NEW PPL: New Paintings by Derek Mainella. White Wizard, Liverpool

It’s super to see another new exhibition space, White Wizard (great name), opening up in Liverpool and, again, at the Royal Standard. It seems everything that I want to go and see, outside of the main art spaces in the city, is happening up at their Vauxhall Road campus (Cactus and the programme at TRS itself). Unfortunately I'm just going to miss White Wizard’s inaugural exhibition, NEW PPL: New Paintings by Derek Mainella which closes tomorrow (10 April). If you’re in town I definitely recommend you go and visit because this first exhibition looks really promising. Mainella’s work seems to have the artificial glow of an LA summer. The works are cheeky and fresh with some much needed, post winter, not black and white, sculptural pop.

White Wizard curator Dave Evans was kind enough to send through some install shots so we can flag it up before their closing tomorrow and tells me their next exhibition will be Frances Disley in the summer.

(Just to give you some more info on the work/robbed from press release) Mainella’s paintings occupy the overlap between the digital and the physical. His primary visual research consists of blends and gestural marks made in Doodle Buddy ™, an iPhone app, and Photoshop, which are then translated onto canvas. The canvas is finally cut or taped in a cathartic act that at once opens up the surface and completes the process.

Courtesy White Wizard, 2015

Courtesy White Wizard, 2015

Courtesy White Wizard, 2015

Courtesy White Wizard, 2015

Visit White Wizard at www.whitewizard.org or IRL here: The Royal Standard, 131 Vauxhall Road, Liverpool.

Derek Mainella's website is here