Castor is pleased to present Too Much Fun, Derek Mainella’s forth solo exhibition with the gallery. Here we find Mainella in a reductive mood, continuing his self-styled take on abstractive figuration yet striped back in both in scale and complexity to present a series of portraits of creatures of the night.
8 figures surround us, their intentions unclear but the smell of tobacco and other substances sits heavy on the air causing an intoxicating unease. The cover of darkness can transform even the most inviting of spaces into a brooding Gotham like metropolis, where the day shift is replaced by the night workers, party goers and those who prefer to live in the shadows.
As we’ve become accustom to with Mainella’s work these figures are made up with cigarettes, smoke, pills and drug paraphernalia, at face value they could even appear jovial. But the true undertones of the work provide a critique of the more sinister forces at play in society, addiction, dependence, escapism and the strangle hold of consumerism on lives.
The longer we spend with these figures the more our imaginations run wild, are they out to do no good, a bastard gang of misfits terrorizing the night? A group of colleagues who’s excesses have gone too far as they wait until day light for mind and body to be reunited? Or simply people like you and I who just so happen to be up at such a time, taking a drag or stimulant to get them through.
Either way, stay safe folks and don’t have too much fun…
