MADDOX GALLERY CATALOGUE

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MADDOX ARTISTS

CONTENTS BANSKY HARLAND MILLER KAWS DAVID YARROW THE CONNOR BROTHERS JERKFACE JEAN-MICHEL BASQUIAT STIK ANDY WARHOL RETNA JOSEPH KILBANSKY MIAZ BROTHERS DAMIEN HIRST KEITH HARING LEFTY OUT THERE BRADLEY THEODORE MEL BOCHNER TERRY O’NEILL DAWN OKORO COCO DAVEZ INVADER JEFF KOONS DAVID SHRIGLEY SCHOONY JUSTIN BOWER MIKE DARGAS RICHARD HAMBLETON GEORGE CONDO ED RUSCHA MARC QUINN IGOR DOBROWOLSKI MIKAEL B ROSS MUIR GRACELAND LONDON DAN BALDWIN SEBASTIAN CHAUMETON MASSIMO AGOSTINELLI HARIS NUKEM DEVON DEJARDIN 3

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MADDOX GALLERY

LOCATIONS

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WESTBOURNE GROVE, LONDON

MADDOX STREET, LONDON

SHEPHERD MARKET

LOS ANGELES

GSTAAD

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BRITISH. B. 1974

BANKSY

‘People say graffiti is ugly, irresponsible and childish. But that’s only if it’s done properly.’

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anksy is a world-renowned street artist who has single-handedly transformed graffiti culture. The rise of Banksy in the early 2000s signalled an unprecedented acceptance of street art in contemporary art and culture, which has garnered Banksy both global attention and success. Celebrated for his satirical stencilled graffiti, Banksy’s work often provides sociopolitical commentary on current events. The true identity of the British artist is unknown and his anonymity not only permits him to make bold political statements, but also creates an intriguing air of mystery around the artist. His graffiti incorporates freehand painting, spray painting and a unique stencilling method, which has become his signature style.

Rendered in a limited range of striking colours,

dissent, but stencils have an extra history. They’ve been used to start revolutions and to stop wars.”

By 1999, Banksy had moved to London and was beginning to garner national attention. The unknown street artist was making waves, and comparisons to the graffiti greats Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring soon began to circulate.

In 2001, Banksy had his first ‘exhibition’ in Rivington Street, where he and a few fellow artists created a makeshift gallery space in a convened tunnel.

However, it was not until July 2003 that Banksy truly had his breakout show. Titled, ‘Turf-War’ and hosted in a former warehouse in Hackney, the show was the first of many to astonish the London Art Scene. Over time, Banksy’s continued success led to the re-positioning of street art as a widely accepted form of contemporary art.

Since then, Banksy has continued to astound and amaze with a plethora of public stunts that have intrigued people globally. From sneaking art inside the Tate Gallery (2003) to shredding an artwork live at auction and aptly re-titling the work ‘Love is in the Bin’ (2018), Banksy is arguably one of the most provocative and renowned street artists in the world.

Banksy’s memorable designs have become a favourite amongst critics and collectors alike.

Banksy first started creating street art in the early 1990’s under the pseudonym ‘Robin Banx’. Quickly dropping this alias in favour of the shorter and more memorable moniker, ‘Banksy’, the artist began his career close to home in Bristol, England.

Immersing himself in graffiti culture, he started spray-painting walls across the Southwest. With graffiti being considered vandalism as opposed to art at the time, Banksy was soon subject to close encounters with the law and at the age of 18, was nearly apprehended by police whilst spraypainting a train in Bristol. To avoid being caught in the future, Banksy knew that he had to devise a quicker method of creating his art. Stencilling presented a practical solution for creating and replicating his work quickly, and soon his bold and iconic stencils defined his practice. On the topic of his method, Banksy reportedly said: “as soon as I cut my first stencil I could feel the power there. I also like the political edge. All graffiti is low-level

With many iconic works like Girl with Balloon or Flower Thrower being replicated in locations across the globe, the market for Banksy’s work continues to thrive, with his international success being widely reflected in his impressive auction results. Setting a record at the 2019 Sotheby’s Frieze week with the sale of Devolved Parliament for a grand total of £9.9 million including fees, Banksy’s artworks remain an enviable asset and the ultimate art investment.

