Neil Masterman

The self-taught British painter Neil Masterman employs multiple styles in his acrylic works, combining impressionism, expressionism, abstraction and fauvism (to name his most overt allusions). His paintings are dominated by strong colors, generally in a wide variety rather than within a single hue. Working with the expressive qualities of his bold colors, Masterman often forgoes minute details, conveying emotion, texture and movement through juxtapositions of strong color planes.

Throughout these mingling styles and colors, Masterman maintains a stable and recognizable aesthetic all his own. This personal style emerges from the uncanny impact of his paintings: at first glance their allusions to earlier styles make them seem familiar, but further engagement reveals their originality. Masterman’s works do not simply allude to preceding artistic traditions. He renews their immediacy in several ways: by placing stronger colors into jarring proximity, by choosing certain extremely contemporary subjects, finally by creating his own hybrid mode through these multiple styles brought into dialogue within his canvases.