Roy Colmer (1935-2014) was a London-born artist known for photomontages, films and colour intensive paintings. Responding to the widespread availability of new, electronic media in the 1970s, Colmer sought to reproduce in paint, the patterns and effects familiar to television and video, such as time, delay and movement.

Colmer believed that these new technologies could revolutionise abstract painting, which was regarded as outdated and conceptually bankrupt by the early 1970s. In 1971 he began to work increasingly in film and video, and created closed-circuit works that, in effect, show the camera watching itself see.

An Optical Haze of Colour presents nine paintings inspired by these experiments in video feedback.

With thanks to Lisson Gallery.

A publication featuring Roy Colmer’s works is available in the Firstsite shop.

Image: Untitled #93, 1972 © Roy Colmer; Courtesy Lisson Gallery. Photography by Jack Hems.