Award winning Curious Duke Gallery are proud to present the first UK solo show of Polaroid transparency artist Andrew Millar, with Chasing Ghosts. The East London based gallery invites you to rejoice in all things retro glamour this April 2016.
East London’s Curious Duke Gallery is known for nurturing young talent into the bright stars of the art world: Andrew Millar is no exception. UK born Millar joined CDG last year and took the gallery by storm with his distinctive ethereal style.
Hailed as a big hit at Moniker Art fair 2015, the artist creates the little known process of Polaroid collage transparencies with finesse and vintage beauty. If you haven’t seen his back catalogue yet, you will soon be falling in love with his latest collection, Chasing Ghosts.
Breathing new life into vintage imagery, like his forebears such as Andy Warhol before him, Millar collects from markets and antique dealers, the artist revives forgotten faces with his little known process of Polaroid collage transparencies. Millar explains how “When I produce the pieces I use a lot of old facial imagery so whilst lifting the polaroid and applying the gold it kind of brings them back.”
It is the final touches of these artworks that create experimental images that call to filmmaking of the 1960s and beyond, with layers of black and gold giving a touch of Hollywood glamour.
We had a great time and exhibited awesome works from drawing to sculpture in the hope to find emerging talents. We were very pleased with what we got in the end.
This show was generously sponsored by Curious Duke Gallery and consisted of an online public voting contest: anyone could submit one artwork ranging from paintings to sculpture.
We also asked a panel of judges that consisted of well known and established artists – Dan Baldwin, Pam Glew, Dave White and Andrea Tyrimos, and we got out 22 artists to exhibit their work last February 2014.
The response was overwhelming and the quality of the submissions was remarkable. Even better, a massive crowd turned up at the opening making this show a real success for us Art-Pie as the curator and organiser to Eleni, the owner of the Curious Duke Gallery who signed up a couple of promising artists.
“Young Masters” is the latest show from Curious Duke gallery and is now in full swing. We went down to check it out what the group show has to offer.
If you have never been to the gallery, your first impression, as you step in, might be that the gallery is tiny but keep walking on and head downstairs where the main exhibition area is. The place is actually big enough to host a decent amount of work from several artists. “Young Masters” present us with artwork from 11 different artists.
What strikes you right away is the diversity of works that this show offers – you will encounter steel sculptures from Sam Shendi as well as amazing BIRO drawings from Mark Powell. You are greeted by ben levy’s portraits which always try to transpire current political, racial or sexual issues the artist cares about by using well-known pop references such as McDonalds.
Head towards the stairs and find yourself facing with an odd sculpture made of steel which will catch your curiosity. Head downstairs and find scattered around the place several other pieces from the same artist. Sam Shendi’s sculptures use bright colours, often red, yellow and blue and the shapes are straight ones. You cannot walk past them and not stop and have a closer look. We particularly like “Freedom Of Speech” which consist of three small boxes, one yellow, one red and one blue all showing you a face where the freedom of speech os broken down. Simple but clever.
Oil on canvas has been a technique that has been around almost forever and the show via Richard Goold and Danielle Hodson gives the visitors eyes something to look at again and again. Danille Hodson portraits are somewhat quite traditional but with sometimes a twist – “Piggy” is a perfect example, the face depicts a pig instead of a human face. Richard Goold on the other hand does surrealism and does it well. If you like Dali, you will like this artist.
2 more artists caught our attention. Kate Knight and Mark Powell.
Kate Knight watercolour on canvas pieces are soft and delicate and will seduce the romantics out there although her subjects can sometimes be awkward. You will find yourself in from of series of encrusted blackened heart which for some reason comes across as beautiful. Maybe the metal leaf added on all Danielle Hodson pieces have got something to do with it.
Mark Powell drawing technic is mind blowing. Armed with only a ballpoint pen, his drawing are just so detailed and realistic, you wonder how much time it must take the artist to get these drawing done. We also appreciated that the artists use unusual support such as a 1853 letter/envelope or an antique map of France.
If the show tells you anything is that there are still out there, talented artists that keep their creativity up by using good old painting or drawing techniques, oil on canvas often wins you over I must say.
Exhibiting artists: Andrea Tyrimos| Ben Levy | Dannielle Hodson | Darren MacPherson | Hannah Downing | Kate Knight | Kareena Zerefos | Mark Powell | Otto D’Ambra | Richard Goold | Paul Don Smith | Sam Shendi | Sue Young Lee
We had the chance to get a sneak preview of 20:12, #CODEFC’s London Olympics Installations show opening tomorrow at Curious Duke gallery on Whitecross street. The London-based artist’s 2 year long project is coming to maturation with this show and fits nicely the build up to the London 2012 Olympics.
Using stencil interventions onto London city landscapes, #codefc presents athletes’ imagery in all their splendour and vigour, performing the Olympian feats for which they are known against a backdrop of reconfigured and stretched Olympic rings, their faces replaced with cameras and camcorders – the artist’s signature mark.
The show breaks onto two floors in what is an awesome venue for exhibiting any work. A few pictures are included below of some of the artwork we noticed. We got there when Fab was putting up the stencils cut outs on the wall, you have below some pics of what could be an awesome mural. Come and find out tomorrow.
Curious Duke Gallery
207 Whitecross street, London EC1Y 8QP
Fri June 8th 2012 – Fri June 15th
Private View: Thu June 7th 2012
Fab or #CODEFC has been busy in the last few months and have been throwing a few pieces around town where his current topic, the Olympics, is being broken down according to his mindset.
Stay tune for more information and a sneak preview about his upcoming solo show at the Curious Duke gallery on white cross street