Sam Leach, Goltzius Whale (2007).
Inspired by still life painting of the Dutch Renaissance, Sam Leach creates works of art that use those same allegories to comment on the ambiguous attitude towards the relentless pursuit of wealth, conveyed through contemporary corporate architectural spaces. He places his subject matter on lacquered boardroom tables or in front of stainless elevators under halogen lights, creating the same subdued force of a church interior from 17th century Netherlands.
Leach’s work encapsulates the dubious perspective on luxury perfected by the Dutch masters, who depicted skulls, bones and sumptuous meals left to rot for the flies, as alligorical references to riches, corruption and the transience of life. His own paintings render insects, skulls, dead birds and preserved game animals from within an all-consuming sfumato blackness, with an indistinctly placed LED display panel, bringing forth both historical and contemporary spoils.
