Artist Paul Hunter Speagle’s colourful show in Hong Kong features unfiltered glimpses of his family’s life
- Paul Hunter Speagle creates funny and touching, often chaotic but always colourful paintings of moments from family life
- The artist explains why he chooses to ‘portray the rawness of real life’ instead of the perfect family moments often displayed on social media
In an age of social media, people often display their family life through a perfect, pastel-filtered lens. Not American artist Paul Hunter Speagle.
In his solo exhibition The Speagle’s, at JPS Gallery in Central’s Landmark Atrium until June 1, the artist provides a refreshingly unfiltered peek into his family’s daily life with his colourful and self-deprecating paintings.
Some works are funny, others touching, as he captures tender moments with his daughter, Opal, best seen in Dad, Can We Play Make-up, in which Speagle sits patiently while she paints his face.
In Don’t Step in My Pile he shows his T-shirt-clad wife, Ashley, sweeping the kitchen floor. The family dog, Izzy, also makes an occasional appearance.
One of the most impressive pieces is Let’s Make the Most of this Beautiful Day, where every bit of the huge 850.9cm x 213.36cm piece is covered in a colourful montage of his daily life, including random quotes that seem to scream from the canvas.