Eastern Edge Gallery's rOGUE exhibition space is currently displaying Adhesive Love, a compelling body of work by local artist and activist Alex Noel.
The walls of the cozy gallery space are peppered with small, intriguing paintings, which alternate between depicting unclear greyscale forms and pale pink fields punctured by magenta and teal. The brushstrokes Noel employs obscure the paintings' subject matter, however close inspection reveals figures simultaneously blending in with each other and their background surfaces. I found myself questioning where one body begins and where the other ends! The body language conveyed by these figures ranges from a tension filled football huddle to intimate and secretive hand holding. The energy in this body of work is noteworthy, especially due to its large amount of drips, quick gestures, and the way many of the figures appear on the verge of rolling out of their constricting frames.
Noel states that "this work deals with the covert homoeroticism within the world of sports and the visceral tensions between players on the field and in the locker room that are erased or redefined by the heterosexist culture of athletics." It is an attempt to reveal parallels between the history of painting and the history of sport, and to "disrupt assumptions about masculinity and leisure."
Alex Noel's Adhesive Love is on display at Eastern Edge Gallery until February 15, 2017 and it is a must-see! Find more information about the exhibition and gallery hours here.
