Pictures? Paintings? Who are we to say what the artist calls his work?
Rex has always referred to his work as pictures. These are “pictures” painted in remembrance of places, people, songs, stories, even other paintings. Moments in time imprinted in memory that would later appear in paintings. Apart from the painterly process that is one of chance placed against order within the edge of the canvas so that negative spaces speak against positive spaces, these paintings also tell stories. Each line of paint, every word, every dot is intentionally placed. Even and especially the colour placement is designed.
We take photographs to record special moments – allowing time to stand still for a second. It gives us something to look back on when memory fails. We are capturing moments.

Rex’s pictures are these moments: place, space and the meaning of time. Moments of what was and what is. They feel nostalgic and evoke emotion – his emotion, our emotion, shared emotions – expressed on a canvas by way of movement with colour. Rex indeed epitomizes the colourist painter.

Looking at this series of paintings, let’s not only pay attention to the words but instead let the colours and movement of the paint evoke a memory, invite the emotions, walk into the shapes that resonate with your own experiences. Be stimulated by the unfamiliar and see your surroundings from a different perspective. Detach from the present and take your imagination on a journey. If you look and listen closely, these pictures will tell you infinite stories.

Exhibition Catalog