In 'Tristes Tropique,' Hoey explores ideas which feel most relevant to him based on his experience of living in Brazil which couldn’t be more different than England, his native home. Since a child, where he grew up on a farm, Hoey has long been fascinated with the images conjured up around the idea of far off lands evoking the promise of adventure and the exotic. Now living in Brazil, the reality is quite different to those childhood imaginings. Those idealised images have stayed with the artist, but they are obscured through witnessing the signs of industrial pollution, capitalism, excessive crime, and massive inequality. These factors are challenging and are intensified against the intoxicating backdrop of the natural beauty of the landscape.
It is this tension that Hoey investigates in his work by bringing together seemingly opposite elements of natural beauty and the scars of human exploitations, the beautiful and the cruel. These opposites intensify experience. The beautiful becomes more beautiful, the cruel more ugly and this raises the constant question for the artist; whether one is possible without the other?
The title for this show, Tristes Tropiques is the title from a memoir, first published in France in 1955, by the anthropologist and structuralist Claude Lévi-Strauss. It documents his travels and anthropological work in Brazil.
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In Richard Hoey's work painterly and cultural elements come together to play on ideas of beauty and idealism conjured from utopian imaginings of paradise, while carrying messages about the effects of globalisation and consumerism on once untouched territories. Hoey's adopted home of Brazil provides a tropical backdrop and cultural landscape providing first-hand experience from which to explore these themes.
Hoey sees his experience of these two remarkably diverse cultures as a unique and rich source of inspiration from which to draw upon to explore this diversity in his work. Diverse references from popular and local culture to graphic elements found in street advertising are collaged together in Hoey's paintings to investigate the interaction of humans and the environment.
Known for his use of gold leaf as a signature material, his most recent works have shifted towards colourful painted layers where typically tropical elements are juxtaposed with geometrical forms and bold graphics. This recent shift is a direct response to his being immersed in and absorbing the colours and language of his tropical home. -
Inspiration Pinboard
Images from Richard's Brazilian Home -
Tristes Tropiques: Available Works
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Richard Hoey, Divided Capital, 2020£ 1,190.00
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Richard Hoey, Everything Tomorrow, 2020£ 1,190.00
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Richard Hoey, Flamingo Motel, 2020£ 1,490.00
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Richard Hoey, Island Life, 2020£ 1,490.00
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RICHARD HOEY, LAVA JATO LARANJA/ORANGE CAR WASH, 2020£ 5,500.00
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Richard Hoey, Namaste Inc., 2020£ 1,490.00
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Exclusive Limited Edition Print
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'Camouflage'
To celebrate this on-line exhibition, Richard Hoey has created his very first limited edition print. 'Camouflage' is available in a very exclusive run of 25, for only £295 (unframed). Get yours before they're gone!
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Works in Situ
