‘More’ by Lou

The Road to Excess Leads to Wisdom – Show press release

More, the debut show from artist Lou is extreme in every way, but then Lou’s journey to this point in his life has been one of excess for as far back as he can remember.

As his highly personal and disturbing portrayal of addiction, dependency, fractured relationships and despair vividly illustrates, what’s an unimaginable nightmare vision for some is grim reality for personalities who happen to be hard-wired like Lou.

Yet Lou is speaking for everybody through his work, not just hardened addicts. It’s a thin dividing line, and no-one is immune as Lou explains: “The Show is called More because everybody wants more no matter what they already have.”

The works selected for ‘More’ confront Lou’s past, a past so out of control, that the main surprise is that he’s still here to chart his decent through his art.

Many falling into the trap of persistent addiction, self-abuse and debasement never recover. Once a death wish of this kind has been entered into, it’s the only deal they’ll honour.

In Lou’s case, the most remarkable aspect of his journey is the dark and savage beauty of the art which he has created as part of his recovery programme from addiction. More brutally rips open the door to reveal pain, suffering, depravity and craving.

Much has been spoken about artists who suffer for their art – the truth about Lou is that he did no such thing.

He suffered. Only then did he become an artist.

It was to take over thirty years of addiction for Lou to ‘discover’ art, and to begin the road to salvation through it. No training. No prior interest in art beyond manic and nervous doodlings. No inkling at all that such a potent means of expression remained latent within him until he was encouraged to use art as a form of therapy at a Rehabilitation Center in America in 2003.

Since that time Lou has transferred his addictive personality to creation rather than destruction, and his art has been a major part in him finding self worth in his recovery.

Categorising Lou’s work is not easy. Labels such as lowbrow, emotive, pop surrealist and grotesque spring to mind, but Lou’s work resists such titles. Lou trusts to instinct and paints what he feels.
Lou prefers the term raw to describe his oeuvre, predominantly working rapidly and in a stream of consciousness to capture his demons on canvas. Lou very rarely returns to his paintings to re-touch and only entitles works after he’s finished them.

A number of motifs emerge from close examination of Lou’s work. Primal, simian figures. Ever-present cigarettes or joints resolutely clasped to hand. Geometric shapes. Love symbols. Connecting straws and pipes. Single eyes.

Lou’s life flashes before him in More, reflecting his inadequacy as a husband and father, his fears, his capitulation to excess, his self-loathing and guilt. Sex, the inability to relate to other humans, medical treatment and a panoply of substances from alcohol to crack cocaine, from weed to morphine, dominate the landscape of More.

Ultimately, More portrays a personal account of human frailty that cannot be ignored. It’s honest and it’s confrontational. It’s harrowing and disturbing. Yet, in the end, it’s redemptive as it shows that light can be shone into even the darkest of recesses. At least until tomorrow.