Lay-By

Lay-by exemplifies the distinctive way of painting devised by Nick Goss. Working initially on unsized and unprimed linen, Goss treats his pigments with resoluble water based mediums that give him the freedom to rework his compositions. Using a wetting agent that allows the paint to run freely, he then screen prints onto the painted surface, and further creates fracture and tension by introducing patches of oil. Goss’ compositions are generally built up from stitching together found images and photographs he takes himself. Displacement, migration and transience, themes of interest to the artist, are explored in Lay-By by way of three references: an iPhone image taken from the backseat of an Uber rearview mirror, a still from the 1979 Chris Petit film Radio On of a dashboard of a car, and a photograph from a 1953 book called De Ramp about debilitating floods in the Netherlands that killed 2000 people. Each of the reference images suggest movement, motion, and dislocation, essentially making this painting a fugitive melancholic travelogue.