Joe Currie ESCAPE TO NOWHERE | 19 March - 22 April 2004
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Press Release

James Colman is pleased to announce a solo exhibition of new sculptures, drawings and paintings by Joe Currie. The work is based loosely around the themes of lost idealism and contemporary perceptions of arcadia.

Spearheading the exhibition is a life- size chrome sculpture of Steve Mc Queen sliding from his motorbike, trying in vain to elude enemy re- capture; an infamous scene from the 1963 POW Movie “The Great Escape”.

Currie has rootled into his post- war childhood memory for the ultimate macho icon, but has knowingly immortalized him in the act of being cut down and humiliated. Mc Queen’s on and off screen notoriety became associated with speed and glamour that belied the insecurities and vulnerability in his character. Currie’s homage to Mc Queen conveys this poignancy.

Similarly, Currie’s love of the English landscape has been expressed in a series of drawings and paintings that are far removed from the notion of the romantic idyll. Wastelands, industrial dump sites and rubbish tips have been lovingly hewn in pencil and crayon. Idiosyncratically beautiful, the message conveyed is one of celebratory unease.

Born in England in 1970, Joe Currie studied for an MA in Fine Arts/ Sculpture (1997- 1999) at The Royal College of Art in London.