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BANKSY Love is in the Air (Flower Thrower), 2003 Screenprint in Colours 50 x 70 cm

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BANKSY Girl With Balloon, 2004 Screenprint on Wove Paper (Signed) 70 x 50 cm

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BANKSY Bomb Hugger, 2003 Screenprint 70 x 50 cm

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BANKSY Laugh Now, 2004 Screenprint 70 x 50 cm

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BANKSY Flying Copper, 2004 Screenprint on Paper 100 x 70 cm

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BANKSY Happy Choppers, 2003 Screenprint 70 x 50 cm

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BANKSY Bomb Hugger, 2003 Screenprint in Colours 77 x 58 cm

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BANKSY Very Little Helps, Screenprint 51 x 37 cm

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BRITISH. B. 1964

HARLAND MILLER

‘Brevity is no strength of mine.’

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onsidered something of a polymath, Harland Miller is a British artist and writer that reimagines classic Vintage Penguin Book covers with his own sardonic titles. The artist works in a variety of mediums from hand-finished screen-prints to large-scale canvases and is influenced by the form and colour of Abstract Expressionism as well as the playfulness of pop art. Miller’s artworks are often as witty as they are visually striking and are collected around the globe by critics and celebrities alike with George Michael, Sir Elton John, and Ed Sheeran all acquiring works for their collection.

series of Penguin Book covers and was immediately struck by the visceral nostalgia of it. Consequently, Miller has spent the past two decades developing his satirical take on the books, marrying his love for words and art. Throughout his career so far, Miller has had over fifteen solo exhibitions and has been involved in around thirty group exhibitions in renowned institutions from around the world, including White Cube, London, Royal Academy of Arts, Somerset House and Blain/ Southern in Berlin. Over his career, Miller has amassed a diverse collector base ranging from famous art dealers including Jay Joplin to world renowned musicians like Angus Young, George Michael, Ed Sheeran and Sir Elton John.

Born in Yorkshire in 1964, Miller graduated from Chelsea School of Art in 1988 with both a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree. Following his time at university, Miller began travelling the world, living in London, New York, Berlin and Paris. In 1987, Miller had his first ever solo exhibition at the Diorama in London. He then went on to New York where he would exhibit as a solo artist at Prisunic Gallery in 1990 and 1991.

Widening his French audience, with thanks to his shows at Prisunic Gallery, Miller then moved to Paris where he had three more solo exhibitions over the next five years. During this period, Miller also spent a year living in Berlin, which is where he embarked upon his writing career.

Although establishing himself as an artist, Miller first won critical acclaim as a writer, with his debut novel, Slow Down Arthur, Stick to Thirty, being published in 2000. Later that year, he also published At First I was Afraid, I was Petrified - a visually led book that is considered short study of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. The work’s sardonic title, borrowed from the Gloria Gaynor song, is echoed in the title of one of Miller’s later artworks, with puns and wordplay being the basis of many of the artist’s work.

In 2001, Miller produced the first of his iconic 19

HARLAND MILLER Love Saves the Day, 2014 Screenprint 146 x 105 cm

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HARLAND MILLER Who Cares Wins, 2016 Lithograph in colours 58 x 43 cm

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HARLAND MILLER High On Hope, 2015 Screenprint 149 x 110 cm

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HARLAND MILLER The Me I Never Knew, 2013 Screenprint 125 x 100 cm

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HARLAND MILLER Fuck Art Let’s Dance, 2011 Unique Hand Finished Screenprint 84 x 70 cm

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HARLAND MILLER Thought After Filthy Thought, 2019 Etching with relief printing 148 x 89 cm

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AMERICAN. B. 1974

KAWS

‘I guess my goal has been just to figure out how to get through life making stuff.’

K

nown for his highly sought-after prints and sculptures, contemporary artist, KAWS, first launched his career as a graffiti artist, transforming bus shelter adverts in New York in the 1990s with his iconic characters. The artist was propelled to fame in 1999 when he first created his Companion figure in collaboration with Japanese toymaker and streetwear brand, Bounty Hunter. Rising to popularity in an instant, KAWS’ artwork soon became sought after across the globe and encouraged a completely new audience to engage with the world of contemporary art. Since, KAWS has continued to champion collaborations, using his work to blur the lines between luxury, commerce, fashion and fine art, for commercial success.

from both his peers and the art world alike, and soon, he had amassed a large following.

In 1999, KAWS was approached by the Japanese cult toymaker and streetwear brand, Bounty Hunter, to make the artist’s very first limited edition toy, Companion. Now synonymous to his work, Companion launched KAWS’ career, turning the artist from an established street artist into an international sensation. His partnership with Bounty Hunter also marked the beginning of a prosperous commercial career for KAWS, with brand collaborations becoming central to his identity as an artist.

