Neil Rands aka

Neil Rands aka. Rama Ramski

A truly innovative artist is still a scavenger and Neil's paintings apply to this distinction in a powerful way.

Neil Rands' paintings are in the tradition of Neo-Expressionism and 'arte povera' and evoke the territory explored in works by artists such as Georg Baselitz (E. Germany), Jean-Michel Basquiat (USA) and especially, Mimmo Paladino (Italy) and more darkly, Jan Muller of (USA). Ramski states that his work during art college training was largely influenced by Kandinski and Picasso.

Neil's paintings are mainly on large box canvases. They are a visceral bridge between his topographical and experiential relationships from his Yorkshire childhood, to the international Rave culture of Goa, India, Thailand, Singapore and Cambodia, where he met himself head-on. They embrace an empathetic symbolism of personal and iconic images that have a visionary, or spiritual significance towards those known to him who are both living and dead. There is an 'angst' between the supremacy of the figure and the idea, which are vividly portrayed by maps of lines and graffiti, drawing them into a composite surface unity exploding with light. A realisation of transcend ence.

The paintings travel, as Ramski does, through emotional time and space and reveal, 'those who have thought within their bodies' (F. Clemente).

by Neil littlewood