A bold, immersive exhibition by multidisciplinary artist Fabian Peake. Known for his rich interplay of painting, sculpture, drawing and textiles, Peake has crafted a distinct artistic language that melds his visual and poetic practices. With this collection of work, Peake welcomes viewers into his imaginative world, where personal memories and unexpected imagery collide. This inaugural exhibition at Messums London showcases Peake’s recent paintings alongside historic relief works, offering a unique glimpse into his playful visual language. Fabian Peake’s career launched in the vibrant 1960s art scene following his studies at the Royal College of Art. His practice is deeply influenced by a fascination with the wall as a foundational element; his multi-disciplinary approaches are all extensions of painting, but all involve a concord with the wall, anchoring his exploration of flatness, illusion, and the delicate boundary between two and three dimensions.
The result is a body of work that resists conventional classification, bringing together text, symbol, and colour in a resonant dialogue that challenges viewers to explore the powerful connections between image, word, and memory. Peake indeed aims for the conflict between images, requiring argument and discomfort rather than harmony. The abstraction of images outside their context provides a liminal space for each part to be considered in its relationship to the other. Once familiar objects propose new relationships. ‘Outside the Chord’ is a testament to Peake’s inventive and enduring practice, inviting all who attend to glimpse the world through his singular lens.
“Outside the Chord is a reference to the habit of jazz musicians, when improvising and playing on a chord sequence, they often refer to ‘playing outside the chord’. In other words, given a set of chords, they tease them and dance round in endless invention, just touching base here and there. Touching the shoulders of the chord. It’s all rather like how I like to make paintings and other things.” – Fabian Peake
Peake’s paintings combine images from memories formed around everyday objects, encounters and familial references that create a sense of nostalgic curiosity and poetic reverie. The conception of a painting involves careful selection of images which are then mulled over in the form of notebook sketches or worked drawings. These often-repeated, weightless images – including the pointing hand, lifted from signs informing passers-by of a location; amorphous abstract shapes; the bespectacled profile of the king of Belgium, taken from a coin; and randomly numbered rulers – are seen floating on the canvas and are often engulfed by texts appropriated from his poems, the writing painted in reverse. Peake’s wooden wall-based relief works are abstracted, sign-like sculptures. Their execution is reminiscent of folk art in their hand-made quality but, finished in thick glossy colours, they abandon any specific cultural or practical meaning, leaning instead to a more personal and playful application. It is perhaps this comfort with creativity at large which gives his paintings their most compelling component. They are vessels containing a melee of thoughts that can be picked up independently or examined in conjunction to others. Their easy presence beguiling the deeper intent to reach into what is real and what is suggested. To find magic in what is imagined and unexpected.
