Three Painters: Talks on Crivelli

In this series of talks, three Birmingham-based painters – Graham Chorlton, Claudette Holmes and Rafal Zar – bring their unique perspectives to a contemporary interpretation of Carlo Crivelli’s Renaissance paintings. They each focus on an aspect of Crivelli’s practice, including his choice of materials, spatial illusions and religious subjects. Setting up a dialogue with one of their own paintings, the artists demonstrate how an engagement with art history allows them to address current social and cultural change.

Rafal Zar is a painter who moved to Birmingham from Poland in 2006. With a BA in Fine Art Easel Painting from University of Silesia and an MA in Fine Art (Birmingham City University, 2012) his figurative paintings are highly imaginative, investigating themes of personal identity and existential crisis. Through solo exhibitions at Birmingham Midlands Institute and Eastside Projects, Zar has shared his story of self-discovery, conveying humour, sexuality, religious trauma and a fascination with nature. His work also featured in Ikon’s exhibitions Forward (2019) and Ikon For Artists (2021).

Zar considers the iconography of Carlo Crivelli’s work The Vision of the Blessed Gabriele (ca. 1489) alongside his own painting Saint Barbara/ Mother of the Garden (2021).