Exhibition
The Yellowing
We are pleased to be welcoming back to the gallery, artist Keith Frake, whose work for this exhibition has evolved over the last three years and has mainly been influenced by his interest in early Christian painting, the apocalyptic images from the Book of Revelations and the Book of Enoch. The physical and psychological processes of Alchemy are also a major influence, as is, the colour symbolism in the poetry of Georg Trakl. One of the main differences between this sequence of work and previous pieces is the inclusion of a wider variety of colour, especially those used by Trakl, but mainly yellow and gold. 'My excursion into gold paint was stimulated by Byzantine imagery and icons and yellowing as part of the alchemical process’ . Until about the fifteenth or sixteenth century, yellow (otherwise called citrinitas or xanthosis) fell into disuse within the domain of Alchemy, thus leaving only three colours black, white and red. The transitional process, the yellowing stage between the white and red , was neglected. Some argue that the original quaternity was transformed into a trinity to bring it into line with Christian theology. Newtons chromatic prism curiously locates yellow-green in the centre of its spectrum as does the median position of da Vinci’s six primary colours (black, white, red, yellow, green and blue.) Today the green-yellow of Chloris, which for the Greeks described the earth goddess Demeter, reappears in electrical wiring where a spiralling green and yellow insulation signifies the grounding or earth line, neither positive nor negative. Our response towards yellow is often ambivalent, from the etymological link of Yellow with yolk to the metaphorical association with spring flowers, sunlight and honey etc. The German gelb and the Latin galbus and galbinus derive from the roots meaning radiant and shining, like gold. On the other hand, however Edgar Allan Poe associated it with craziness and troubled minds; Kandinsky with violent lunacy; for Van Gogh and Gauguin it represented love. The Alchemists however associated it with putrefaction and corruption. The Yellowing is a process in time, ending in staining and decay. The processes Frake uses, include burning, the boiling of paint and other industrial substances and the other actions he inflicts on the work, necessitates very long drying periods. During this period the whites often transform and degrade into a variety of yellows and browns. More generally many other changes occur in the colour and texture of the work’s surface. Overall, there is a feeling of fragility, unpredictability and impermanence in the work which may in fact reflect Frake's own fear and anxiety for the future. There will be an evening launch on 18th October 6 -8 pm and the exhibition will run until 2nd November.
📅 19 October - 2 November 2025
📍 Artizan Collective
🔵 Coming Soon
Related
Exhibitions
Participating Artists
Keith Frake
I studied Fine Art at Newcastle and the Royal College of Art in London during the 1970s. My work then was primarily film, video and performance based. I exhibited work in galleries and festivals both nationally and internationally. I started teaching art and photography and eventually trained as a teacher. A career I continued for over twenty years, whilst still retaining my involvement in art practice. My desire to start painting and drawing again and to give form to my ideas evolved over a long period of time. The images and objects developed from a wide range of influences, most notably: the physical and psychological processes of Alchemy and its cultural development, aspects of archaeology, gnostic and apocalyptic texts and the poetry and prose of Franz Kafka, Robert Walser and Georg Trakl. I work in both two and three dimensions using mainly materials such as ash, clay, lead, industrial paint, caustic substances, natural materials and found objects. My work tends to be dark in tone and atmosphere. Much of it is completed over long periods of time as there are many processes involved. Other pieces are constructed relatively quickly and spontaneously. The working process often leaves the finished work, both structure and surface, very fragile. Materials are burnt, baked boiled, melted and decomposed etc. Caustic substances are added to paint and applied directly to the surface. Surfaces are left to dry and then reworked. The surface goes through many transformations. Even while drying, the colour variations continue to slowly alter, leaving the work in a constant state of impermanence and instability. The sculpture pieces evolve using similar processes while using different materials. I use mainly clay, ash, wax and found objects. The ash is the detritus from old unwanted work. I am currently working on a work that comprises of unwanted personal possessions that were interred over two years ago and have recently been dug up. I have noticed that the same images, subjects appear and reappear in different forms and guises. Angels, creatures, trees, mountains, suns, houses and tiny stick figures that fall from the sky or hide underground. These subjects have become almost compulsive in their inclusion. Perhaps, each piece of work reveals a small but unconscious part of a hidden narrative to which I am not privy.
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Christianity, Alchemy and Symbolism
And the Significance of Colour
We are pleased to be welcoming back to the gallery, artist Keith Frake, whose work for this exhibition has evolved over the last three years and has mainly been influenced by his interest in early Christian painting, the apocalyptic images from the Book of Revelations and the Book of Enoch. The physical and psychological processes of Alchemy are also a major influence, as is, the colour symbolism in the poetry of Georg Trakl.
One of the main differences between this sequence of work and previous pieces is the inclusion of a wider variety of colour, especially those used by Trakl, but mainly yellow and gold. 'My excursion into gold paint was stimulated by Byzantine imagery and icons and yellowing as part of the alchemical process’
.
Until about the fifteenth or sixteenth century, yellow (otherwise called citrinitas or xanthosis) fell into disuse within the domain of Alchemy, thus leaving only three colours black, white and red. The transitional process, the yellowing stage between the white and red , was neglected. Some argue that the original quaternity was transformed into a trinity to bring it into line with Christian theology.
Newtons chromatic prism curiously locates yellow-green in the centre of its spectrum as does the median position of da Vinci’s six primary colours (black, white, red, yellow, green and blue.) Today the green-yellow of Chloris, which for the Greeks described the earth goddess Demeter, reappears in electrical wiring where a spiralling green and yellow insulation signifies the grounding or earth line, neither positive nor negative.
Our response towards yellow is often ambivalent, from the etymological link of Yellow with yolk to the metaphorical association with spring flowers, sunlight and honey etc. The German gelb and the Latin galbus and galbinus derive from the roots meaning radiant and shining, like gold. On the other hand, however Edgar Allan Poe associated it with craziness and troubled minds; Kandinsky with violent lunacy; for Van Gogh and Gauguin it represented love. The Alchemists however associated it with putrefaction and corruption. The Yellowing is a process in time, ending in staining and decay.
The processes Frake uses, include burning, the boiling of paint and other industrial substances and the other actions he inflicts on the work, necessitates very long drying periods. During this period the whites often transform and degrade into a variety of yellows and browns. More generally many other changes occur in the colour and texture of the work’s surface.
Overall, there is a feeling of fragility, unpredictability and impermanence in the work which may in fact reflect Frake's own fear and anxiety for the future.
There will be an evening launch on 18th October 6 -8 pm and the exhibition will run until 2nd November.
Exhibiting Artists
