All posts by butterfly

London: Glenn Brown – ‘Come to Dust’ at Gagosian Gallery

March 17, 2018 butterfly

The Gagosian Gallery is currently showing “Come to Dust,” the first major exhibition by British contemporary artist Glenn Brown in London since 2009.

For Brown, the past and present are treasuries of raw material, offering countless images, titles, and techniques to be combined, appropriated, and deconstructed. Based on art history, as well as of literature, music, and popular culture, Brown creates complex and sensuous works of art that are resolutely of our time.

The title of exhibition, is inspired by a song in Shakespeare’s play Cymbeline, which evokes the ineluctability of death. Multidisciplinary artist, the exhibition features oil paintings, drawings in period frames, grisaille panel works, etchings, and sculptures.

Sources include Rembrandt, Delacroix, Greuze, and Raphael, as well as Abraham Bloemaert, Francesco Mancini, Gaetano Gandolfi, Elisabeth Le Brun, and Bernardo Cavallino.

In Brown’s oil paintings, hybrid figures painted in intricate swirls reveal the sumptuous potential of oil paint. While these paintings give the illusion of corporeal volume and fullness, closer scrutiny reveals the surfaces to be smooth and flat.

Rather than using paint to depict skin with observational exactitude, Brown presents translucent brushstrokes revealing the flesh and muscles beneath the surface.

The choice of picture frames adds an additional layer to the richly layered visual anachronism. Inverting the normal order of image-making and framing, Brown treats the frames as readymades, creating drawings in response to the particular colour, size, design, and narrative detail of each. Thus, the drawings and the frames are integral to each other.

In the exhibition, an entire room of recent drawings is hung salon-style, some mounted in elaborate Renaissance gilt and carved wooden frames.

The sculptures are very impressive, elaborate masses built from precisely placed strokes of very thick oil paint. In some of them, the cold, sensuous curves of nineteenth-century bronze statues are still visible but engulfed by growths of pulsating, gravity-defying oil paint. The contrast between the cold, hard metal with the soft, luscious paint is highly captivating.

“Come to Dust” immerses the viewer in Brown’s enigmatic world. The figures and forms of history mutate, overtaken by hypnotic colours and light. Transforming the allure of Old Master paintings and drawings, bordering on profanity, Brown tells a much darker and more complicated story, fit for our times.

View the full set of pics here

Glenn Brown – Come to Dust
Until 17 March 2018
Gagosian Gallery
20 Grosvenor Hill
London W1K 3QD

New York

New York: New Banksy invasion

March 14, 2018 butterfly

We are always excited to see new works by elusive artist Banksy. He’s back to the streets of New York with a new stencil, featuring a rat running in a clock turned wheel, reminiscent of the incessant rat race.

It can be viewed between 14th and 6th Ave in Greenwich Village, so get there quick to see it in its glory before it gets ‘plexified’ or else.

New update:

On Thursday 15 March the famous Bowery Wall, which was previously painted by renown artists like Keith Haring, Os Gemeos, or more recently Logan Hicks, unveiled a 70 feet new mural by Banksy, with the collaboration with graffiti artist Borf.

The mural protests the imprisonment of the Turkish artist and journalist Zehra Dogan, who was sentenced last March for painting the destruction of a Turkish town of Nusaybin, which was partly destroyed in 2015, with the country’s flag flying over rubble.

A screen shows a picture of Zehra Dogan’s painting with a message saying ‘sentenced to 2 years nine months and 29 days in jail for painting this picture’.

A series of hash bars like days in prison cell are numbered across the mural with one showing Ms. Dogan looking at out of one of the cells, with her left hand gripping a bar that doubles as a pencil. “Free Zehra Dogan” is written in the bottom right corner

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A post shared by TheDustyRebel (@dustyrebel)

And there are more to come…. Stay tuned

Photo Credit: Banksy, nekyromero

London

London: Evoca1 ‘Caroline and the world on a stage’

March 10, 2018 butterfly

Dominican born street artist, Evoca1 (Elio Mercado) is currently presenting his first solo show in London at Stolenspace. ‘Caroline, and The World on a Stage’ explores the many conditions of human existence and the various misuses of power between people through the lens of a young fictional girl.

