About

Aaron Rigal is an artist and multidisciplinary creative based in London. Having studied Foundation diploma at Kingston School of Art he went on to study Painting and Printmaking at the Glasgow School of Art.

I am not searching for clarity within my work, in a lot of ways quite the opposite. Painting allows time to process, for the mind to associate freely, the final image is the relic of all the decisive moments and emotions felt in its creation. I intend to walk a subtle line between the tangible and fictitious, somewhat aligned with the ambiguous complexion of living in an increasingly technology dependent society. I maintain this hybrid nature within my work in order to reflect the obscure and enigmatic nature of the times that we are living in, where ‘truth’ is seemingly easily accessible but increasingly hard to ascertain. The innate ambiguity of painting and the physical properties of the medium, are both important subjects within my practice. Sections of paintings are carved and pulled out of nebulous texture, I believe that this way of painting allows for a wider range of interpretation, placing the importance on the viewer’s definition of the work. 

Painting is the means by which I navigate thought and process memories. Within the paintings a number of references, both physical and subliminal tangle on the canvas to create a pareidolic web of potential. Ostensibly these surfaces are purely abstract, but when the mind is allowed to associate by similarity they become meaningful with figurative traits. My role as the painter is to guide these gestures of chance while still allowing the viewer to be agentic. In a way the creation of the paintings is a constant between the medium and overindulgence in personal connotations, making the familiar unfamiliar.

‘Aaron Rigal’s Paintings inhabit a space between figuration and abstraction, this is in part a visceral response to the medium itself, which Rigal sees as inherently ambiguous. In contrast to film or literature as an art form, paint drips - it smudges and smears - rendering it comparatively poor tool for clarification.

(Above words by Holly Braine for ‘Changing the Subject’ at Annely Juda)