Julian Forrest: Beacon

Julian Forrest’s recent oils owe as much to COVID exile as they do to his pandemic- induced re-examination of the modern/postmodern “wrestling match” he graduated with after completing art school in the 1990s. Not surprisingly, his paintings reflect this tension, but in dire form. “I started painting bunkers, lunar landers, suburban bungalows, and other ‘refuges’ that I had read about in books or watched in movies as a child,” writes Forrest. The “beacon,” in this instance, is fire.