Rex Southwick
Nihil
2020
Oil on glossy paper
146 × 107 cm
Unique
Location: Villeneuve d'Ascq, France
Arianee token ID
577438914
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About the artwork
With this oil on glossy paper, Rex Southwick shows off a luxury residence blending exotic, warm, luxuriant nature with the cool tones of minimalist architecture, where the swimming pool seems to spill out of the frame. The saturated colors reproduce the particular effect of the real estate photographs circulating on social networks and agency websites. With this work, the artist questions the desire for property and construction shaped by the perfect images typical of an age governed by digital technology. He highlights the extravagance of these representations, characterized by modernity, luminosity and warm climates.
Expert opinion
Rex Southwick's pool and exotic plant motifs are almost systematic. The archetypal swimming pool evokes an ideal of luxury and comfort that has its origins in the Roman Empire. Through his representation, the artist questions this ideal, its meaning and its roots.
About the artist
An English artist born in 1997, Rex Southwick graduated from Leeds College of Art and Design (UK) in 2018. That same year, he received the Aon Community Art Award, a prize that recognizes young art graduates to help them launch their careers. His work is inspired by photographs of luxury residences in Miami, Palm Springs and the Balearic Islands. He deconstructs the perfect images that circulate on social networks, notably by working on a first pink layer that retranscribes the shiny, saturated effect of Instagram filters. In some of his works, he chooses to depict houses in the midst of construction, highlighting the contrast between the richness of the surroundings and the workers who helped build them. His work has been exhibited in England and the United States, including at London Fashion Week 2019 and the exhibition of his Purple Lands collection at Unit London gallery.
“Although my paintings appear at first glance to be simple representations of expensive residences, they actually attempt to highlight the inequalities between these spaces and the workers who built them.”
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