Kay Gasei

Kay Gasei’s dynamic works combine the mythological with the historical, resulting in rich, ambitious yet ambiguous compositions. Gasei uses his imagination to draw on personal memories of the past, mixing these with historical research to create c...

Kay Gasei’s dynamic works combine the mythological with the historical, resulting in rich, ambitious yet ambiguous compositions. Gasei uses his imagination to draw on personal memories of the past, mixing these with historical research to create confident, complex works that collapse time and space. Gasei’s eclectic style blends abstracted, expressive mark making with figuration to play with the notion of narrative, creating fractured tales that maintain an air of obscurity despite feeling somewhat familiar. A cache of recurring characters and motifs inhabit a range of landscapes - both used to explore colour and texture, tapping into the language of painting itself as well as Gasei’s own subconscious. The work has a deep sense of self-reflection, with Gasei using both visual and literary tools to interrogate social systems. Formally, Gasei’s rich, textural areas of slowly built up impasto verge on the sculptural, sitting in contrast to the warm natural tones of the linen. The materiality of these works is ever present, with the ambiguity of the scenes allowing the works to be appreciated on a purely painterly level, stripped of meaning or pretence. Gasei’s hand is fast and blunt, capturing the energy and expression of both his process and characters. Cleverly playing with the three dimensional and the two dimensional, Gasei’s works oscillate between representational and style, often appearing in flux or in progress - hinting at the notion of time and the creative process itself.