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'Absrtact Art' - no such thing! 'Representational and symbolism' - if anybody mentions this to you just tell them, 'wrong'! Art is not about this. Art is not a literal story board and it does not need an intellectual crutch to support it. You learn the rules and then you rip them up.
(quoted & shown by kind permission of the artist)
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Artist's Statement 2001: "in our world where the good are generally ignored but the bad get attention is success really measured by having your name on a pair of socks?"
"His graffiti inspired paintings and drawings seem to reference TV, overheard conversations or bits of information heard whilst tuning the radio.
What we are left with is a mass of arguing mark making that leaves the viewer
unsure of how and when to proceed. Howells' work seems a sprawling living 'thing' that has a life of its own" (quoted from Ffresh 3, an exhibition at Chapter/G97 in March 2002).
Comments in the press: "New wave of Welsh art" / "In the spirit of Pollock, Miro & Basquiat" / "Prodigious talent and raw energy" / "Apparently wayward signs on his canvases...Crowded with messages of alienation, deprivation & daily violence".
These are some of the comments made recently on which the artist thrives. NEALE HOWELLS,
the 'enfant terrible' of the contemporary visual art scene in Wales, creator of album and single covers for the Manic
Street Preachers, a gifted young painter whose present work may be "graffiti-esque" but is far from being graffiti. He is
very serious about his painting and totally committed to his work. Those of us who shy away from it must be wrong because he is
enviably popular amongst an age group, i.e. the 20s to 30s age range, which does not only understand his message but can relate to it.
They love his paintings and sales at his exhibitions confirm this claim. In March 2002 he gave an interviewer a hard time with his
colloquial and 'punctuation-less' style of speaking. Nevertheless, the essence of his views came accross clearly in the
interview(click here). During another interview,
which he gave to the magazine 'The Big Issue' in October 2002, it emerged that in 2001, when the MANICS commissioned him to create
a huge outdoor billboard advertising their 'Know Your Enemy' album, complaints were received which meant that the project had to be
cancelled. "Schoolyard politics" was Howells' reaction. "Everybody who came to watch me work swore like dockers. That's the hypocrisy
of it all - they were all swearing but you'r not allowed to write it down". A fact, which riles him to ever more provocations.
In order to understand Neale Howells better one has to study his paintings. A selection of them is shown here(click)
illustrating a process of development from early studies of the 1990s to the Berlin series (inspired by his visit to that city) and the paintings he is known for now.
It may also be illuminating to know more about his philosophy and ideas on certain subjects to allow for a better understanding of the man himself. Two
essays(click here) of his, recently published on the Internet, could be of interest in this respect. His reply to a vitriolic critique of his exhibition at the Washington Gallery in Penarth
(2nd Nov. - 21st Nov.2002) is another interesting source. His latest venture is the Urban Art Development.
'Pleasant Shit', 2001, stick-like humanoids are its main feature,
mixed media on recycled wood 122x152cm (private collection).
Western Mail, 30th December 2002, p.18
For more biographical information CLICK here
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