Aug 12

Paul Walker

Paul Walker is a minimalist printmaker who has exhibited consistently in Greece, especially Athens, as well as the United Kingdom since 1986. He often holds public studio exhibitions in Aegina, Greece and he has participated at venues such as Matia Gallery, Tatha Gallery, Rosangle Gallery in Greece, Cambo Estate at St. Andrews, Dundee Contemporary Arts, and Edinburgh Drawing School in England. Paul’s works remain in private collections in the United States, England, Ireland, Italy, Greece, Russia, and France.

The printmaking art contains methods usually executed with wood reliefs using ink and paint applied and then pressed upon the paper. These prints contain a purity in design with elements shaved down to their basic and intrinsic form with no sense of ornamental or decorative qualities. Like Alexander Calder, Paul delves into design elements which reflect asymmetrical aesthetics with vast portions of negative space but unlike Calder, Paul offers a more nuanced relationship between space and form with more variation and no repetition.

With an emphasis on flatness, Paul’s prints communicate through harsh angles, elliptical spheres, and angular compositions revealing deep contemporary design principles. Typically his works are formed from two tones which usually contain black, bright colors, and neutral tones. These celebratory pieces come off like a dance of abstraction with improvisation and juxtaposition, but not an impulsive layout and application. The minimalist approach leaves a relaxing and soothing presence to the works with modest stimulation in the forms of interactions of asymmetrical geometry.

Icarus (pictured above) contains delicate organic shapes being penetrated by harsh angles. Paul uses flat negative space to represent the geometry being consumed by light and heat as they are surrounded by the power of the sun, much like the mythological story about Icarus. With a subtle sense of violence and using symbolic abstraction to represent a figure, the shapes fly ever closer to the spherical sun located in the corner of the composition.

Paul Walker has the viewer investigate vast portions of negative space, enhancing his qualities as a minimalist printmaker. The space creates a sense of distance and an allegory towards time. As we grow distant from a location, time changes and becomes altered based on the geometrical positioning of the sun touching upon the earth. Negative space in Paul’s work impresses upon the viewer to reflect on the passage of time and what it entails for our collective and individual psyche. Paul Walker can be regarded as an artist who brings a great deal of refinement to the art of minimalism through well thought out elliptical relationships between forms.