By suzanne March 11th, 2010
We love the paintings by Philip Jones. The artist showed recently at VEGAS Gallery at a group exhibition curated by Anny Baranova.
‘It has become hard not to notice how worlds of Art and Fashion are so intertwined. Nietzsche wisely noticed that all life came down to arguments about taste. Susan Sontag provided us a definition on camp and its predilection to artifice and love for vulgarity. When speaking of fashion connotations in art mixed with references to sexuality, especially in figurative paintings, Philip Jones is the perfect example to elaborate on.
The work of Philip Jones fuses eccentric characteristics, dandyism, mythological and almost fairy tale-like symbolism. In series of works such as ‘Dandies’, he brings the viewer back into the epoch of Oscar Wilde a time when aesthetics, effeminacy and sexuality swirled around in a rather undefined cloud, distinctly sexually suspect, but never really daring to speak its name. Such extravagant mixes of symbols, hints of kitsch and ostentation echo works by Jeff Koons who uses a playful, toy-like and rather ironic approach in his art pieces. Bright and rich colors provide another dimension to the paintings, allowing the audience to indulge in its beauty. Whether we are looking at an object of sexual desire or a mythological character, we’re not entirely sure.
In his works Philip Jones brings us into the fairy tale of pure beauty and esthetic pleasure where each element of the painting turns the spectator into a child curious to find out the plot of the magic story. And Philip Jones knows how to do so in a very fashionable manner.’ text by Anny Baranova, excerpt from ‘Baranova’s Journal’
By suzanne March 11th, 2010
In April, VEGAS gallery will show brand new sculptures by the fabulous Dutch artist-duo Heringa/Van Kalsbeek
Baked Beans, Circus Family and Minivegas: a new exhibition in London features three innovative Dutch design studios working across digital design, animation and multimedia. By Editor Design.nl / 21-01-2010
Chips with Everything
The exhibition is curated by Ken Pratt, the independent curator of London’s new Dutch Cultural Pop-Up Space - a centrally located white-walled gallery. The Space has plans for a broad programme of exhibition/display activities showcasing the best examples of Dutch contemporary art, craft, architecture, media, performed arts and design culture.
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By suzanne March 11th, 2010
Vegas Gallery is proud to present the second exhibition in our brand new space on Vyner Street, London:
Peeping Tom, a group exhibition curated by Keith Coventry with works by 76 artists including Tracey Emin, Claire de Jong, Mat Collishaw, Michael Landy, Tim Noble & Sue Webster and Keith Tyson.
By suzanne March 9th, 2010
Lisa Yuskavage’s exquisite, romantic in an erotic way; fragile paintings echo Renaissance due to the effort she gives to the craftsmanship. Her compositions are vastly considered and thought through; there is no space for spontaneity and accidents in the final result of each piece. Yuskavage’s creative process is deeply influenced by Jocopo Tintoretto, Italian sixteenth century artist, and, of course, by Michelangelo: when preparing to paint, Yuskavage makes three-dimensional models of her characters in the piece. By doing so, artist is able to study the body from various angles in relation to lighting and other figures in the composition. Furthermore Lisa photographs the models and only then makes her sketches with ink, pencil or pastel.
Light is prevalent in her paintings and Yuskavage uses its qualities to set the mood in the scenery, which creates intimate and even innocent atmosphere so crucial to her works.
Slightly pornographic images are not portrayed as obscene or perverse and artist achieves that with use of soft almost pastel colors, playful mystery of transparent curtains or background landscapes (mountains, moon etc.) and almost cartoon-like character and their positions.
In her works, Yuskavage explores themes of female sexuality, romantic (hetero / homo-sexual) relationships and beauty. She aims to make the viewer see what is happening behind the closed doors of a woman.
text by Anny Baranova
By suzanne March 9th, 2010
Boo Ritson has an peculiar way of making her works where she involves models into the creation process of her paintings and applies materials right on their skin and clothes and take photographs of the end result. Such interactive process generates more life and character into her art works. Each work has its own narrative, chosen by the artist and usually involves motifs of American life and culture: diners, gas stations, American fast food such as doughnuts and hot dogs. Those elements echo road trips around America that artist is fascinated by.
Boo Ritson takes photographs of her models before the paint dries which creates the shiny glossy effect as well as gives artist little time for radical decisions that she often undertakes. In doing so, artist challenges herself and the process of creating each piece becomes a little game where the more decisions she takes to bring the work to life before the paint dries, the better. Each work takes from half-an-hour or over an hour.
Artists prefers to paint people that she knows and have worked with before as her creative process requires knowledge of physical bone structure and in what way paint will be applied. Therefore each creative process provides the artist with a ‘learning curve’.
Choosing the colour is essential to Ritson’s work and her predilection for bright colours is obvious, however recently artist became fascinated with applying white to certain parts of her models to give it the ‘unfinished’ effect. This gives her portraits a sculptural look and echoes marble statues.
text by Anny Baranova
