Mark Alexander has long been fascinated by what he calls ‘the Primitive Gaze’ – seemingly blank and unaffected, such as those seen on the statues of Easter Island, Minoan masks, and the artist’s face in Warhol’s late self-portrait.
"Blazing to enormous size, these beaming medallions conjure luminously the classical conflicts of Homer while all the while glinting ambiguously with the uncertainty of the future. As if embodying Augustine’s troubled concept of history in which time present and time past are both present in time future, Alexander’s shields at once absorb and reflect the unfathomable proportions of our age." Kelly Grovier
Reflections on The Shield of Achilles by Andrew Graham-Dixon