Artist and curator Narbi Price shares the concept behind his latest series of floral paintings, three of which are fresh off a show at the Royal Academy in London.
By Rise Art | 22 Feb 2024
We are delighted to share an exclusive new series of works from critically acclaimed artist and curator, Narbi Price. The Flower Paintings collection is a continuous series depicting anonymous floral tributes, drawing inspiration from various art traditions such as memento mori, vanitas painting, floriography, and still life. By removing the flowers from their identifying landscapes, Price invites viewers to create their own interpretations and assumptions about their origin and meaning.
Price, previous winner and now board member of the Contemporary British Painting Prize, has a distinct approach to photorealism that sets him apart from other artists in the genre, borrowing techniques from abstraction to depict seemingly nondescript locations or objects that hold great significance.
For further context, the series has grown from an earlier work showing floral tributes: one showing the site where Bowie stood on the cover of The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars as it was a few days after he’d died and a further two showing anonymous sites or personal vigils. In the same way as the viewer, Price remarks, he also doesn’t know what happened there.
Each painting within the collection represents a specific event and symbolises the fleeting nature of life. Price highlights the silent acts of pilgrimage involved in placing each memorial within a stripped-down landscape. Painting these flowers that will fade and decay with time, explains Price, makes these memorials permanent. In this way, they serve as quiet, modern reflections on themes of loss, memorialisation, and love.
