Contemporary In Focus

TRINITY HOUSE London  The Cotswolds New York

CONTEMPORARY IN FOCUS

TRINITY HOUSE London  The Cotswolds New York

CONTEMPORARY IN FOCUS At Trinity House Paintings 22nd February – 3rd March 2017

‘I’m not really interested in being subtle. I want to make people look; I welcome the conflict.’

Pure Evil – Graffiti Artist

TRINITY HOUSE London  The Cotswolds New York

Humans have been making marks where they aren’t allowed for as long as there has been open surfaces and the means to do it. Once representing an unrelenting blight on the urban landscape – the contemporary eye is gaining a genuine appreciation for this style of work.

This February, Trinity House will be breaking from tradition showing pieces from a selection of Contemporary artists key in the booming International Street Art scene. The work by these artists have invaded the major cities around the world.

The present-day graffiti style began in the late 1970s in New York City with Pop artists such as Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein rejecting established standards, encouraging experimentation, and drawing from popular culture and advertising.

With its roots existing in the public domain for the public, street art often asks questions that the authorities would prefer not to be asked.

The social and cultural phenomenon of urban graffiti and street art have gained a special importance in the contemporary art world. This exhibition will reflect that showcasing works from key artists such as; Mr Brainwash, Banksy, Pure Evil, Lichtenstein and Opie.

The exhibition takes place at 50 Maddox Street, Mayfair, London, W1S 1AY. For more information about the exhibition please contact Georgia@trinityhousepaintings.com.

TRINITY HOUSE London  The Cotswolds New York

TRINITY HOUSE London  The Cotswolds New York

Thierry Guetta (Mr Brainwash) (French b.1966) Charlie Chaplin Mixed media on canvas Size: 64.17 ins x 48.03 ins

Ref: 4102 Provenance: Acquired directly from the artist; Private Collection, France This work comes with a certificate of authenticity from the artist.

Mr. Brainwash – often stylized as MBW – is the moniker of Paris-born, Los Angeles-based self-proclaimed filmmaker andstreet artist Thierry Guetta. According to the Banksy-directed film Exit Through the Gift Shop (2010), Guetta began as a proprietor of a clothing store and amateur videographer who filmed street artists through the 2000s and "evolved" into an artist in his own right in a matter of weeks after an off-hand suggestion from Banksy. Guetta was first introduced to street art by his cousin, the street artist Invader.

Guetta does not typically have much physical involvement in the construction of the artwork attributed to him; he passes ideas to his creative team, mostly graphic designers who carry out the artistic side instead of Guetta. Mimicking his associate Banksy, Guetta employs famous artistic and historic images, many of which are copyrighted, and amends the originals in sometimes slight, sometimes significant ways. A number of critics have observed that his works strongly emulate the styles and concepts of Banksy, and have speculated that Guetta is an elaborate prank staged by Banksy who may have created the works himself.

Banksy insists on his official website, however, that Exit Through the Gift Shop is authentic and that Guetta is not part of a prank.

His work sold for five-figure sums at his self-financed debut exhibit Life is Beautiful due, it is thought, to a mixture of an over heated and hyped street art market and – according to Banksy and Shepard Fairey as seen in Exit – his misuse of endorsements from Banksy and Fairey. The exhibit was held in Los Angeles, California, on June 18, 2008, and was a popular and critical success. In 2009, Madonna paid Guetta to design the cover art for her Celebration album.

TRINITY HOUSE London  The Cotswolds New York

TRINITY HOUSE London  The Cotswolds New York

Pure Evil and Chanoir (British 1968 and Columbian b.1976) JFK’s Nightmare Mixed media on canvas Size: 39.37 ins x 39.37 ins

Ref: 4110 Provenance: Private Collection United Kingdom

This one "JFKs nightmare" (Jackie Kennedy) is done in collaboration with Chanoir, a French graffiti artist. Alberto Vejarano, also known as CHANOIR, was born in Bogota, Columbia in 1976. He lives and works in Paris. In 1996 he gets involved in the post graffiti Parisian culture, creating the CHANOIR persona. He invented the systematic transformation of his logo.

