ANIMAL KINGDOM

30 July to 29 August 2020

Artist Statement

Paul Sloan’s Animal Kingdom (2020) measures the beauty, absurdity and looming threat of the animal world using the slide rules of grayscale, hermeticism, and anthropomorphic projection. A cat emerges from inky darkness. A long-tailed tit stares at the viewer, poised and knowing. A falcon takes down a surveillance glider. A guard dog bites a well-known gloved hand. A celebrity leaves a vast fortune to his pet, rather than his family or humanitarian organisations. In this new series of paintings, Sloan selects surprising snapshots from our modern world for closer inspection. Using a restrained grayscale palette and his characteristic, wry wit Sloan addresses the addictive nature of modern media as well as what we trust and fear in ourselves and our surroundings.