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Ben Lewis's rating
Reader rating
Fairytales: Hare Nest Day, 2008, one of David Harrison's works at Victoria Miro
Much of the best painting today pretends to do one thing and then does something quite different, and the idea is to try to see through the disguise.
An example of this is the work of 55-year-old Londoner David Harrison, who has remained a rather small blip on the art world radar, despite being a contemporary of Peter Doig’s at St Martins and an acknowledged influence on him (Doig had a big hand in staging this exhibition).
Harrison’s small but luxurious paintings look like the illustrations for children’s fairytales, as if the French naïve modernist Henri Rousseau was drawing pictures for Beatrix Potter and Lewis Carroll stories.
Anthropomorphic hares and oversized birds sit on carpets of wild flowers in emerald forests under starlit skies. But behind this lies an elegiac vision of a somewhat down-at-heel but enchanted London (and sometimes British Isles) suffused with melancholy and irony.
A traffic beacon, shopping trolley and other urban rubbish float down an overgrown canal, like jewels in a necklace. An army of black silhouettes in hooded waterproofs sway towards a misty Stonehenge, like rambler-monks. Graffitti sparkles on walls in the twilight.
It’s à la Doig with a camp side, most evident in the less satistfying series of paintings of Guerlain perfume bottles and Thirties-style women. Upstairs sculptures cannily integrate junk into their animal subjects, and a charming installation, like a Gingerbread House containing most of Harrison’s visual vocabulary applied to wallpaper, hanging lights and furniture.
Until 26 September. www.victoria-miro.com
Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.
