Acolyte No. 2 Rhys EdwardsVancouver, BC Size 24" x 18" Medium Oil on panel My Acolyte series is representative of my ongoing interest in the affective powers of ordinary materials, and the alchemy which occurs when these materials are rendered via painting. The title Acolyte refers partly to the hooded saints found in the work of tenebrists such as Francisco de Zurbaran. I am also alluding to the idea of a being enthralled by paganistic or ecstatic thinking. According to the theorist Julia Kristeva, such a way of life and belief signals the end of symbolic logic and the beginning of non-semantic being in which all subjecthood and rhetoric dissolves into pure sensuality. Acolyte No. 2 Rhys EdwardsVancouver, BC About the artist About the artist Rhys EdwardsVancouver, BC Rhys Edwards is a critic, artist, and curator. His works employ classical and academic methods in the pursuit of anti-representation. They engender an obsession with the appearance of forms, and how drawing and painting compel us to pay attention to these forms. He has written for Canadian Art, 7x7, The Capilano Review, and BC Studies, and in 2014 he was awarded the C Magazine New Critics prize. In 2015, he co-founded the AgentC Gallery with artist Debbie Tuepah in the Newton region of Surrey. He graduated with a BA in Interdisciplinary Studies from the University of British Columbia in 2013, and lives in Vancouver. Follow on social