Think early 1600s. Religion losing control. Threats to importance by changing manufacturing methods. New lavish abundance; unparalleled desires for luxury goods. The newly privileged, style-conscious with increasing compulsion to enhance personal, sensual pleasure through consumption. Still life paintings are status items displaying patrons' tastes, desires. Conspicuous public records of ability to acquire and consume. Think early 1600s. Religion losing control. Threats to importance by changing manufacturing methods. New lavish abundance; unparalleled desires for luxury goods. The newly privileged, style-conscious with increasing compulsion to enhance personal, sensual pleasure through consumption. Still life paintings are status items displaying patrons' tastes, desires. Conspicuous public records of ability to acquire and consume.Think middle 1800s. Further religious decline. Further improvements in production capabilities. More spectacular commodity consumption. Extraordinary populist rebirth of still life again. Exemplified by Matisse rendering luxurious nature of everyday things. Without being definitive in representation. This sumptuous materialism counter-balanced by Picasso's detached, clinical interpretations.

Fast forward again. The still life reinvented, again.

From 24 July, Artful Gallery in Newmarket presents a collection of work by Clay Bodvin. Where the notion of a still life painting is less like a self-contained, completed truth and more like an evolving experiment - one which considers the luxurious nature of everyday things found in the raw material of the still life.

Pre-arranged interiors (courtesy of the museum and historical-house culture) and digitally-constructed rooms provide the backdrops to these re-painted, everyday objects and spaces. Bodvin translates flowers, chairs, vases, tables, patterns and textures into things sumptuous and exotic. Including inkjet prints on art-paper and canvas; collage-work on canvas and panel; and a dramatic, free-standing screen.

When: Opens Saturday 28 July 2007
Where: Artful Gallery, 1 Morgan Street, Newmarket

Image: Double-Coded Still Life I, 2007

16/7/07