Pure Evil explains that a chance email from a Chinese “copy village” gave impetus to his “Nightmare Series.” The village offered, via email, a list of artists it could reproduce, including three Andy Warhol paintings. The idea of Warhol’s entire artistic output distilled right down to three small 64 x64 pixel thumbnails of Jackie Kennedy, Liz Taylor and an Electric Chair became the inspiration for these doomed and dripping celebrity portraits.

Why are they crying ? “Its an illustration of the heartbreak and sadness we have all experienced in relationships in the past.”

TRINITY HOUSE London  The Cotswolds New York

TRINITY HOUSE London  The Cotswolds New York

Pure Evil (British b.1968) Logo for hackney Looting Team, 2012 Spray paint on original canvas Signed lower right Size: 78.74 ins x 98.43 ins Provenance: Private Collection, United Kingdom Pure Evil on the piece; “When the riots happened in London prior to the Olympic hype, and in the same area...I was struck by the Irony.

East Enders who were living in the Olympic zone were being moved out for a huge expensive VIP event that they were going to be excluded from participating in. The economic benefits that local businesses were promised never happened.

I imagined a scene where the riots happened during the opening ceremony of the Olympics, and the symbol of the sporting event was being looted.”

Pure Evil was born as Charles Uzzell Edwards in South Wales, in 1968. He grew up in anrtistic household, with his father being an artist ,demonstrating a range of influences from cubism to minimalism, from Matisse to Chagall. In the 1990’s Edwards went to San Francisco where he began working as a designer for a clothing label. It was here that he produced many a tshirt desig whilst of course, discovering Street art.

Inspired by the initial influence of Twist and Reminisce, with a dose of skate culture thrown in, Pure Evil graced freeways with “Dump Bush” slogans and tagged gun stores as “Murderers.” But there was one image he couldn’t fulfill with graffiti or sketches–Pure Evil longed for “dirty London and so returned home to London and began spraying his signature tag of rabbit with large fangs.

Not long after this Edwards met the people involved with Banky’s Project “Santa’s Ghetto”, his art began to have a darker look and produces his first prints with Pictures on Walls (POW).

During these last years, Charles Uzzell-Edwards has been traveling all around the world hosting expositions in countries like China, Brazil, Russia and also the whole European continent. Success during these times has been such that has allowed him to open in 2007 his own art gallery in London’s Shoredich. In this place, the artist shows his own work as well as other artists’, and there he finds his space for artistic creativity, both in visual arts and music.

TRINITY HOUSE London  The Cotswolds New York

Pure Evil (British b.1968) Logo for hackney Looting Team, 2012 Signed and labelled ‘AP Print with gold leaf Size: 30.71 ins x 30.71 ins Ref: 4111 Provenance: Private Collection, United Kingdom

TRINITY HOUSE London  The Cotswolds New York

Pure Evil (British b.1968) Logo for Favela Looting Team, 2015 Signed and labelled ‘AP Limited edition print with gold leaf Size: 30.71 ins x 30.71 ins

Ref: 4112 Provenance: Private Collection, United Kingdom

TRINITY HOUSE London  The Cotswolds New York

TRINITY HOUSE London  The Cotswolds New York

Banksy (British b.1974) Bomb Love, 2003 Silkscreen Print on paper Edition number 30/150 Size: 27.56 ins x 19.69 ins Accompanied by a Pest Control certificate of authenticity

Ref: 4114

Provenance: Private Collection United Kingdom It is believed that Banksy is originally from Yate in South Gloucestershire, close to Bristol. It is also thought that he was born around 1974 and became involved in the rising popularity of graffiti art in the 1980s. Between 1992 and 1994, Banksy was a part of the DryBreadZ Crew.

