Arts Omega presents

LONDON. PAUL SAKOILSKY

Cover:

The City At NightOil On Canvas20x25 2016

“Paul Sakoilsky is a painter with a philosophical background and formidable skill for oratory and writing. The artworks are a concrete engagement which proclaims freedom in the possibility of envisioning a world different from the one we inhabit.”

Mike Watson, art writer & Curator (Rome, 2013)

Sky/Plane Study # 12Oil On Canvas20x20cm2014

Mile End [Wharf]Oil On Canvas40.5x30.5cm2015

Blue MoonOil On Canvas40x45cm2016

Night View [Wharf]Oil On Canvas66x51cm2016

If our cards were on the tablewhat would they tell uswould they whisper would they shoutor sit there mute indignantin symbolic silenceif our cards were on the table

& since I’ve been brokensince I’ve been on the mendsince i’ve been thinking of youand me and i and yousince i’ve been thinking about the all of usthinking on this troublesome worldsince i’ve been thinkingthinkingif our cards were on the table

is this the glass i should drinkor the other at the left handat the right handas the two snakescaduceusdouble helixconfound meI’m twisted upin a whole historya whole spreadingout of this and thatsincei’ve been beside youbesidemyself

if we now placegentlyever so gentlyout cards upon the tableshall we simply acceptthe inopportune daysthe daze of the winter suncurving its way across the ever buildingarising horizonof millionaire and billionaire apartments

shinning emptilyin the sad London dayif we lay our cards upon the tableshall we recall the methodology of the kissthe Be-ing inherentimmaculateof a certain uncertain embraceah my darlingmy darlingsi think i’m fallinghorizontally through the life of it allbut i’m starting to laughagain

dear friendsshall we lay our cards on the tabletodaylike tomorrowlike yesterdaylike all and every dayit’s eternal you seethis cat and mouse game we playwe play we playwe play

as we playedas you once laywoman of my arms my mind my soulthe one that always gets awaythat gets in the wayseveral diseveralI’m simply going to lay a few cardshere right now on the tablenothing too seriousand play a hand of chanceas the moment between the night and the day’sgoing to say hey baby darling it’s okit’s okit’s okwe messed upbut there are greater sins

we didn’t start a wardidn’t rob the nation

this new world they’re buildingthey’re building a ruina shining glittering glistering ruinno dear friends we had no hand in thiswe simply laid some cards on the tableon a few tables here or there

but now we need cardsharpswe need stick up menand women and menand womenwe need solidaritya return of ethicsof compassiona rebuilding of the public spherethese cheats and thieveshave stolennot playing by the rulesplaying us off againstone anotherstealing all the money fromthe table all the air from the airas our heads wereturned distracted bytheir wars their greedand this glitteringphantom machine

‘The most recent cityscapes are painted from the top of Ernö Goldfinger’s iconic brutalist Balfron Tower, in Poplar East London, where I currently have a temporary live/work studio via Bow Arts.’

Paul Sakoilsky

Cityscape [Top Floor Balfron Tower]Oil On Canvas80x70cm2015

Flight [Falcon]Oil On Canvas60x50cm2015

Flight [Plane]Oil On Canvas60x50cm2015

Bank WinterOil On Canvas25x20cm2013

Devons RoadOil On Canvas55x50cm2013

Last Days Of AugustOil On Canvas35x35cm2013

Window, Finsbury ParkOil On Canvas25x20cm2015

Canary WharpOil On Canvas55x45cm2010

SurveillanceOil On Canvas 25x20cm2013

Shoreditch EscapeAcrylic & Oil On Canvasboard 40x30cm2012

Paul Sakoilsky

Born in 1964, Sakoilsky was brought up in the Far East and East Anglia, where he created his first performance art works. Obsessed by poetry, Sakoilsky came to London in 1982, where he played in bands, made experimental films/audio-works, wrote prolifically, and met the poet George Barker (then in his 70s), who briefly became a mentor. Sakoilsky organised poetry readings that evolved into performance pieces, and, from 1994 to 2002 was based at 30 Underwood St Gallery, Shoreditch, where he had a studio, performed and curated, whilst also studying at the radical Philosophy Department of the University of North London. In 1997, the Arts Council funded Sakoilsky to travel to Austria to co-curate the first UK exhibition of Hermann Nitsch. A defining body of autobiographical and extreme performance work followed, shown mainly in Central Europe, to include the Cry series, Mother Hysteria and the Kunst-Clown Action series, his first solo show in Budapest, as well as academic articles on Nitsch and the Dialogues text series. Since 2007, Sakoilsky has worked increasingly in the medium of paint. Series of works include The Dark Times project, Poor-traits/Portraits, Unfamiliar, The Wind of Aten, the Reg series, Napoli, and an on-going series of London paintings. From 2010-2012, he was Resident Artist at Red Gallery, Shoreditch, for whom he also co-curated the landmark show East End Promise: A Story of Cultural Migrants (Londonewcastle Project Space).

In 2012 he began work on a series of life-studies, initially called View. In the same year, during a residency in Naples with Fondazione Morra, he switched to oil painting and working almost entirely from life. This led to an intense, continuous engagement with oil painting and a large new body of work of cityscapes, portraits and other subjects. “The Dark Times are situated within a socio-political aesthetic: semiotics, détournement, critique, where the painterly aspect cannot help but be over-determined by the content and form of the ‘newspaper’ and the mediated world. I often think the DT’s are more akin to epistemology (study of knowledge, in this case, an often misdirected, at the very least, certainly always ideologically driven form of ‘knowledge’). On the other hand, the main focus of my painting since early 2012 (excepting works made for particular projects and exhibitions), is more akin to ontology (study of Being), to a poetic and philosophical engagement, and an unashamed, excited fascination with the world and painting and their inter-relationship – an opening out into the world and beyond.” His work is shown, published and collected internationally. He has a son, Joseph, and daughter, Anastasia.

Curated byJacqueline HancherPaul Sakoilsky

Booklet designed byEvangelos Androutsopoulos

Exhibition assistantsSash BluBenjamin FletcherDeborah CrosswireEvangelos AndroutsopoulosGoda LatkauskaiteJoseph SakoilskyJoy ChiangSze WongJanka KubusovaMarek CitriakBetka KostolnikovaSimon Pickup

www.arts-omega.compress@arts-omega.com07525661771

10a Omega Works167 Hermitage Road LondonN4 1LZ

Arts Omega presentsLONDON. PAUL SAKOILSKY

10th February - 10th March 2016Private view Tuesday 9th February