Teaming up with a plethora of brands including Bathing Ape, Nike, Vans, Comme des Garçons, Supreme and Dior, the artist has also collaborated with members of the music industry, redesigning MTV’s iconic VMA moon man award and creating album artwork for Kanye West.

Brian Donnelly, best known as KAWS, was born in Jersey City, New Jersey in 1974. He graduated from School of Visual Arts in New York, obtaining a Bachelor of Fine Arts, and specialising in illustration. Following his graduation in 1996, Donnelly worked as a freelance animator for Disney, creating backdrops for animated series including 101 Dalmatians and Doug.

The renowned graffiti artist is featured in public collections internationally, from the Brooklyn Museum in New York to Rosenblum Collection in Paris, and over the past 25 years, has had over thirty solo exhibitions.

With two solo exhibitions in 2021 in Japan and the United States, the appetite for KAWS in both contemporary art and luxury commerce shows no signs of subsiding.

Alongside his degree and work as a freelance animator, Connelly was becoming increasingly involved in the New York street art scene.

In the early 1990s, the artist adopted the moniker KAWS simply - because he found the shapes of the letters attractive - and took to the streets with spray paint in hand. Like most graffiti artists, KAWS began tagging trains and empty walls. However, the street artist quickly found a unique way of working that set him apart from his contemporaries. From billboards to phone booths, KAWS started transforming the adverts of New York by adding cartoon-like figures, altering them in what is now considered his distinctive style.

His ‘subvertising’ won him critical acclaim 29

KAWS Ankle Bracelet, 2017 Screenprint 147 x 147 cm

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KAWS Lost Time Alone Again Far Far Down, 2018 Screenprint 81 x 135 cm (each)

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KAWS Final Days, 2017 Bronze 24 x 22 x 17 cm

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KAWS Four Foot Companion (Black), 2007 Painted Cast Vinyl 128 x 57 x 35 cm

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KAWS Four Foot Dissected Companion (Black), 2007 Painted Cast Vinyl 128 x 57 x 35 cm

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KAWS You Should Know I Know, 2015 Screenprint 95 x 81 cm

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BRITISH. B. 1966

DAVID YARROW

‘I don’t think I’ve ever taken a picture before in which the subject is less than one per cent of the image and yet everyone’s eye is immediately grabbed by that one point. That was always my intention.’

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cottish photographer David Yarrow is a pioneer of fine art photography, known for visiting isolated locations and communities to capture the sublime beauty of the natural world. His dramatic and highly evocative images, usually black and white, fuse the knowledgeable approach of David Attenborough with Ridley Scott’s visual drama and the exquisite composition of Ansel Adams.

His photographs fetch high prices across international auction houses, making Yarrow one of the most coveted photographers alive today. He has equally shown an unchanging commitment to charitable causes and protecting wildlife through fundraising for various NGOs and the British NHS.

staged compositions. His Lives of Others series saw him travelling to remote locations to focus on indigenous communities and landscapes, capturing various mesmerizing moments from across cultures worldwide.

Yarrow is active in a range of ambassadorial roles from WildArk and The Kevin Richardson Foundation, to Nikon and UBS and has shown continual commitment to charitable causes over the course of his career. Raising over $4.5m for humanitarian and conservation organisations, Yarrow is the affiliated photographer of the African Conservation Charity Tusk Trust.

His photograph The Wolves of Wall Street, signed by Leonardo Dicaprio and Martin Scorsese sold for $200,000 with all proceeds going to a conservation NGO. During the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, Yarrow also released a print called Our Pride in support of the British NHS as a part of the Art For Heroes campaign in conjunction with Maddox Gallery.

Yarrow was born in Glasgow in 1966 and started his photography career working for the London Times at the age of 20, taking pictures of the World Cup Final in Mexico City. He famously photographed Diego Maradona holding the World Cup which propelled the photographer to stardom. After graduating from Edinburgh university, Yarrow pursued a career in finance and continued producing photography at the same time.

As one of the best-selling and most famous photographers alive, some of Yarrow’s most impressive auction sales include the 12/12 edition of the photograph Africa selling for $106,250 in 2019, and the work Old Testament fetching $52,500 in the same year.

Yarrow is most famous for his visceral, powerful photography of life on earth, specifically wildlife.

