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AlexanderReilly
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[32056522]
[2014-07-20 13:31:39 +0000 UTC]
(Ireland)
# Statistics
Favourites: 56; Deviations: 26; Watchers: 1
Watching: 17; Pageviews: 1883; Comments Made: 18; Friends: 17
# About me
Alexander Reilly is a painter, printmaker and children's writer living and working in Ranelagh Dublin. He was born in Drogheda in 1979. In 2003 while still a student at NCAD Alexander became one of the founding members of Defastenism: Irelands first international art movement and the worlds second remodernist movement. He curated the first Defastenist show in his apartment in the liberties. by the following year Defastenism was the official sister movement of the London based Stuckists. Alex and the other artists involved, engaged in a three year exhibition tour that included shows in Dublin, Limerick, Galway, London, Paris and Berlin. Alexander (who still describes himself as a remodernist) resigned from Defastenism late in 2006. The movement disbanded shortly there after. Alexander prefers to call himself an art maker rather than an artist, because he feels making art in this postmoderist era is no longer an expected requirement of the artist.Alexander spent the following five years living between London, India and Nepal. In India he wrote a series of books for young adults, spent time teaching English to Tibetan ex political prisoners. as well as volunteered in an Indian prison teaching art and creative writing classes to the inmates. During much of his time in India Alexander lived with the family of the Indian painter Santosh lal Sharma. An arrangement was made between the two painters, both teaching each other how to paint in their differing styles. Alexander learned to master Rajastani miniature stone colour painting and Santosh was taught how to paint in a european style using oils.
Alexander became frustrated by the path Indian miniature painting was taking. The painters were not painting new works but were just copying old masters. The rich tradition had stopped recording day to day life like it once had. Miniatures from 1900 were full of trains and guns, but paintings one hundred years later did not have computers or mobile phones represented. The artists were not signing their work. The art colleges were only teaching western painting! A full stop had appeared in a thousand year aesthetic culture! Indian painting was something for tourists not the educated youth looking to the west! Alexander made an attempt at founding a new Indian art movement. He gave a series of public lectures which led to several colleges invites. The talk was based on a rival of contemporary Indian miniature painting based on the revival of Irish traditional music by the London Irish punk scene of the seventies. But tragically Alexander was unable to find any students willing to follow him into a Indian miniature art movement based on the music of the pogues!
Back in Dublin. Alexander´s approach to painting is a combination of technical skill and theme. His knowledge of paint and how it behaves on canvass is constantly expanding by a combination of trial and error and the viewing of work by other painters. But the subject matter, style, what is happening within the image, is rarely if ever influenced by the work of painters. His main influences are found within other art forms: film, music, literature, retro arcade games and stand up comedy. He purposely takes this approach so that his work will be unique and unlike the paintings of other artists. Alexander believes that like comedians or film makers he too is in the entertainment business. his upcoming show in Ranelagh will be an attempt at stand up through paint. He endeavors to direct his characters with the paint brush in the hope of sparking stories within the imagination of the viewer. He avoids answering questions like: “what is this painting about?” because he prefers the viewer to arrive at their own conclusion, to use their own imagination. Alexander never watches the extras on film dvd’s.
