Michael Pemberton

MICHAEL PEMBERTON 

In 2006, Pemberton presented ‘The Toxic Series’ a highly successful solo exhibition in Mayfair, London. The substantial body of work consisted of large abstract Plexiglas panels painted with cut ‘brushmarks’ and fields of colored tape locked in resin. The work whilst concerned with toxicity and the ‘beauty’ of pollution produced abstract paintings of pure subject matter. Subsequent years of commissions took Pemberton deeper into this analysis and way of working.

Once the commissions of ‘Toxic’ works were complete, this way of working felt exhausted for the artist and a new set of questions began to emerge. A period of inevitable exploration followed, both culturally and creatively. Relocation to Brazil brought broader life experiences and a new creative ethos. Subsequent years took the artist to live and work in New York and Argentina before returning to London for practical study at the Slade School of Art.

Long term investigations and enquiries kept Pemberton working in solitary for many years. Eventually a new visual language was established that finally felt authentic and true. The result is a series of new and exciting abstract paintings on paper and canvas named ‘Uninhabitable Land’. They are a play of colour and light, form and space all constantly striving for existence, separation and solidity only to feel it slip away. With these concepts the artist suggests a parallel with our own hopes, challenges and fears.

Michael Pemberton (b.1974) was educated in Fine Art at the Chelsea School of Art in London. He studied colour at Slade School of Art (University College London), and anatomy at the Ruskin School of Art (University of Oxford). He lives and works in Venice CA.