Interview: John Copeland

John Copeland: High Life (installation view), 2010.

Could you make a short presentation of what you have made for the show and how the works are thematically related?

I have made both drawings and paintings, mostly figurative scenes placed somewhere between the abstracted and the real. In many of them some social interaction happens, negotiating something that could be weird or easy, comfortable or awkward, some exchange in various forms. More specifically I am interested in what goes on under the surface, the physical vs. the psychological, a plurality of motives, intentions, and results. That is something that runs through all of the works.

John Copeland: I can only promise you one thing, 2010. 152,5 x 173 cm. Acrylics on canvas.

It also seems to me, that you are trying to both invoke and disrupt certain moral codes?

I've never been too drawn to nice images, the sentimental, or something that merely affirms what we already know. I try to play with the schism of behavior and thought, actions versus intention, and how that may present it itself or not. A few of the works contain references to sexual situations or pornographic pictures, which earlier in my career, I would refrain from using. But sex is just as much part of life as a conversation, so that has made its way in to the vocabulary of the works. I felt it would be disingenuous not to have that as part of my imagery, if I am making painting about human experience. I am also playing with people’s reactions, with the role of the viewer, the act of looking. For example, some works incorporate images from one painting into another, in one painting a crowd of people looks at the image of another painting with disgust or glee, creating both a response and dialogue between the two images.

I am not trying to make any moral argument at all. For me there is a plurality in things and I work very hard to have the works not have a definable or literal substance, I want them to be on the line of decipherability, of legibility. I have always pushed my work to balance on this tittering line.

John Copeland: The mirror forgives the face, 2010. 162,5 x 147 cm. Acrylics on Canvas. John Copeland: You couldn’t have done this if you knew what you were doing, 2010. 127 x 152,5 cm. Acrylics on canvas.

How would you, in your own words, describe your visual expression?

I am not only interested in painting as an image but also in how the paint is applied, in the physicality of the object. What I was saying about the tittering line of uncertainty meaning wise, I also try to make visible through the way they look, their form. When you look at my paintings up close they may look like massive layers of paint, abstracted and loose, but when you step back you see the image. But I don’t have a formula on how I work. The way it’s painted is just as important as what it is saying for me, so I’m always trying to push them further, the work like most artists, is constantly evolving so that every show is like a step along the path.

Thanks.

John Copeland: Onward and upward, 2010. 152 x 137 cm. Acrylics on canvas.

John Copeland: Memories of you, 2010. 76 x 101,5 cm. Acrylics on canvas.

John Copeland: Answers, 2010. 61 x 76 cm. Acrylics on canvas.

John Copeland: Your sunday best, 2010. 45 x 61 cm. Acrylics on panel.

John Copeland: You don’t even have to look good, 2010. 127 x 152,5 cm. Acrylics on canvas.

John Copeland: Famous artists schools, 2010. 127 x 152,5 cm. Acrylics on canvas.

John Copeland: What's real and what is not, 2010. 45 x 61 cm. Acrylics on panel.

John Copeland: The importance of good manners, 2010. 152 x 137 cm. Acrylics on canvas.

John Copeland: Respectable People, 2010. 45 x 61 cm. Acrylics on panel.

John Copeland: A brand new companion, 2010. 40,7 x 61 cm. Acrylics and oil on panel.

John Copeland: I always get lucky with you, 2010. 40,7 x 61 cm. Acrylics and oil on panel.

John Copeland: Top Left: Ladies night, 2010. 27 x 35,5 (Framed). Acrylics on antique magazine cover.

John Copeland: Clowns never die, 2010.. 56 x 77 cm (Framed). Graphite & color pencil on paper.

John Copeland: Everyone wants to be my friend. 2010. Graphite, color pencil and acrylic on paper. Everyone wants to be my friend, 2010. 65,5 x 92.5 cm (Framed). Graphite, color pencil and acrylic on paper.

John Copeland: Come to flavor country, 2010. 56 x 77 cm (Framed in mahogany wood). Graphite & color pencil on paper.

John Copeland: Mine eyes have seen the glory, 2010. 29,4 x 33 cm (Framed in mahogany wood). Graphite on paper. John Copeland: Fame and Fortune, 2010. 28 x 33 cm (Framed in mahogany wood). Graphite on paper.