Just a short post to implore you to get down to the Menier Gallery on Southwark street, and see Eloise O’Hare’s new exhibition Undiagnosed Madness, whilst its still on.

After suffering the pretensions of some truly awful academically led, art theory inspired conceptual work recently, it was refreshing to see something different; art infused with raw childlike imagination, unfettered by the constrictions of current art philosophy.

O’Hare’s wonder and singular approach infuses everything with enthusiasm and whimsy, the paintings are composed in a naive idiosyncratic style, colours are vivid and expressive, perspective and composition takes a back seat to lyricism and storytelling. There’s a touch of Stella Vine about some of these paintings, especially the super hero inspired ones and perhaps the St Patrick in Ireland series.

Her work is genuinely funny at times, a quality so rare in the art world, yet one that shouldn’t be under appreciated. Artwork can be insipidly po-faced at the best of times, so when an artist can make me laugh I tend to truly appreciate it. St Patrick driving the snakeskin accessories out of Ireland, superman as a ladyboy, the incredible hulk gluing crockery back together mid rage, I defy anyone to remain unruffled.

An introductory video piece featuring her royal highness her majesty the queen was particularly memorable. After sitting through hours upon hours of boring video art, this was easily the wittiest video interlude I’ve watched this year.

If you wanted to try to pigeon hole this work, you’d probably call it Art Brut/Outsider Art. This is the work that comes from someone in possession of raw concentrated creativity, a vision peculiar only to themselves and an indelible imagination. Not someone who uses their imagination, but lives permanently within it.

Where O’Hare has a perceived weakness is in the sheer range of styles and approaches she employs, there are water colours, paintings, drawings, sculpture, puppets, jewellery, prints – even a knitted alien head. Her approach to figuration is equally broad, ranging from the abstract to more coherent representation. Yet this inability to focus, to weed out the cul-de-sacs, diversions, detours and oddities gives Eloise work part of its charm and vigour. Its unpolished, not always sensible, not always playing by the rules and for that we should be thankful.

In an art world where grey artists stand in a line in the shadow of the academic institution that spawned them, producing their careful considered portfolios of overproduced professionally polished dour humourless artwork, there is a need for a more liberated artist like O’Hare, a need for colours, for laughter, for imagination, for a child playing under her own self painted blue sky.

Recommended

Continues until 03.09.09 @ Menier Gallery, Southwark Street.