Artist Statement:
"have i got anything to say, is that what art is? somebody saying something.. well no i hear you say, art isn't just about talking its about producing the object of imagination.. well if that is the case then why do so many people who show work support the show with an intelectual crutch that explains what the person intended as a thought behind the work.. arhh.. i have sort of helped them out here by saying it in this clear way, but i would add why is it important to contribute a reason for the work and not let the viewer come to their own conclusion.. this case of art being changed into a representation of illustration seems to me to be more about a curator finding a reason to exist than about the art on show.. if we follow this subjective idea back through time i believe we will come to the point when duchamp exhibited a pound of butter stabled between two pieces of quarter inch steel and the sports correspondant at the time was told to write about art for their newspaper... what the fuk do i know though, eh! well i'll tell you what i have found out and that this is a world where the bad get all the attention, where having your name on a pair of socks is considered success and that the majority of wales/uk could give a ants arse about art and thats not sad that just how it is... people can get involved in art and the intellectual approach doesn't need to be required... i had to find my own questions to get me into understanding art and i readly give these as examples when talking and writting about the work.. ask simple questions about what you are looking at, is this artist left or right handed? is it a man or a women? these simple questions let you think and look for the clues into the work... art can be entertaining and once in you'll begin to see it everywhere..."

Written for Absolutearts.com 2003



Catalogue Text, 2005:

"The majority of people can't be shocked … so if it shocks anybody it's usually because their brain has been stimulated … but it's not the main ingredient in the work..."

Neale Howells is one of very few painters whose work still excites the stongest emotions in people. Amongst artists he is possibly the only one in the last thirty years to have earned the double laurels of suffering not one, but two exhibitions to be closed down before they had a chance to open. And yet the barely legible scrawls that run through his paintings and have upset some Councils usually originate in nothing more sinister than snatches of conversation from the edited contents of a Radio Wales phone-in or the afternoon play on Radio 4. In Howell's work they provide a visual rhythm to the painting, a meaningless, background noise that is later obliterated by drips of paint or the outline of a figure.

The work is not graffiti because it never appears to be a single person's message. It is the accumulation of graffiti: layers of messages jostling for space, words that have been scratched out and tiny pencil doodles filling the gaps. Sometimes a huge aerosol figure or a sprayed tag will be the final layer of a painting that seems to represent decades of abuse but shares the same fascinating beauty you find lifting the lid of an old school desk.

Howells is surprisingly meticulous about his painting. The work may give the appearance of being created without thought but in reality he keeps a tight control over the many disparate elements that weave their way through each picture. You cannot describe chaos by being chaotic any more than you can describe fear by screaming and the works' haphazard beauty is a hard-won battle. Occasionally visitors to his studio feel compelled to have a go themselves and Neale, being the good-natured person he is, readily hands over a brush. Yet it always ends in him repainting the panel. To convey the sort of random accumulation of marks so convincingly and on such a huge scale requires a disciplined vision and an incredible delicacy of touch. The two characteristics one would least expect to discover on first coming across Howells's work.