Eye Magazine

Rob Lowe has covered the walls of London’s tiny Kemistry Gallery with an array of untitled artwork, writes Sarah Snaith.

One piece, tiled from 72 square prints (top, below and bottom), spreads across a corner of Kemistry Gallery’s back wall like a hypnotic quilt. The dizzying grey dots that appear in the junctions between tiles are an optical illusion.

Lowe, also known as Supermundane, has installed geometric paintings, a mural made of adhesive tape, giclée prints and a vinyl banner.

Below: Lowe created this improvised mural (see Vimeo clip) in the gallery over two days, using sticky electrical tape.

‘Details’ features bold magnifications of drawings that are exploded to the point of abstraction. They have something of the optimistic spirit visible in Lowe’s art direction for the magazines Fire & Knives, Anorak and Cagoule.

Within the bold black lines is a playful mix of bright colours running at 90° and 45° angles. Occasional curved lines and contrasting polka dots (below) soften his angular divisions.

While Lowe describes his work as ‘purely abstract and hard-edged’ drawings, the way the coloured strips slip under and over each other gives them an almost ‘woven’ textile aesthetic. This is mirrored in the way the pieces wrap around the gallery.

Above: Lowe’s work in Kemistry Gallery.

Rob Lowe: ‘Details’ continues until 30 June at Kemistry Gallery, 43 Charlotte Road, London EC2A 3PD.

Above: artwork for 72-tile mural.

See also Leslie Atzmon’s Dimensional typography. The unbearable flatness of being (2009) on the Eye blog.

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