Fred Coppin (b. 1989) captures an eternal sense of optimism in his work through a distinctive combination of amplified colour and playful forms, in which he exaggerates the world into a permanently dream-like state that allows us, as viewers, to linger in a moment of utopian calm. Through exploring an eclectic range of unassuming everyday objects, Coppin’s paintings are tied together by an uplifting impulse to dissect, exaggerate and reassemble the world around us into its most hopeful state.
Coppin was immersed from an early age into a world of architectural design. This, coupled with his inherent desire for order and reason, predicates his connection with geometric composition. Through simplifying forms, Coppin saw a way in which he could potentially clarify the complexity of our world. Perhaps a reflection of being the eldest of four siblings, he has always felt an innate responsibility to inspire and motivate and this ability to pervade optimism continues into his life and work as an artist.
Light and colour play a significant role in Coppin’s work. This focus stems from his interest in photography and, more deeply, the emotional and aesthetic power of sunlight. Light is also indicative of the positivity Coppin tries to convey and the way light operates in straight lines draws, yet again, back to his focus on geometric design.
Influencers include Austrian Expressionists Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele for their use of line and British Painters David Hockney, Francis Bacon and Euan Uglow for their authentic capture of contemporary life and combination of naturalistic tradition with the geometrical precision of composition. Although heavily influenced by these British painters, Coppin’s careful integration of glitches, geometry and pastel tones offer a quality that still firmly roots his work in the digital era.
Coppin’s work is rooted in his desire for rationale. As an over-thinker who often struggles to have a still mind, his calming motifs and refinement of complex images into simple shape and colour, treads a careful balance between energy and quietness. Coppin aspires to progress his artistic journey by finding new ways of simplifying core elements of the world around him, creating methods and codes to transform all of the details of life; the sound, the feeling, the weather, even the conversations, into a painting.
There is invariably light in Fred’s paintings, both literally and metaphorically. The places he paints, while being palpable, embody a sense of the exotic, and an element of the fantastical, making them alluring and irresistible.
