Category Archives: Shows

London: Dan Colen – Sweet Liberty

October 4, 2017 butterfly

Newport Street Gallery is hosting a retrospective exhibition ‘Sweet Liberty’ by NY based artist Dan Colen. This is the first major solo show in London, surveying the entirety of the artist’s career to date and also featuring new paintings and large-scale installations.
Colen came to prominence in New York in the early 2000s alongside a group of young artists that was informally labelled the ‘Bowery School’. The group included Hannah Liden, Nate Lowman, Ryan McGinley, Agathe Snow and Dash Snow among others.

Playful and nihilistic, Colen’s work examines notions of identity and individuality, set against a portrait of contemporary America. ‘Sweet Liberty’ spans a period of seismic change in US history: the earliest painting in the show, Me, Jesus and the Children (2001–2003), was begun days after the 9/11 attacks, whilst the newest exhibited pieces were made in the wake of the 2016 presidential election.

Much of Colen’s work can be read as self-portraiture, or explorations of what the self means, particularly within the context of American masculinity. On entering the exhibition, the viewer is immediately confronted with The Big Kahuna (2010–2017), a giant American flag, with twisted flagpole and a 20-tonne concrete base, presented as if uprooted from the landscape. Barely contained by the gallery space, the flag was conceived as a self-portrait in 2010, after a challenging period in the artist’s life. Today, however, the political statement feels unavoidable; the flag’s bloated, patriotic machismo failed and laid to waste.

The show presents some of his well-known series of Gum paintings, made from countless individual pieces of chewed gum [Pop My Cherry! (2010). the use of trash objects appear widely in the composition of the paintings, the viewer can see a brush, a shoe amongst other objects.

The second gallery features Colen’s multi-layered Scooby Doo sculpture, Haiku (2015–2017), where fantasy and cartoon characters are transposed into the ‘real’ world.

The upstairs galleries feature a room full of hand blown glass chair cushions that look like pastel candy.

A significant collection of the artist’s Board works, in which slogans and phrases are seemingly spontaneously spray-painted, as well as paintings from Colen’s newest series, Viscera, also feature in ‘Sweet Liberty’. Conceived as details of rainbows, Viscera (2016) and Viscera (2016–2017) bear countless layers of unadulterated pigment in fractionally different shades, which combine to create dense hues.

The presence of Colen’s extraordinary 2012–2013 installation, Livin and Dyin, is felt throughout the exhibition, in negative spaces punched aggressively through the gallery walls that expose the underlying brickwork. When Livin and Dyin finally reaches its denouement, it does so in the collapsed shapes of the cartoon figures of Wile E. Coyote, Kool-Aid Man and Roger Rabbit, as well as a life-size sculpture of the naked artist himself. Colen considers the all-American, male characters to be self-portraits of sorts.

He has explained that he imagines Livin and Dyin “as an orgy where you don’t know if it’s after or before climax, it’s about that edge – where does it begin, where does it end?” He continues: “This show is about those dichotomies – form and content, material and narrative – opposing or not necessarily related things that are both pivotal parts of one’s experience.”

View the full set of pics here

Dan Colen – Sweet Liberty
Newport Street Gallery London
Until January 2018

London, Shows

London: War Boutique – MAS*HED

September 29, 2017 butterfly

Scottish artist War Boutique (covered) is currently showing at London’s Lawrence Alkin Gallery. The exhibition entitled M*A*S*H*E*D presents a new body of work using original military armour, weaponry and bullet-proof textiles.

War Boutique’s work conveys strong anti-war messages, exposing the interface between the civil and military spheres, and playing on the parallels between the uniforms and tools of war and the development of mainstream cultural trends and fashions. M*A*S*H*E*D features more than 20 mixed-media pieces by War Boutique, spanning over a decade of his practice, and including his signature bulletproof vests, riot shields and batons.

The top floor of the gallery focusses on ‘military’ themed works, and a ‘civil defence’ theme downstairs, including some of his ‘wearable’ artworks.