He cites the photojournalism of Robert Capa as a major inspiration for his work and has produced printed photographs of the elephants and lions of the African savannahs to the penguin colonies of Antarctica. His signature style is high resolution, black and white photographs with a focus on shadows and heavy saturation, resulting in an evocative and dramatic effect.

His other famous series Storytelling fuses elements of wildlife with urban drama to a highly aesthetic effect, consisting of expertly 39

DAVID YARROW Gandalf, 2019 Archival pigment Print 152 x 133 cm

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DAVID YARROW The Cave, 2019 Archival Pigment Print 133 x 163 cm

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DAVID YARROW Road Trip, 2018 Archival pigment Print 132 x 196 cm

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DAVID YARROW The Mob, 2019 Archival Pigment Print 180 x 295 cm

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DAVID YARROW The Wolves of Wall Street, 2019 Archival Pigment Print 133 x 211 cm

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BRITISH. B. 1968

THE CONNOR BROTHERS

‘It is the paradox of art, that artifice is often the best way to depict reality.’

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he internationally renowned artistic duo, The Connor Brothers, are known for their paintings and prints depicting pin-up models accompanied by pithy text. Their art explores the boundary between truth and fiction, playing with ideas of experience versus reality. This exploration of fact and fabrication is rooted in their fictitious backstory, with the artists originally claiming to be twins Franklyn and Brendan Connor, two brothers who were brought up within the new age cult, The Family.

Following 18 months of the artists’ success, under the guise of The Connor Brothers, the duo revealed themselves to be British art dealers James Golding and Mike Snelle and their careers have continued to flourish ever since.

confidence to exhibit under their own names.

Following their reveal in 2014, the Connor Brothers have gone on to exhibit internationally, showing both in the United Kingdom at Maddox Gallery, London in 2017 and 2018 as well as in the United States at Chase Contemporary in New York in 2019 and Goodman Gallery in Aspen in 2020. Over the past decade the duo has also participated in over 45 group exhibitions including Art Miami, London Art Fair and Art Central Hong Kong.

The duo are known for their philanthropic pursuits, specifically for their commitment to raising money and awareness for mental health charities. Creating prints and auction works to raise money, the pair have worked with a plethora of charities including Refugee Response Foundation, Manchester Mental Health Charity and CALM (Campaign Against Living Miserably), a charity which the artists have been patrons of since 2015.

Initially entering the art scene as Franklyn and Brendan Connor in 2011, the duo claimed to be brought up within a controversial and highly clandestine Christian cult known as The Family. Maintaining to have escaped the Californian cult at the age of 16, the brothers marketed their artwork as a form of therapy, stating that their paintings and prints helped them make sense of the world around them.

Following both a solo exhibition at Guy Hepner in 2013 and a successful auction at Bonhams in 2014, where the duo’s work was sold alongside the likes of Banksy and Damien Hirst, The Connor Brothers decided that the success of their work was able to speak for itself. The duo revealed themselves to be London art dealers James Golding and Mike Snelle and in an exclusive interview with The Telegraph, the pair opened up about using their fabricated backstory as a way of overcoming past struggles. However, following the success and validation the duo gained enough 47

THE CONNOR BROTHERS I Can Resist Everything Except Temptation, 2019 Oil on canvas 185 x 115 cm

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THE CONNOR BROTHERS I Don’t Want To Go To Heaven None of My Friends are There Red, 2018 Oil on canvas 185 x 115 cm

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THE CONNOR BROTHERS All She Wanted Was To Be Someone’s Most Precious Person, 2019 Pigment Print with Silkscreen 130 x 75 cm

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THE CONNOR BROTHERS Tell Me Beautiful Untrue Things, 2018 Oil on canvas 185 x 115 cm

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THE CONNOR BROTHERS I Drink to Make Other People More Interesting, 2020 Oil on canvas 185 x 115 cm

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THE CONNOR BROTHERS Every Saint Has A Past, 2019 Oil on Canvas 185 x 115 cm

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AMERICAN. B. 1982

JERKFACE

‘I think my work can fall under quite a few names depending on who you ask, and I’d rather leave it up to others to define it.’

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ostalgic and subversive, Jerkface is a moniker for an anonymous New York-based artist most widely recognised for his playful re-imaginings of pop culture iconography. His style can be defined by the use of character repetition and geometric abstraction, with his work merging several styles. Creating a mix of public murals, prints and sculpture, Jerkface has garnered an international reputation among critics and collectors as a trailblazing figure in the art world. Over the past five years, the artist has been catapulted into recognition, with exhibitions in Hong Kong and New York.

