ARVON WELLEN



EARLY WORK (paintings and prints)

It was during the nineteen ninetees that an interest in artefacts of all kinds stimulated an interest in themes concerning the lives of people rather than heroes. This gradually grew into an investigation into the lives of women at work. Arvon's painting moved from representations of power in history to subjects that included the relationship of individuals to machines and how this challenges the concept of humanity. But it is not so much the machines themselves that are of interest to him, it is the world created through the use of machinery (including electronic media) that he sees as the challenge; it is how we conceptualise ourselves that really interests him.

Empire: acrylic on canvas; 80 x 60 cm; 2012

Arvon is interested in the way that we represent ourselves in thought as well by means of images, which is why he often introduces items of domestic use as well as industrial plans and diagrams. Beyond these layered concepts he questions how, for example, we can depict one woman as a goddess or a saint while subjecting many other women to domestic servitude.

Palace: Oil and mixed media on canvas; 2002;
20 x 30 cm; from the Babylon series.

Door Cadaqués: photograph © Arvon Wellen 2016

Fire in the fen: mixed media on canvas; 61 x 46 cm; 2009

mother and child: acrylic and mixed media on canvas; ; 1998

Triptych: mixed media on canvas; 30 x 60 cm; 2010

Dancers in blue and white: acrylic on canvas; 90 90 cm; 2009

Dream fragment: mixed media, on wood and canvas; 100 x 50 cm; 2010

Garden of Delights: acrylic on canvas; 40 x 90 cm; 2009

war zone: acrylic on canvas;
triptych 20 x 60 cm; 2009

Shiela: mixed media on paper; 32 x 56 cm; 2009

It pulls up well: mixed media on canvas; c 1998