Joe Currie NEW WORK | September 2002
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Press Release

James Colman is pleased to announce an exhibition of new paintings, sculptures and photographs by Joe Currie.

Currie evokes some of the escapist tendencies found within the American Dream, and takes them to their logical conclusion - one of ultimate frenzied distraction.

Initially inspired by his boyhood reverence for symbols and myths surrounding 60s and 70s' bike culture, Currie invests his doomed scenario with wit and a sense of vulnerability.

'Hell's Angel', a sheet of pure aluminium with a painted surface image of a fantasy angel trapped in Rock ephemera, alludes to the appropriation of religious imagery into hippy myth-making.

An abandoned submarine, its nose tilting on to the gallery floor, brings a sinister hyper-reality to the proceedings. Whilst a photograph of a mythical centaur, clipboard in hand, walking towards a vampire fighter, nods irreverently to the buccaneering spirit of the early NASA test pilots.

Currie’s ongoing fascination with the fringe characters that inhabit American car subcultures is heightened through his awareness of the testosterone excesses of the American Dream.

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.

gallery@jamescolman.com