Ready for your close-up Mr Marlow? RA’s Tim is capture by Jason Brooks

Jason Brooks turns his forensic gaze on art world luminaries in an exhibition at Marlborough Fine Art in London next year (Jason Brooks: The Subject is not the Subject, 9 february-March 10 2018). The Royal Academy’s artistic director Tim Marlow, the artist Sue Webster and high-profile architect David Adjaye are all portrayed in a realist fashion by the Rotherham-born artist.

“The source materials for the portraits are composited images from hundreds of photographs taken of the sitter by Brooks,” a press statement says. Another section of the show will include large-scale paintings inspired by amateur artists, which are titled after poems by the 19th-century poet John Clare.

Brooks also reimagines devotional paintings, focusing on the allure of the painted icon (the intention here is to re-evaluate the original images in an affectionate and incisive way, prompting the viewer to consider how the “subject is not the subject” – hence the title).

December 2017