With a special solo exhibition taking place with Maddox Gallery in Mayfair in June 2021, the artist is well on the way to becoming a global success.

exhibitions. Unaware of how to get his work into existing shows, Jerkface decided to create his own, curating exhibitions in Long Island City, Queens and Crown Heights, Brooklyn.

His distinctive style started to garner him national attention and his decision to create public murals made him even more visible.

In 2016, Jerkface had his first solo exhibition at Over The Influence in Hong Kong and later exhibited his ‘Donut Pop-up’ with the same gallery in New York. He also had a solo exhibition with Taglialatella Gallery in New York in 2018.

In 2020, Jerkface signed exclusively with Maddox Gallery, launching a limited-edition print release entitled Who Nose that sold out within minutes. With a solo exhibition set for Maddox’s Mayfair gallery in June 2021, we can expect to see great things from this artist.

Anonymous street artist, Jerkface, was born in Queens, New York in 1982. He demonstrated an interest in art from a young age and would often draw pictures of his favourite cartoon characters after school. By the age of 12, Jerkface had been enrolled in several art classes and with his talent far surpassing that of other students his age, he was quickly advanced to more complex classes for older children.

By the time Jerkface was in high school, his passion for art developed into a love of graffiti.

He would regularly paint large murals behind a group of stores in his neighbourhood but would later confess that, throughout his teenage years, he did not develop as much as other graffiti artists, as a result of not having any contemporaries to learn with.

Following high school, Jerkface attended the School of Visual Arts in New York City, specialising in graphic design and advertising.

Throughout his time at SVA, the artist’s passion for art grew and by 2012, Jerkface was looking to exhibit as part of group 57

JERKFACE Blinking Pink (Variant), 2019 Archival Pigment Print 122 x 122 cm

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JERKFACE Sailor Duck, 2019 Acrylic on canvas 122 x 122 cm

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JERKFACE Who Nose - Variant, 2020 Archival Pigment Print 91 x 91cm

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JERKFACE BuhBye, 2021 Archival Pigment Print 46 x 61 cm

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JERKFACE House Mouse, 2019 Acrylic on canvas 122 x 122 cm

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AMERICAN. B. 1960 | D. 1988

JEAN-MICHEL BASQUIAT

‘I don’t think about art when I’m working.

I try to think about life.’

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amed for his dynamic paintings, JeanMichel Basquiat emerged from New York’s underground art scene of the late 1970s to become one of the most internationally renowned artists of the 20th century. By the age of 20, Basquiat had become an established gallery artist and was collaborating with some of the most prominent members of the New York art scene, such as Andy Warhol. Basquiat is known for his vibrant palette and his bold renderings of the human body, exploring themes of politics, race and philosophy.

Since his untimely death at the age of 27, Basquiat’s legacy has continued to flourish.

The subjects of many, if not all of Basquiat’s works, remain incredibly relevant and still resonate today with a modern audience.

friendship. The duo would go on to collaborate on several artworks during the mid-1980s, remaining friends until Basquiat’s death.

Basquiat first publicly exhibited in a group show in a vacant Times Square building in June 1980. His works were featured alongside other artistic geniuses of the period such as Keith Haring, Kiki Smith and Jenny Holzer. The group exhibition marked a turning point for Basquiat and led to his first solo exhibition in 1982.

Basquiat immediately rose to fame, with critics extolling the artist. Basking in the limelight, Basquiat continued to create artwork for his ever-expanding throng of enthusiasts, and only halted at his untimely passing in 1988, aged just 27. Although the life of this exceptional artist was cut tragically short, his works can be found in museum collections around the world. From The Broad in Los Angeles to the Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona, people across the globe continue to admire and revere his work.

Born in 1960 of Haitian and Puerto-Rican descent, Jean-Michel Basquiat grew up in Brooklyn, New York. He was exposed to art by his mother from a young age and was encouraged by some of his teachers at school to draw. After dropping out of high school and leaving home in 1976, Basquiat would never go on to receive any formal art education.

In 2017, a Basquiat artwork named ‘Untitled’ was sold at Sotheby’s New York for US$110.5 million, setting a new record at the time for the most expensive artwork created by an American artist to be sold at auction.

