Henny Acloque’s practice incorporates painting and drawing. Her works transmit a distinct energy and spontaneity, resulting in an ever-evolving body of work. There is a collision of worlds and aesthetics at play here which is indicative of her diverse references: from the microcosms of Hieronymus Bosch, to the mystical traditions of Spain and her fascination with miniature paintings of the Renaissance.
Her process is intuitive, one of discovery. Acloque starts by pouring paint onto the canvas, allowing the material to create it’s own surface and abstract forms. This exercise is akin to automatic writing, almost a meditation, an unconscious practice that builds microcosms on the surface—an alchemy union of seamless yet disparate elements. Acloque gradually in looking at how many ways paint can flow onto canvas, she allows it to have more freedom and movement.
Her recent works move between figuration and abstraction, characterized by the random entanglements of fragmented bodies against simplified chromatic backgrounds. Dis-located body parts perform mischief in wild landscapes - memories, desire, longing and hope are all active ingredients for these visceral works. Dreamscapes conjuring past, present and possible futures. The boundaries between truth and fiction blur, as humour and darkness coexist. Acloque has always used the landscape directly on her paintings, but in recent years this has become abstracted, and acts as the backdrops to her stories. She builds vivid monochromatic backgrounds and abstracted patterning to convey a disquieting emotional tense, heightened by the spatial indeterminacy of scenes that refuse to resolve into a coherent time, place, or space.
Paying closer attention to her drawings and paintings, we can discern recurring motifs such as hands and legs, flora and fauna and anthropomorphic figures. Set against flat gradations of colour that recall polychromatic surreal landscapes, the paintings evade spatial orientation or understanding. They do not allow any focal point or central protagonist to emerge. The works eludes single classification, creating a multiplicity of figures that overlap and coalesce in favour of a non-hierarchical exploration of material and form. Ultimately, Acloque questions our conceptions of our surrounding reality – what we’re seeing and where its meaning lies, unveiling the hidden magic of space not seen by the naked eye.
Bio
Henny Acloque, (b.1979 ) lives and works in Oxford, UK, and is a graduate of Royal College of Art, London. Her work has been the subject of numerous exhibitions internationally including, Benjamin Parsons / Hannah Payne Oxford, UK (solo, 2023); Oceans Apart, Manchester, UK (group, 2023), Gallery L21, Arco, Madrid, Spain (group, 2023); Goose Summer, curated by Martyn Cross (group, 2022) (online exhibition), Where we Are, curated by Danny Rolph, Mercers Hall, (group, 2020); Ebensperger, Saltzberg, Austria (solo, 2019); Courtauld Institute of Arts, London, UK (group, 2018); Played, Galerie Ebensperger, Saltsburg (group, 2018) and Tristian Lorenz Galerie, Frankfurt, Germany (solo, 2016). Acloque has been awarded the Exeter Phoenix contemporary open Prize. Her work has been included before in publication 100 Painters of Tomorrow by Thames and Hudson, 2014. She has been shortlisted for the John Moores Paintings Prize and Jerwood Drawing Prize.
