Preston Paperboy (Nathan Preston) Without Fear (Sans Peur)
Without Fear (Sans Peur) is among the most personally charged titles in Preston Paperboy's catalogue — a declaration of the state that his practice has always been working toward and that his subjects have always embodied. Nathan Preston — the Essex-born artist who studied architecture before turning to fine art, whose neo-expressionist practice layers facial fragments, crude lines, and text slogans into compositions that suggest personality and narrative without ever resolving into conventional portraiture — brings to this title the formal intelligence and emotional directness that characterises his best work.
Sans Peur: the French formulation giving the phrase a further dimension, the language of chivalry and heraldry applied to a contemporary neo-expressionist proposition. Preston's two recurring marks — the single left eye, window to the soul, and the frowning face with dollar signs for eyes — appear throughout his practice as signature and argument simultaneously. Without Fear asks what it would mean to face the world without the anxiety that those dollar-sign eyes embody.
Preston has exhibited in London, Hong Kong, Atlanta, and Miami. Available through Creed Gallery, Ascot, for collectors across Berkshire, Surrey, and London.Certificate of Authenticity