Banksy's work is very often a satirical look at modern life, consumerism and politics. His stenciling style recalls the work of Blek le Rat, who started graffiti work in Paris in 1981. It is also similar in its style and ethos to the work of the anarcho punk band Crass, who staged a long-term stencil campaign on the London Underground in the 1970s and '80s. Since the meteoric rise in the value of Banksy's work, it has been known for art auctioneers to sell his street graffiti on location and then leave the removal of the work in the hands of the person who purchased it. In July 2009, two people discovered one of Banksy's Gansta Rats graffitied in Whitechapel in East London.

TRINITY HOUSE London  The Cotswolds New York

TRINITY HOUSE London  The Cotswolds New York

Roy Lichtenstein (American 1923-1997) I Love Liberty, 1982 Silkscreen print edition number 155/250 Signed On firm wove paper by Arches Size: 38.41 x 27.13 ins Ref: 4113 Provenance: Private Collection United Kingdom

Roy Fox Lichtenstein was an American pop artist. During the 1960s, along with Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns, and James Rosenquist among others, he became a leading figure in the new art movement.

His work defined the premise of pop art through parody. Inspired by the comic strip, Lichtenstein produced precise compositions that documented while they parodied, often in a tongue-in-cheek manner. His work was influenced by popular advertising and the comic book style. He described pop art as "not 'American' painting but actually industrial painting".

His paintings were exhibited at the Leo Castelli Gallery in New York City.

Like Warhol, Lichtenstein is an artist whose trademark is irony, which has been both a strength and a weakness. His detractors accuse him of being cold and impersonal. Even his admirers concede that while his art questions the cliches by which American culture defines itself, it rarely provides any answers, except ironically. ''Lichtenstein's paintings are easy to admire,'' The Times's art critic John Russell once wrote, ''in that they are carried out with such an ample assurance, but they are not always easy to love. Some people find that the quintuple irony that characterizes some of his paintings is difficult to take.''

TRINITY HOUSE London  The Cotswolds New York

TRINITY HOUSE London  The Cotswolds New York

Julian Opie (British Born 1958) Watching Suzanne, No.4, 2006 Serigraph on acrylic panel Edition 18/25 Signed on verso Size: 32.7 x 22.2 ins Ref: 4115 Provenance: Private Collection UK

Today, Julian Opie is one of the UK’s best-known contemporary artists. Opie’s work originates in the form of photographs of his subject matter, in this case, photographs of Shahnoza. Opie then digitally manipulates the images to create his individual artworks. The process of Opie’s image construction relies on him eliminating various elements of the photograph and then distilling the image.

Opie draws from a range of diverse influences, including 18th Century portraiture, billboard signs and Japanese woodblocks. Using such diverse and original methods, Opie’s work continues to push the boundaries of ‘traditional’ artistic practice.

His graphic portrait style and his use of computer aided design has enabled him to move between the fields of contemporary art and commercial design. In 2001 Opie was awarded Music Week CADS, Best Illustration award for his album cover design for Best of Blur. Today his popularity has continued to soar and his work can be found in many public collections worldwide including The Tate Gallery, London, The Arts Council of Great Britain, The National Museum of Art, Osaka, and The Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Born in London, Opie was raised in Oxford and went to Goldsmiths, University of London, where he was taught by conceptual artist Michael Craig-Martin. He began as an influential figure in the British art scene after producing a series of painted metal sculptures in the 1980s.

TRINITY HOUSE London  The Cotswolds New York

TRINITY HOUSE London  The Cotswolds New York

Mario Testino (Peruvian Born 1954) Kate Moss, London 2006 (2012) Chromogenic print, on Fujiflex Crystal Archive Supergloss paper, with full margins Signed Edition number 88/175 Size: 20 x 24 ins Ref: 4116 Provenance: Private Collection UK Mario Testino is a fashion photographer who has come to define fashion as much as he documents it. Sometimes described as “luxury realism,” Testino’s style is intended to capture his subjects in moments of engagement or expression, as opposed to the vacant, glassy-eyed aesthetic of many of his contemporaries. “I photograph what I see—and what I want to see,” he says. Testino’s images are filled with life and personality—perhaps his most famous shoot was of radiant, vivacious Princess Diana, just months before her death in 1997.