Throughout his practice Litherland works around the traditional genres of painting yet entwines it with a surrealist sci-fi edge, melting realism and abstraction with fantastical effects. Exploring paint in carefully formed compositions, parallel worlds are carefully arranged and constructed; setting a tone that questions human perception and our relationship to nature.

Litherland's first solo show at Bearspace presents an exploration into an expansive practice which has developed from his ongoing series of mesmeric sci-fi landscapes and haunting, ethereal portraits. A web of imagery sprawls over the gallery, including spectral octagonal landscape paintings that act as windows from a fleeting starship, laser engraved maps of uncharted parallel worlds, painted deerskins that chart the beliefs of a future primitive civilisation, and in the large scale painting We Were Never Here post-apocalyptic culture explodes in imagery which flickers between such influences as Hieronymus Bosch’s Garden of Earthly Delights and CGI laden sci-fi films, both enthralling and cinematic in their otherworldly experience. Collectively these pieces seek to form an ever-expanding alternative universe in which nature is a tenuous mirage, constantly evolving, reconstituting itself and perplexing the viewer: here reality and its opposite never quite solidify.

Litherland is a Mexican born artist based in London and Nottingham. Having spent his early years in Bolivia and Ecuador he moved to England and graduated from Falmouth College of Arts in 2002 with a first class honours degree in Fine Art Painting, later completing an MFA at Goldsmiths in 2012. He has most recently been included in exhibitions organised by the Saatchi Gallery and Mexican Embassy and is part of collections internationally.

Bearspace Gallery
152 Deptford High Street
London SE8 3PQ United Kingdom
Ph. +44 (0)20 86948097
info@bearspace.co.uk
www.bearspace.co.uk

Opening hours
Wednesday - Saturday
From 10am to 6pm