The show debuts his new “Camoufleur” series of large-scale oil paintings on military textiles. These canvases recollect the abstract expressionist movement, with references to the founding of the New York School, Jason Pollock and its initial promotion to the art world through a covert CIA program. The Camoufleur series explores the interdependencies between war and art from two perspectives: the long history of military intelligence services ‘surprising ‘interventions’ in popular culture; and how artists themselves have been conscripted into war efforts, either consciously or covertly.

The exhibition also features new works from his new ‘Shot-At’ and ‘Blast’ series – subverting the traditions and history of the Action Art movement. The shot-ats are huge reflective metal shields contoured by the impact of 9mm rounds on a firing range. The works echo the patterns of star constellations, also a reminder on how faith and spiritual beliefs play a key role in the soldier’s ability to risk his life.

War Boutique commented: “With these new works I wanted to physically manifest some of the real force and impact of modern-day weaponry, and perhaps invoke our collective responsibility and choices around the use and development of such forces”
“My art seeks to address the political and material dimensions of war, and the destructive patterns we are weaving into our cultural fabric”.

For ‘Bomber’, a NYPD jacket looks like a suicide bomber jacket, but on closer inspection instead of dynamite sticks, it has been filled with graffiti pens, suggesting that an alternative approach to change is always possible

A key piece within the show is ‘Big Game’, a multi-layered textile artwork exploring the history and complexity of the conflict in Afghanistan. The title is taken from the term used to describe the strategic rivalry between Britain and Russia over trade routes through Afghanistan during the 19th century. The military fabrics that make up the letters are a chronological history of combat uniforms worn by British soldiers during the repeated Afghan wars from 1839 to the present day. This striking work is part of War Boutique’s “The Great Game” series, the first of which was acquired by the National Army Museum for its permanent collection in 2014. The Afghan Farsi version – ‘Big Game’ – was first shown at the Dresden Museum as part of the international touring exhibition ‘Caught in the Crossfire’, but M*A*S*H*E*D will be the first time this work has been shown in the UK.

Peacemaker recycles original Police batons, while Filth is a full UK police riot uniform enhanced with S&M paraphernalia, questioning the balance between justified discipline and the abuse of power.

War Boutique – M*A*S*H*E*D
Until 30 September 2017
Lawrence Alkin Gallery
42 New Compton Street London WC2H

Berlin, Shows

Berlin : Tavar Zawacki – Metamorphosis

September 27, 2017 butterfly 1 Comment

Urban Spree Galerie in Berlin is currently showing a solo exhibition by visual artist Tavar Zawacki. entitled “Metamorphosis”, featuring twelve large format works on canvas with his signature hard edge painting style.

Tavar Zawacki (b. 1981), is a Californian born, Berlin-based contemporary artist. Tavar Zawacki under his then street name, ABOVE, has proliferated his artworks in over 100 cities spanning 50 countries around the world with his arrow icon and geometric patterns. He’s been a resident at Urban Spree for the past two years and this show marks a change of direction.

“The intention for the Metamorphosis exhibition was to transition into newer areas of my creativity with a fearless attitude. The past year I decided to slow down, and focus my attention inwards. My priority was to observe previous styles of artworks I had painted, and take them to a higher, more refined level. During this introspective period I was surprised to find that I had many barriers in my creativity that blocked my true visual style from being seen. It was disturbing for me to realize that I’ve been very fearful, and self conscious with my creative process. Metamorphosis is about transformation from one state into a newer dynamic one. With a lot of brutal honesty, and conviction for growth I was able to take inner inventory of what no longer served me. I was able to let go of the fears that were stifling my creative progression. I was prepared for feeling uncomfortable during this metamorphosis. I was learning how to unblock my personal censors, and be valiant in painting the styles of works I’ve previously been too reluctant to paint.

