ROGER BOYCE – Muse – 27 June-21 July 2017
An exhibition of 40 tondos from the ‘Muse’ series
and four paintings from the ‘Girl with Prosthesis’ series.
“They seem like nice enough people, these ladies. For the most part, warm maternal types of a certain age. Definitely, defiantly suburban – divorcees and widows. Perhaps they’re trying just a little too hard, in expression and pose, in these selfies and quasi-professional shots: the out-of-date faux glamour of their hair, makeup and ‘80s designer knockoff clothes. The female subjects of Roger Boyce’s Muse have been sourced for the bittersweet milieu of dating website profiles. It’s a brave step these women take; to put one’s self out there online looking for love… Boyce is gentle with these women, lifting them from a context of brave optimism and last chances, and resettling them in a fine art context, picking and choosing romantic painterly stereotypical backgrounds to flatter them.”
Dr Andrew Paul Wood
An excerpt from ‘Splendid in their Ashes’, 2014, ‘Muse – Roger Boyce’ catalogue