Biography
John Hiom's obsession with trying to establish an image leads to an almost hallucinatory state of realism. Objects and animals appear, but almost too clearly; the vividness of the light, the fluidity of the brushwork or the saturation of the colour lead to an equivocation about what it is we're actually looking at. A chair is pushed under a table, but the small details - like how the light falls on the chair back, or the angle of the veneered table - distract and unsettle. The physical practice of painting - Hiom's technical facility with paint - is used with cold logic to create images of ambiguity, disquiet and a strangely obscure version of reality.
