{ Phil Ashcroft }

Whenever I look at these paintings by London-based artist, Phil Ashcroft, I always get this sense of impending doom, as if there's this mammoth, frighteningly beautiful reality just seconds away from crashing down on our petty existence. On the other hand - or maybe just on the back of the same hand - there's a part of me that immediately thinks of Atari's Missile Command. I actually can't help but feel that there's some throwback here to early computer graphics, especially thinking back to the ol' fill gradient tool (the overlapping triangles also reminds me of going crazy with the polygon lasso). Old video game/CG references notwithstanding, I still think these paintings are really striking. I like how Ashcroft juxtaposes his bold colors and confident lines with these tiny, detailed structures that either feel like they're about to fade into (or be overtaken by) the surrounding darkness or are brought into relief by a utterly vacant sky. All of which might prompt us to ask which part of the painting we take to be real and which imagined, which constant and which ephemeral?

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