Information
Recently seen in Young Americans 2 at the Saatchi Gallery in London, Lowe is best known for his hyperreal, close-up, psychological portraits of children and babies executed on metal panel. Despite their ostensibly child-like qualities, the subjects' facial expressions often verge on the adult and deathly, and their stances on the aggressive and volatile. This unnerving effect is further reinforced by the plasticity of the faces and the quality of the paintings with their eery light and strong shadows. In the new works, Lowe has expanded his compositions to include a definitive environment which situates his characters in a more specific place and time.
The exhibition consists of four paintings. The first two, Yellow Moon and Cold Blue Ice, are larger than life, full scale paintings of a young boy. In each work, the boy is surrounded by the darkness of night while being frozen in the spotlight of an undefined light source. The third and fourth paintings, Piranesi's Baby and Psycho Shack, exclude the human figure altogether but are highly suggestive of its former presence and activities. Piranesi's Baby, a dark work, portrays a large toy car suspended by rope from the rafters of a garage or attic whilst Psycho Shack depicts a psychologically charged wood shack in a bright, dream-like landscape.