By Will Davies AN exciting exhibition of new paintings and sculptures by British artist Neal Tait at the White Cube Gallery in Hoxton condenses historical periods and mythically transforms objects and people in visionary landscapes. The exhibition includ

By Will Davies

AN exciting exhibition of new paintings and sculptures by British artist Neal Tait at the White Cube Gallery in Hoxton condenses historical periods and mythically transforms objects and people in visionary landscapes.

The exhibition includes paintings made over the past year that are diverse in theme, suggesting different stories and possible narratives.

Tait is adept at using different styles to create works that are otherworldly and strange.

Forms change seamlessly from living matter into static object and from animal to mineral. Scales are disrupted deliberately, so that the viewer enters a tangibly uncomfortable space.

The title of the exhibition, Les Toits de Parise, is an irreverent take on the romantic notion of the rooftops of the French capital, exemplifying Tait's interest in the process whereby mistakes or misquotes can open up fresh meanings.

Paintings, in both oil or acrylic and tempera on canvas, are influenced by early Modernists, notably de Chirico, L�ger and Picabia, and also by the automatic drawing and lure of the machine age that drove the Surrealist movement.

Tait is interested particularly in L�ger's concept of the "collision of the everyday" - the inherent surrealism that occurs with the rush of modern life, with objects and people conjoining haphazardly.

Tait has an irreverent, almost childish way with generic imagery, so that what appears at first glance to be a conventional composition - such as a still life of flowers and objects, or a domestic interior - is made strange by a distortion of scale and characters that seem to slip in and out of different states.

Tait is also presenting new sculptures. Grouped together like a family are several differently sized tables, on which a range of white objects are placed - items that Tait has accumulated from the area near his studio and spray painted or cast in pristine plaster.

Les Toits de Parise is at White Cube in Hoxton Square from Wednesday (September 2) until October 3.