Analysis and Critique of Van Renselar's Art

David Genovesi - Director, ARTROM Gallery, Rome

British artist Van Renselar offers a consistency of style that is very much his own.

There's a challenging, but determined search in these works for a personal visual identity. Achieving this identity is partly accomplished by establishing a counterbalance between a loose fluidity and a rigid draftsmanship. Forms that, by themselves are "in bilico" - hanging in the balance - slightly out of any harmonious order, supported by graphic inscriptions that seem to define some sort of interior logic. These configurations or schematics attempt to further explain the concept that is being visually expressed.

Renselar's intriguing inventions give the impression of some grand scheme, some mission to be accomplished, some strange utility in process of being implemented.

Abstracts yes, but these vague visual suggestions in his work lead one to conjecture about possible significance.

Another contributing factor to this visual identity is that Renselar's current series of works often evoke sensations of floating or flying. The shapes he uses, at times take the form of wings or sails and seem to have origins in some sort of flying or sailing vessel.

The impression is to be "up there" to witness elaborate graphic explanations or descriptions of events in large spaces or in space with no apparant grounding device to save us. Nothing is static, there is movement, the forms are dynamic and concentrated on their objective.

The color choices have no consistency within the series, but are chosen for what best suits each particular context. The spaces within which these "vehicles" operate are, at times fields of fully saturated color, and in other works neutral blue-grey.

The square format also offers a built-in logic of its own, which contributes to a conceivable validity of the events he describes.

Renselar's artworks are free-form flights that have no particular destination but are determined to get there, it's the journey that counts here. Just sit back and enjoy the view.