It has been about two years since Copyright has had a solo show. It has not been lazying around (…) we hear, but rather been busy with a bunch of commissions partly being a consequence of his appearance on Season 8 of ‘The Apprentice’. “Thirteen”, his new solo show at London Westbank Gallery, is upon us though and we are excited to see what the artist has to show us.

Two words seem to summarise what the show is all about – revisit and reimagine styles and influences. This new show consists of 40 pieces of “old-new” and “new-new’ work, Copyright will explore the idea of moving forward by looking back.The collection will also allow a rare glimpse behind the curtain, displaying framed stencils and surprise installations…

We talked to Copyright who kindly answered a few questions for us –

Art-Pie: Is Art something you have always wanted to be doing for a living?
Copyright : Yes, but its never something I really believed was a job, so I didn’t chose to study art. Even when it looked like I could make a living at it, I was afraid that it would take all the fun out of it, took a lot of thinking to decide to make my passion into my job. But I have been a full time artist now for close to 5 years and I don’t really feel like I have a job, I just do what I love everyday.

A-P: Tell us a little bit about you and your style.
Copyright : It’s a bittersweet mish-mash of stencil work and traditional painting techniques. The paintings are all portraits of usually ambiguous female protagonists, almost always unhappy, crying or aloof. Then within that is a bunch of other symbols or imagery, different flowers, creatures, tattoos etc, that build up a picture with a vague narrative. creating a pretty picture, but with a dark fairy tale.

A-P: Tell me something about your training and your influences.
Copyright : Im a self taught artist, Ive never studied art, but I have spent time in art collages doing photography and stuff. So was allways into making pictures.

A-P: What is “Thirteen”, your new show is all about?
Copyright : 13 is my lucky number, since I was born on Friday the 13th, and 2013 also happened to be 10 years since I started using the name copyright. For ‘Thirteen’, I wanted to put together a big show that had more to see than just a bunch of paintings, some behind the scenes stuff but in a gallery format. Also a group of paintings which revisit older works and themes. I’m calling it a way of “moving forward whilst looking back” .

Copyright : Let’s talk about street art. Street art has grown in the Art World and is inviting itself into art galleries more and more often. What are your views on this?
Copyright : I don’t go round calling myself a “Street Artist”, I call myself an “Artist”, Street art is a word made up by other people who try to understand why they are seeing pictures that aren’t trying to sell them something. The truth is, I started putting stuff on the streets because I had nowhere else to put them. I wasn’t making some anarchist statement, I just wanted them to be seen.

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What – ‘Lucky 13’ A Solo Show by Artist Copyright
Where – London Westbank Gallery 133-137 Notting Hill Gate W11 2RS
When – 27th September – 3rd October 2013 (Preview night Thursday 26th 6pm-10pm open thereafter 11am-7pm Daily RSVP to guestlist@londonwestbank.com)