For the inaugural exhibition at Gallery Primo Alonso, David Hancock intends to put together an exhibition that invigorates the idea of portraiture in the 21st Century. The artists selected will explore the historical significance of portraiture as a way of defining our times. Portraiture is art’s historical legacy, giving us a valuable insight into the figures that populated particular periods. A good portrait gives a sense of personality and allows us to empathise with someone lost to time, yet it seems in the past the genre has mostly focussed upon the great and the good. In this exhibition the artists aim to focus upon society as a whole, from the celebrity to the disparate, from those neglected in the past to those who haunt the realms of the imagination.
Within the framework of some of the work, ideas of imperialism are incorporated alongside comments on materialism, consumerism, alienation, globalisation and the cult of celebrity. The exhibition aims to capture a sense of a globalised society at the beginning of the 21st Century. Each one of these artists uses portraiture to make a statement about the environment in which we find ourselves, from David Hancock’s collaborative portraits of disaffected youths to the immortalisation of celebrities in Gordon Cheung’s Top 10 Dead celebrity earners ascending as contemporary gods to watch over a baron dystopian landscape. Isabel Young focuses on the overlooked, elevating their status and constructing an intimate relationship between artist and sitter. Her work discusses the often clumsy integration of animals into society, and can be both seen as a lasting memorial to their temporal lives, and the conflict between nature and civilisation. Both Rui Matsunaga and Stuart Semple scour the media for images, Semple uses the media manipulation of the celebrity back on its self, creating his own Warhol like persona, essentially commenting upon the shallowness of contemporary society. Matsunaga instead creates fantasy worlds that look towards a utopian existence. By manipulating pop culture imagery she renders mutated being sampled genetically. Similarly Hannah Wooll also creates a fantastical environment populated by partially formed creatures, part super model, part fetishistic doll, writhing in a HG Wells’ like vision of the future, whereas Owen Leong instead explores Europe’s colonial past. Leong’s work grapples with an urgency to move beyond structures that bind notions of identity to our bodies. Andy Magee paints portraits of Geishas surrounded by an illusory world of motifs that encapsulate a sense of another culture. The work presents a juxtaposition that evokes a sense of not belonging. With influences embracing 1970s interior design, the fringes of the Arts and Crafts movement and the long English tradition of domestic portraiture Jemima Brown has created a new series of wall hung sculptures feature disembodied heads floating in highly detailed cameos or rosettes of discarded bed linens and plastic flowers. Marit Victoria Wulff Andreassen constructs fantasies on the themes of gender, sexuality, the body and identity. Her drawings contain images of sexual awakening juxtaposed within portrayals of childish innocence that address the inner conflict of gender identity. Richard Meaghan’s use of portraiture is not detached from the emotionally laden and personal, but encompasses these experiences often nostalgic or sentimental within the context of memory and his relationship with his partner and step-daughter. Juno Doran produces paintings based on memories of her family during the dictatorship in Portugal, focusing on their daily life as well as their experience in the African colonies before their independence. Her project seeks to assess her own identity and roots in a country subsequently uniformed by democracy and the outside influences. Dawn Woolley explores photography and its convoluted relationship with reality. The disparity between the ego, alter ego and the ego ideal of the central character is a major focus of the work, as is the construction of ‘self’. She depicts her body as a medium through which she comments on self/identity and social analysis. Leo Fitzmaurice’s work revolves around his relationship to design and us the consumer. Using the logos on carrier bags and celebrity featured magazines he obscures using felt-tip markers. In doing so Fitzmaurice shows his dissatisfaction with today’s media and commercially obsessed society.
Gallery Primo Alonso is an emerging not-for-profit, artist run space on Hackney Road. Ideally situated in the heart of the East End, the gallery forms a part of the growing artistic community in the area. It endeavours to provide an approachable space for artists to show their work in an environment dedicated to the promotion of contemporary art.
The three directors at the helm of this venture are Angelica Sule, Paul Murphy and Richard Gallagher. They all studied at Loughborough University experimenting with a variety of media ranging from painting and sculpture through to film and performance. This will reflect in a varied programme of exhibitions and discussion groups, through which the gallery aims to promote the understanding of contemporary art.
Text by David Hancock