New portraits, the self explanatory title for Brendan Fowlers latest solo show is a large collection of portraits of his friends and colleagues composed of fabric and paint. With this reference to textile and the classic genre of portraiture painting, Fowler takes a new look at composing a human face. Light washes of paint underneath sewn together fabrics on the canvas. These pieces have a blatant connection to marxist theories. He is implying a face on a blanket or some other form of garment that is a commodity. In Carl Marx's fetishism of the commodities he explains the relationship between commodities in capitalism and the lack of consideration for human labor. With the pieces in this show you can see the relationship of fabricated commodity being equivalent to the human labor being put in through the face being super imposed onto the known commodity.
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