The Metamorphosis exhibition focuses on four different, and distinct styles of painting. Each painting style has it’s own unique personality. As a collective whole these twelve works on canvas best encompass my current interests of painting styles in my career. The restricted black and white designs display my attraction in sharp contrasting Op-Art visual effects. On the contrary, the CMYK designs are full of color achieved from overlapping secondary and tertiary shapes. The painting style of trompe l’oeil has been a highlight of mine during this creative process. The manipulation of shadows, and illusion of depth added a nice dimensional element to Metamorphosis body of work. The fourth, and final painting style examines the relationship between both straight, and curved lines. The intention for this style was to have a balance within each of these defined compositions.
During the designing process of this exhibition I had achieved my goals of stepping out of my creative comfort zone, while pushing forward in these aforementioned styles of my creative interest. Thank you and I hope you enjoy the show.”

Many artists joined the awaited opening with Nick Walker, curator Rolland Henry from VNA magazine, Skewville, Borondo and more.

Tavar Zawacki – Metamorphosis
Until 8 October 2017
Urban Spree Galerie
Revaler Str. 99
10245 Berlin

London, Shows

London: Herakut – ‘Sad but Happy’ Solo Show

September 6, 2017 butterfly

After five years travelling and painting throughout the world , the German duo Herakut is returning to London for a new solo exhibition at Stolenspace entitled ‘Sad but Happy’.

Hera and Akut first came to London in 2010 when they painted their enigmatic character on the walls of the Moniker Art Fair, followed by a solo show in 2012.

Herakut at the Moniker Art Fair in 2010

The public discovered the magical energetic duo with their spraycans with Hera starting the figurative outlines and setting the rhythm like she’s dancing graciously while Akut focusses on photorealistic feature details like the eyes, conveying a myriad of emotions.

Additionally, the incorporation of poignant messages in their works creates a sense of wonder when observing their art. Specifically, their words take you into what seems to be the childlike, pure essence behind Herakut while delivering a punch to the imagery they provide.

What’s more, the recurrent theme of both animal imagery and hildren subjects transport us back to our childhood where innocent imaginary friends were an embraced accompaniment to our creative minds.

On the title for the show ‘Sad But Happy’, the duo stated; ‘It fits every single piece, we think, and fits our style in general. Ambivalence. Schizophrenia even. That’s us. That’s the essence of Herakut.’

This series of new works sees the duo progress with their distinctive and dark style. Depicting children and animals with large emotive eyes, they draw the viewer in to their mysteriously eerie world, making them contemplate the statements scribbled across the canvas and their relationship with the characters in the works.

Their dark use of colour contrasts with the bright and fast use of movement and brush work. Their style welcomes a kind of imperfect perfection, the brushstrokes seeming erratic and fluid but also so beautifully placed.

Their joint creative art process is about storytelling, the creation of imaginary worlds and inspiring their figures with individual characters:

The message on a canvas where two little girls with kitty masks hidden in a cardboard box says ‘She said lets go back to when all was perfect’, while a portrait of a thoughtful little girl mentions ‘ Stop destroying my city says the dragon’.

View the set of pics here

Herakut – Sad but Happy
Stolenspace Gallery
Until 1 October 2017
17 Osborn Street, London UK E1 6TD

Art Fair, Bristol, Shows

The Other Art Fair Bristol Highlight: Hisham Echafaki

September 2, 2017 butterfly

London based multidisciplinary artist Hisham Echafaki is presenting his new solo exhibition at the Saatchi TOAF (The Other Art Fair) in Bristol. His body of works focuses on the complex and ever changing relationship between humans and the animal world, exploring themes of anthropomorphism, endangered species and the delicate balance between mankind and nature.

His source of inspiration includes vintage scientific illustrations, taxidermy, cabinet of curiosities, patterns in art as well as animal fables. One of the paintings is directly inspired by The Dove and the Crow Fable by Greek author Aesop ‘To enjoy our blessings we must have freedom’.

HE 01

‘Family portrait’ depicts a moving scene in an abandoned house where nature takes back its course and a doe and her baby pay tribute to a deer trophy head.

His three dimensional paintings are intriguing and fascinating, and visitors are often wondering how these fauna and flora have been created. The 3D and trompe l’oeil effect is achieved by meticulously painting on multiple layers of resin.