London: Ryan Hewett @ The Unit

October 2, 2016 butterfly

South African artist Ryan Hewett is returning to London for a third solo show at the Unit London called ‘Order‘.

Moving away from his chaotic creative process of construction and destruction towards a more considered and confident approach, the new body of works includes self-portraits, portraits of Lucian Freud, Egon Schiele, Marcel Duchamp, Samuel Beckett and Audrey Hepburn and, for the first time ever, landscapes.

Ryan Hewett - Order

While paint is still applied impasto – brushes and masks are employed alongside the palette knife to create hard lines and graded blocks of colour. While representing a significant step change for the artist, Hewett’s new works retain the unsettling beauty for which he has become renowned.

Ryan Hewett - Order

View the full set of pics here

Ryan Hewett – Order
Until 26 October 2016
The Unit London

Art Fair

London: START Art Fair 2016 Highlights

September 19, 2016 butterfly

START Art Fair returns to Saatchi Gallery in London for its third edition from 15-18 September 2016. The fair focusses on emerging artists and new art scenes featuring 70 international galleries from London, Seoul, Hong-Kong, Dehli, Cape Town to Taipei and Tokyo.

Amongst the highlights we enjoyed intricate microcosm breathing creature paintings by Mariane, a japanese artist (pictured above) from Gallery Jin Projects, as well as delicate ceramics by young Korean artist Yunhee Lee (In and Out Art), hyper-realistic sculptures by Carole Feuerman (Aria Art), and a roaring lion made of stainless steel and used tires by Ji Yong Ho (ATELIER AKI – Korea) to name a few.

START Art Fair Saatchi 2016

Amongst the START Projects complementing the fair, visitors could experience ‘Baghdad Manifesto’, the debut London solo exhibition by Iraqi-born artist Mahmoud Obaid, who also curated a presentation of emerging artists who have recently taken part in the Artist in Residence Programme at the Fire Station in Doha, Qatar, titled ‘Identity, Construction & Deconstruction’.

START Art Fair Saatchi 2016

To kick start the art season in London, START Art Fair is a breath of fresh air with its emerging artists and multicultural selection.

View the full set of pics here and browse through the complete list of participating
galleries here

START Art Fair 2016
15-18 September 2016
Saatchi Gallery

Books, London, Shows

London: Conor Harrington ‘ Watch Your Palace Fall’

September 17, 2016 butterfly 1 Comment

After nine months of preparation, Irish born, London based artist Conor Harrington is presenting a new solo exhibition ‘Watch Your Palace Fall’ at Pace Gallery London in Soho.

Continuing his narrative of politically charged oil paintings, Conor Harrington depicts fights between military male characters dressed in 18th century uniforms, with all the rage and thirst for power.

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The chase for power is certainly timeless and draws references to the contemporary political climate, as illustrated in Sluggers Paradise (2016), a large diptych featuring a tug of war and coloured to represent the classic blue and red of opposing political parties.

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Amongst the eleven new canvases, six of them feature a ‘ Golden Mask’, a recurring theme in Conor Harrington’s body of work, where the portrait explores his alter ego.

Conor Harrington - Watch Your Palace Fall conor-harrington-35-custom

“These paintings are a nod to political deceit, the lies and half truths told to assume a role and gain power, the prevalence of social media selves at the expense of the real self and the graffiti alter ego, acquiring a pseudonym and hiding your true identity.” – Conor Harrington, August 2016.

Guests at the opening were also happy to taste beer with customised labels and browse in advance through the upcoming monograph Conor Harrington: Watch Your Palace Fall by HENI Publishing, a retrospective of Conor Harrington’s painting career.

Officially released on 27 October 2016, you can preorder a copy HERE. A book launch event & signing event will be hosted on Sunday 2 October 2016, 11:30–2pm.

Conor Harrington - Watch Your Palace Fall conor-harrington-36-custom

View the full set of pics here

Conor Harrington – “Watch Your Palace Fall’
Until 8 October 2016
6-10 Lexington Street, London

Videos

Video: ‘Saving Banksy’ Documentary New Trailer

September 6, 2016 butterfly

‘Saving Banksy’ is a documentary following art collector Brian Greif who removed a stencilled Rat by Banksy from the side of Red Victorian, a building located in San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury district. His initial intention to preserve and donate the rat to a museum for the public proved unsuccessful (because no museum would accept graffiti as art). However this triggered interest from art dealers and auction houses…

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Though Banksy’s street work is deemed illegal by authorities, and will not be authenticated by Pest Control, his works have been removed by art dealers and re-sold at auctions for hundreds of thousands of dollars, while the artist himself receives nothing.

Directed by Colin Day and narrated by Paul Polycarpou, the film features interviews with renowned street artists from all across the globe including Ben Eine, Risk, Revok, Niels Mueman, Blek Le Rat, Anthony Lister, Doze Green, Hera and Glen E Friedman.

Some quotes from the interviewed artists:

Ben Eine: “Right now, today, I wouldn’t want one of my paintings preserved. In a hundred years time, when I’m dead, and none of them exist, I would love to have one of my paintings preserved. It’s a double-edge sword.”

RISK: “You can love my stuff, you can hate my stuff, you can steal my stuff . . . but give me the right to decide what I wanna sell or not sell.”

Doze Green: “It’s selfish to take something down that was put there for the public to love . . . or hate, but it was meant for the public.”

The documentary raises awareness about the complex political, legal situation, and question of ownership of art left in the streets.

The film premiered at the Nashville Festival earlier in April and will be released this autumn. More info on savingbanksy.com

Street, streets, Toulouse

Streets: Invader Pink Invasion (Toulouse)

August 21, 2016 butterfly 1 Comment

Invader recently completed his first invasion wave of Toulouse, with Ten space invaders made with various shades of pink as a tribute to the town nicknamed ‘Pink City’ due to the pinkish terracotta bricks used in its architecture.. Toulouse is the 66th city to be invaded and Flash Invaders game lovers will add 330 Points to their total score. Happy hunting !

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Photo courtesy of Invader