Ian McKeever explores light and shadow in the Artist's Laboratory

ARTISTS’ LABORATORY 01: IAN MCKEEVER
The Royal Academy, WI
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In the Artists’ Laboratory, a series of exhibitions which encourages Royal Academicians to leave their comfort zones and test out new works and ideas, the Royal Academy at last seems to have found a convincing and prominent format to reflect the latest endeavours of the artists that are still its backbone. For the inaugural show in this new strand, Ian McKeever presents four large black-and-white paintings inspired by his move from London to Hartgrove, Dorset, in the early Nineties. And for the first time, he is showing photographs alongside them — images shot at his Hartgrove home over the past three years. The paintings typify McKeever’s work in being essentially abstract but also anchored in experiences of the landscape and interiors.

Through stains, ribbons and veils of thin paint, McKeever explores the space and light of his surroundings, and the paintings evoke everything from trees and plants to the velvety darkness of the rural night.

The photographs capture ephemeral effects, like shadows cast by banisters bathed in raking sunlight, that make a domestic space the stage of gentle revelation throughout the day. Shot on slow black-and-white film, these intimate photographs feel artisanal — their softness, sharp contrasts and subtle textures are as painterly as the canvases nearby.

Related photographs depicting similar details in hotels — images made to kill time, rather than capture it — have nothing like the same atmosphere. McKeever is at his best, both as painter and photographer, when harnessing everyday epiphanies of light and shadow, and creating a touching synthesis of observation and emotion.

Until October 24 (020 7300 8000; royalacademy.org.uk)