All posts by Pierrick Senelaer

Founder of the Art-Pie site. I design and code websites and apps Monday to Friday from 9 to 5 and enjoy drawing, painting and visits to museums and galleries at night and weekends.
STREET ART

Street art goes digital in Paris

I stumbled across these very creative pictures of what appear to be some street art in Paris. Now, it would seem that the twist is that no one went into the streets and made those up but instead, someone sat in front of a computer and produced them. I must hope I got it right here as there was not much information about these pictures.

I can already hear the street art purists stomping their feet and voice that, to call something street art, the artist has to go out there, amongst the passing-by walkers and produce something. Well, I might agree with this to some extent but I thought I’ll share these pics from a pure creativity point of view which I think is awesome here.

PREVIEW

Maxime Angel – Let My Eyes Be Your Mirror at C4RD

Centre for Recent Drawing presents the first UK solo exhibition of artist Maxime Angel. Through a highly physical and performative relationship to her drawing practice, Maxime Angel mines a deep held fascination with human sexuality and mortality in her intensely beautiful yet disturbing works on paper and card.

Angel’s personal interaction with her medium and her ability to project the internal and external machinations of the artitst’s body onto the 2D plane create a deeply visceral viewing. She lies, sleeps, smudges, interacts, destroys, scars, crumples and lives with her work, upon which she inscribes her fears, experiences and realities. Thus the drawings become an artifact of her life, laid bare in an intimate exchange of imagery and symbolism that sees the viewer not only connecting with Angel but reading something of themselves in the work.

The fragile nature of the medium reflects the works powerful grasping for fleeting beauty, as young vitality morphs into decay. Angel deploys these images as a metaphor for AIDS and our constant slide towards death, although she regards the act of drawing as itself a way propagate life, a Dorian Grey like exorcism of the inevitable.

Maxime Angels work traces a long and complex historical line of queer drawing, from tattooing to gay erotica, yet cannot be described simply as pornography. Her erotic illustrations mesh together both personal and cross-cultural references in uneasy yet sublime cohesion, while her beautiful and complex compositions recall traditions of Vanitas and still life. In doing so she subverts and utilizes the gay sub cultures, religion and pop iconography that have so influenced her life, exposing and exploring perceptions of gay narcissism.

Capturing what Angel describes as the ‘perfection in decay,’ these works entice the viewer with a rich visual language which is at once highly distinctive to the artist yet ultimately recognizable and truthful. We are reminded of our own mortality, but also of the cyclical and uplifting nature of life.

Maxime Angel will be working on a large site specific drawing in the gallery space in the weeks leading up to the show- feel free to come visit and watch Angel’s process on 28-30th April and 5-7th May 12-6pm. The show is curated by Paul Kindersley.

Words by Paul Kinderseley

Where – C4RD | 2 – 4 Highbury Station Road, Highbury Islington, London.

When – opening reception on Tuesday 10th May 2011 from 6 – 8pm. The exhibition will run from 11th May to 17th June 2011

PREVIEW

Sage Vaughn at Lazarides

Introducing a brand new series of paintings, Children of a Lesser God furthers the artist’s exploration into notions of control and release as well as the fundamental need for survival, love and liberty. Vaughn’s new works manifest these concepts through bleak, dystopian cityscapes that he juxtaposes with child-like imagery and untouched scenes of nature.

Gradations of oil paint are slowly built up layer by layer with brilliantly hued subjects taking centre stage within a muted urban backdrop of dreamy pastels. Wild animals run freely through the urban setting and masked children void of inhibitions heroically feature within downtrodden neighborhoods. Such imagery embodies the limits of humankind’s ability to outright conquer the exterior world as well as completely repress inner desires. Vaughn says, “These compulsory wild impulses propel both the feral and the tame throughout our lives, causing beautiful and sometimes savage moments.”

Children of a Lesser God invites the audience to project their own thoughts about personal existence irrespective of location. Through the contrast of minutely detailed wildlife and child superheroes against diaphanous cityscapes, Vaughn’s body of work in provides a eerily familiar setting which somehow both comforts and inspires his audience with visionary designs of freedom.

Where – Lazarides (Rathbone place, London)

When – 5th May till 4th June 2011

PREVIEW

Modern Panic @ The Old Abattoir – Guerilla Zoo

Modern Panic is our forth-coming exhibition, showcasing the work of provocative artists from around the world, from infamous prisoner Charles Bronson, Bolivian enfant terrible and coca-leaf artist Gaston Ugalde, taxidermy artist Iris Schieferstein, who’s hoof boots have been sought after by the likes of Lady Gaga, the provocative Kira O’Reilly, Tank Girl comic artist Rufus Dayglo and over 50 others!

Modern Panic is a well needed look into the worlds we inhabit and is designed to shake the viewer awake through a bewildering bombardment of the senses.

Modern Panic is a sequel to the popular Panic Exhibition we held in 2009, which featured the founding members of the Panic Movement (formed in the 1960’s by Fernando Arrabal, Alejandro Jodorowsky and Roland Topor), next to the new wave of controversial modern artists.

During our Private View on Fri 3rd June, we will be presenting a Panic Happening: Many artists will be spontaneously creating their art live in a 3 hour ‘Panic’ inspired happening, consisting of performance art, site specific characters, live sonic sounds, and plenty of interactive installations. ‘The Aftermath’ of this panic happening will then take the form of the exhibition.

Panic Movement (Mouvement Panique) was a collective formed by Fernando Arrabal, Alejandro Jodorowsky and Roland Topor in Paris, France in 1962. Inspired by and named after the god Pan, and influenced by Luis Buñuel and Antonin Artaud’s Theatre of Cruelty, the group concentrated on chaotic happenings containing performance art and surreal imagery, designed to be shocking, as a response to surrealism becoming petite bourgeoisie and to release destructive energies in search of peace and beauty.

For more information, including artist list, please visit
http://www.guerrillazoo.com/modern-panic

Where – The Old Abattoir

When – 4 till 12 June 2011