While looking at Mr Penfold‘s latest series soon to go on display at Brighton’s No Walls Gallery, I’m reminded of the classic cartoons in which every time the hungry villain sees the cute wittle hero he turns into a succulent looking, lip-smacking roast chicken. Just once, couldn’t he have caught the damn thing, and taught kids everywhere a valuable lesson about the realities of the food chain?
Anyway, Mr Penfold seems to be having some issues with cigarettes, as they crop up all over his Masquerades and Silhouettes collection. Fags freshly lit, fags smoked down to the tab, fags bent like Nick O’Teen’s in Superman’s iron grip. I’m not sure, but maybe someone’s struggling through withdrawals. In some of these works the tubular shape is easily-identifiable, but in others we’re left to speculate as the Cambridge-born, Bristol-based artist continues to explore the abstract side of his practice. Colour, texture and a precise graphical delivery are to the fore at the show, which runs from 31 January to 22 February.
© Mr Penfold
Courtesy, No Walls
