Shingo Francis

Biography

Violet reflects from the top corner of the canvas as it slowly fades to a greenish hue towards the bottom while a half a blue circle floats at the center slowly fading towards a yellow half-circle. As the viewer moves in one direction the colors seem to shift and where there was violet there is a pale green, and where there was a pale green there is violet. Simultaneously, the blue circle has shifted completely to yellow doubting the viewer’s perception or perhaps memory causing the viewer to retrace their steps to confirm or look for the colors just recently observed. Once recovered, the viewer moves slowly in another direction to closely observe the changing colors in the painting as their eye and body move around the painting. Eventually they move up and down to see the shift occur vertically, and then all around perhaps in circles bending their knees and moving their necks side to side. This dance or movement in front of Shingo Francis’ series of paintings “Illuminated Presence” is often the experience while interacting with a new iteration of “Intereference”, which refers to the type of material Francis employs in the production of the canvas. Francis chose the circle as the compositional structure in this series of paintings to re-examine a ubiquitous form found in nature from the microscopic to the cosmic. Francis states, “the simplified composition is a continuation of a body of work utilizing a light sensitive painting material that reveals the color spectrum in light. The colors of the painting change as the viewer walks around the painting, creating a phenomenological experience in perception. The circle is a reference and representation of the form itself in regards to the many meanings, interpretations, symbols or structures in nature, civilization, culture, and spirituality. Together with the perceptual phenomena of the painting material, the circle embodies the ever-changing nature of existence within the structures that either governs our lives or we find existing within. In this way this body of work corresponds with the exhibition theme of “Reflection” to heighten our awareness of the duality of our existence in relation to the transformative experiences of life through constant change while understanding the structural repetitions of our surrounding environment and society.”