Ed kluz draft

Ed Kluz Architecture of the Enlightenment 29th November - 24th December 2014

Ed Kluz Architecture of the Enlightenment In this latest series of collages Ed Kluz explores the unique topography and architecture of Edinburgh’s New Town.

Built during the late 18th and early 19th centuries as a counterpart to the overcrowded and squalid living conditions of the medieval city which clustered around the castle, the New town expressed the highest values of the Enlightenment age. An ordered grid system of streets and public squares, punctuated by grand circuses and crescents emulating the cities of classical antiquity. The gracious and palatial new residences which lined the streets were to house a burgeoning upper class society in an architectural splendour only seen in the major European cities of the time.

However international in it’s appearance the New Town is unmistakably Scottish in feel. The canyon like streets of grey stone wind up steeply inclined hills revealing and concealing dynamic city scapes and frame glimpsed views of the surrounding hills. Is is almost as though the architecture of the New Town somehow echoes and augments the monumental crags and hills which give the city its unique rugged topography.

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BIOGRAPHY Ed Kluz is an artist, illustrator and printmaker. His work explores contemporary perceptions of the past through the reimagining of historic landscapes, buildings and objects. The spirit of early Romanticism, the Picturesque movement and antiquarian topographical engravings underpin his approach to image making. He has a particular interest in the eccentric, uncanny and overlooked - follies, lost country houses and ruins provide a constant source of inspiration.

As a designer and illustrator Ed has recieved commissions from the V&A, The Folio Society, Faber, John Murray publishers and St Jude’s fabrics.

Ed was born in 1980 and grew up in Swaledale, North Yorkshire. He studied fine art at the Winchester School of Art between 1999 - 2002. He now lives in East Sussex.