coral Beach Resort - Sharjah are
truly proud to host this exhibition and believe that our guests will find it
equally engaging".
Michael,
who lives in Rashidiya area of Dubai, calls himself a very young painter even
though he turned 61 this year. He says, "“If you are a realist, and I
think I am, you paint what you see. You’re always looking in a particular
way, trying to get beyond the
picturesque. There’s a preference for solid evidence above reverie or
quaintness. I guess that’s what it means
to be a realist. But, of course, you want to make your pictures look good. Why
make a picture if it does not reward the viewer? Any painting first has got to
be worth looking at.
For
Michael there’s always ‘this is real’ element and the ‘this is a nice painting’
element. He recalls, "I started to look at construction sites when I was
living in Gurgaon (just outside Delhi)
before I came to Dubai. In India I thought that everything was very ugly and
very beautiful at the same time. This paradox intrigues me."
And
so he questions, "If there are things in the world you see every day which
are not conventionally beautiful, what can you do with that? What can you say
about it? I’m drawn to this tension between making a picture that’s good to
look at and which at the same time has content that is not easily assimilated".
Michael's style
of painting is as unique as are his subjects. According to the maverick painter
there are numerous ways of painting a subject. However, says he, "You make
choices all the time and the goal of these choices is to remain somehow true to
what you looked at and deliver that to the viewer and the rest is all tricks.
For instance colour is a thing in itself and it is something you have available
to you to enjoy and to give impact. A painting has to work across a room at a
distance and with your nose against the canvas. If you don't make both views
interesting and rewarding, the viewer feels cheated. Similarly, you can't
ignore the actual world in which you are working. The more I look, the more it
is possible to find something visually engaging.
Michael David
Bosworth's exhibition U/C: UNDER
CONSTRUCTION is open to the public from 9th to 16th December all day long. All
the paintings on display are for sale. Other work by the artist can be seen on his
web site www.michael-david-bosworth.co.uk
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