Growing up in challenging social and economic conditions in the Dominican Republic, Evoca1 is acutely aware of these difficulties that arise through social division, as well as the power that art has to alleviate such adversity. Despite not attending art school due to his family’s financial situation, Evoca1 learned and developed his style as a n autodidact.

Multidisciplinary artist, Evoca1 is showcasing his most comprehensive body of work, from graphite drawings oil paintings, wooden sculptures and videos. He magically combines the childhood innocence and dreams looking at a circus with the darkness of abuse of power by society.

Specifically about this show, Evoca1 has stated: “The oil paintings, drawings, sculptures and video performance in this show, serve as metaphors for our primitive world – a world which can sometimes resemble a ‘circus’. Through the eyes of a child, the puppet masters of our society are put on display and tried for their misuse of power and the calamity they create amongst us. The work mirrors our divided world in which people roll over all obstacles in their path in an attempt to gain popularity and experience “happiness” which is solely gained through the praise of others.”

View the full set of pics here

EVOCA1 – Caroline & the Wolrd on a stage
Until 8 April 2018
StolenSpace Gallery
17 Osborn Street
London E1 6TD

Interviews/ Studio visits, London

London: Studio Visit with Aida Wilde

March 8, 2018 butterfly 1 Comment

We are happy to have a look inside the London studio of Queen printmaker and artivist Aida Wilde

‘Who’s afraid of Aida Wilde?’ says one of the signs in the studio, surrounded by a screaming cute neon pink dotted kitty with dark kiss make up. Screenprinting is her ‘Weapon of Choice‘, as ‘Print is Power’.

Born in Iran, Aida arrived in the UK in the mid 80’s as a political refugee. She has been a professional screen printer for the last twenty years and has been pushing boundaries of the screenprinting techniques and transforming this traditional art form into fine art.

Hailed by many as a screen-printing genius, her unique style expresses her ongoing battle to bring alternative elements together, the graphic and the classical, whether this is through neon pop colours ( pink preferably), texture (glitter, velvet…) or through image. Some examples include a flocking velvet effect on a leapoard print to make it feel and look like a fur rug, or the use of the screen as a mono-printing tool to develop her ‘Life: Still’ edition.

Her most famous works are her colourful slogan paste-ups that can be found in the streets of London, Berlin, New York, Malaga or Aberdeen, featuring light hearted topics as well as raising awareness on sensitive subjects like gentrification, education and women’s rights.

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In 2009 in response to the financial and economic crisis Aida created a pink, black and white spotty slogan ‘There’s A Credit Crunch Not A Creative Crunch’, which is being featured at the Victoria & Albert Museum since 2011.

Strong advocate of women’s rights, her work has been featured at The Women’s Art Library (see our coverage here). Her HASHTAG series of works was used for the Brandalism project (covered) and the global project Subvert The City, which saw the world’s first coordinated international ad takeover & over 60 creative actions in 38 cities in 18 countries around the world. Aida still continues with her facilitating role with various workshops and community projects through Print Is Power – Reclamation Nation & more currently, Sisters In Print (All female international print collective).

So to celebrate the 8th March 2018, Aida is releasing a special screenprint from her famous Hashtag series ‘ A HASHTAG MIGHT NOT SAVE THE WORLD BUT … WOMEN MIGHT’ for one day only.

Initially before the craze of social media, this print was also part of the Brandalism campaign in Paris in 2015 and the statement is more valid than ever.

So grab yours here

Pictures courtesy of the artist and by Butterfly Art News

Uncategorized

London: Dan Witz – Mosh Pit Paintings

March 5, 2018 butterfly

Following his apparel and print collaboration with Dior Homme last September, NY based artist Dan Witz (covered) is returning to London to present his ongoing signature hyperrealistic series ‘Mosh pits paintings’ which he started back in 2010, capturing moments when people are caught at their most intense, ecstatic, and animalistic state.

Based on actual photographs he shot in the mosh pits of hardcore shows, Dan Witz uses academic realistic techniques to depict the transgressive energy of the punk rock movement: figures intertwine and climb over one another with different stages of expressions during a mosh pit, from the pressure, pain and joy.

The solo exhibition features archival works alongside contemporary pieces. Dan Witz reveals that despite the obvious aggression of the punk rock pit, there is also an underlying sense of euphoria and unification shared amidst the crowd.