“There’s the objective landscape that exists without us, and that would always exist without us, and changes by the laws of nature and physics. But then there’s also what we imprint on the land, not necessarily physically, but just in observing the landscape and forming narratives through myth and folklore.”
Larsen / Warner is thrilled to present Crowding the Brink, a solo exhibition of new paintings by British artist Joshua Raz (b. 1993, UK) This is the artists first exhibition with the gallery and his first in Scandinavia. In Crowding the Brink, the paintings imagine how landscapes and those of us who cross them respond when their verges become freighted with significance.
Raz has developed an expressive form of landscape painting that pays homage to, builds on, challenges and expands the canonical Western landscape tradition. Much like contemporary painters such as Michael Armitage, Peter Doig and Andrew Cranston, Raz creates paintings whose foundations lie in post impressionistic painting but are not beholden to trends or tastes, instead, Raz’s sumptuous canvases feel wholly of our time.
By overlaying thin layers of diluted oil Raz elegantly manages to create a surface that almost glows. Luminous oranges and yellows pulsate beside shadowy swathes of aubergine purples and greens. With each stroke of the brush with paint marks carefully left, familiar references begin to appear; The shimmer of moonlight on water, a small boat swaying in the sea breeze or figures, hunched from the icy cold, walking upon an frozen lake. When viewing these works we cannot help but utilise our own experiences in similar landscapes, pulling on unreliable memories and desired futures. “I use lines and geometrics to squeeze the composition and bridge those spaces between a figure and some aspect of the landscape, to imply that they’re both equally reliant, they are both valuable, and there’s a reciprocal relationship between the two.”
The artist notes:
“Landscapes move with each thought shared upon them. If our experience of a landscape changes when we imbue it with meaning, how, then, is the land altered when new focus is placed on its verges? One response might be that land begins to feel less limitless. As the land’s verges are being re-emphasised, so too are our cognitive frontiers. The limits of existence itself are being redrawn with unprecedented haste. While physical verges are internalised, our cognitive landscapes are increasingly externalised. Currently, to exist is to feel caught between seismic shifts; moments that sow uncertainty in the hazy plains of our internal lands.
The paintings are peopled with coarse figures gravitating to the points at which the ground ends, often following its network of paths, creeks and gullies. In seeking the brink, they glimpse the boundless plane that lies beyond it, where vessels are suspended in varying states of flight. Boats straddle the horizon, or are grounded on the shore, or are depicted in the moments before being boarded. The paintings express a desire for our landscapes to rejoin the oceans and skies in their immensity. Arriving at each precipice, their subjects reach a place from where they may take flight, or are otherwise reminded of their flightlessness.”
Raz graduated from Newcastle University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Fine Art and currently resides in London. Recently solo exhibitions include ‘Trails Through a Reverie’, Ronchini Gallery, London (2022), ‘Half Tranced’, PaintersPaintingPaintings (2022), ‘Shaken Ground’, Blue Shop Gallery, London (2023) and ‘Mistaken Shores’, Ronchini Gallery, London (2024). He has been featured in several publications, including GQ magazine (May 2017), Artmaze Magazine (November 2021) and Plaster Magazine (February 2024). His work has been presented internationally, most notably a solo presentation with Ronchini Gallery at The Armory show (2025) where his extraordinary solo booth was selected by Artsy as one of the highlights of the fair. Raz has participated in a number of group shows, including ‘Love is the Devil’, held at Marlborough Gallery (2022), ‘A New Sensation’, held at Galerie Marguo (2023) and ‘Une Chambre à Soi’, held at Chateau La Coste (2024)
