Conrad Jon Godly
4 collaborations
Having grown up surrounded by the Swiss Alps, there is a muscle-memory in Godly’s work. The canvases are almost sculptural, with lathered oil paint curling up from the surface and out of the frame. His bold gestural brush strokes, with a sharp minimalist sensibility, embody what the artist calls the ‘essence’ of his subjects: dramatic, unspoilt natural landscapes. The philosophy behind this ‘essence’ is captured in his 2019 show To See Is Not To Speak which takes its name from Japanese writer Kobayashi Hideo and expresses the notion that the deepest forms of knowledge cannot be communicated through language. #11 (2019) - a painting from the exhibition - shows a snowy peak shrouded by a heady haze of mist. From a distance, the painting could be a photograph but moving closer, the image dissolves into abstract colours and shapes. Creating a sense of mystery in the collapse of realism to abstraction, Godly alludes to the immaterial things in life that words cannot express.
