Insanely life-like and fascinating comic book paintings from Sharon Moody

In the morning if I’m having toast, I pop the bread in the toaster and then race to get the plate, knife, butter plus other topping of choice and arrange them beautifully next to the toaster. There is absolutely no point in me doing this, not at such speed anyway – but I continue to do so. This is sort of how I feel about hyperreal painting. It’s a strange notion to want to reproduce things we see everyday in 2D form but in immaculate detail because really there’s no real reason.

However it will continue to create a stir because let’s face, it’s often pretty impressive. The pure skill and the time it takes is astounding and regardless of whether there’s a big artistic concept behind it, the work should still get a huge thumbs-up. Take Sharon Moody’s comic book replicas – the level of minute precision renders it photographic, with even the curve of the pages making me want to reach out and touch it. Playing on the themes of entertainment and chlldhood, Sharon studies the comics as objects, and removes the nostalgia and feelings attached to them, still managing to maintain their familiarity because of the insane likeness to the original. While I may not be completely convinced by all efforts in hyperreal painting, this set of works still manages to draw me in and fascinate me.