For many years, the artist barely made a living wage, selling t-shirts and postcards during the day and covering Brooklyn in his bold designs by night. Basquiat, working under the moniker SAMO (Same Old Shit) in tandem with his friend Al Diaz, started to attract attention.

By the 1980s, New York had entered a period of thriving artistic freedom and consequently, Basquiat started to paint and draw with more focused effort, befriending other artists around him. In 1981, Basquiat met Andy Warhol, and they instantly formed a close 65

JEAN-MICHEL BASQUIAT Flexible, 1984/2016 Silkscreen 153 x 116 cm

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JEAN-MICHEL BASQUIAT Boxer Rebellion, 2018 Screenprint 84 x 111 cm

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JEAN-MICHEL BASQUIAT Hollywood Africans, 1983/2015 Archival Pigment Print 98 x 213 cm

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BRITISH. B. 1979

STIK

‘I felt invisible and it was my way of showing I’m here.’

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TIK is an anonymous British graffiti artist renowned for his iconic stick figures.

Rendered in a pared back palette of black and white and accompanied by block colours, STIK’s designs are as simple as they are striking, made up of four lines, one circle, one square and two dots. Although minimal in design, STIK’s work is incredibly emotive with love and the community being at the core of all of his work. The artist spends a large amount of time scouting out the locations for his murals, choosing each site with precise intent and favouring the permission of locals over that of the authorities. STIK’s artwork is created for the people and his philanthropic efforts echoes this sentiment. As an artist that only authorises the sale of his primary market work in auction on the condition that all proceeds go to charity, STIK has raised thousands of pounds for several charitable organisations.

Most notably, STIK works towards aiding and preventing homelessness as he himself spent many years living in shelters or on the street.

way of giving back’. Each of his works, therefore, are created with the community in mind, as a gift to the public who rallied to help him.

STIK’s iconic murals continued to appear across the United Kingdom. In 2010 following the attempted Islamic Extremist attack on Lars Vilks - a Swedish cartoonist who depicted the Prophet Muhammed as a dog - STIK created A Couple Hold Hands in the Street; a work which has now become one of his best-known pieces. Depicting a Muslim woman holding hands with one of STIK’s traditional figures, the work was immediately embraced by the Muslim community and in 2017, the mural was voted as the UK’s 17th favourite artwork in a Guardian poll. By 2011, STIK had become an established artist, with his collectors including celebrity musicians Brian May and Bono. That same year, the graffiti artist had his first solo show at Imitate Modern Gallery in London’s West End. In 2012, STIK collaborated with Dulwich Picture Gallery, recreating Old Master paintings in his own style, and establishing himself as a household name. Now successful enough to turn towards charitable efforts, in 2013, STIK ran an initiative with The Big Issue, creating a bespoke poster to be sold with the magazine to raise money for homelessness. This is just one of the many initiatives the artist has joined in aid of supporting the fight against homelessness.

Born in 1979 in the United Kingdom, little is known about STIK. The artist remains anonymous, revealing little about his upbringing and personal life. Of the little information that is publicly available, the graffiti artist has only acknowledged his lack of artistic training and his experience of homelessness in his early twenties.

It was during STIK’s time living in homeless shelters that he began painting on the streets of London. Painting graffiti first in the Hackney area, STIK learned from his contemporaries, developing his distinct style and honing his craft. With the support of his friends and the wider Hackney community, STIK managed to access independent housing and continue his journey towards becoming a full-time artist.

Feeling indebted to those who assisted him, STIK reportedly stated that ‘street art was [his]

Seven years later, STIK continues to anonymously paint, produce prints and create murals all around the globe. Celebrating the love and community that helped him flourish both personally and professionally, the artist remains dedicated to philanthropy, raising money for causes close to his heart.

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STIK Lovers, 2011 Screenprint 112 x 55 cm

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STIK Sleeping Baby, Yellow, 2015 Screenprint 65 x 112 cm

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STIK Liberty (Turquoise), 2013 Screenprint 112 x 43 cm

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STIK Gdansk 17 (Mother and Child), 2019 Giclee Print 233 x 119 cm

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AMERICAN. B. 1928 | D. 1987

ANDY WARHOL

‘The idea is not to live forever; it is to create something that will.’

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merican artist Andy Warhol is a legendary figure of 20th century art and with a lasting influence on generations of artists, is widely considered to be the father of pop art. Engaging with themes including mass consumerism and the cult of celebrity through the subversive politics of his signature medium, the silk screen print, Warhol was known as much for his iconic public persona as his prolific artistic output. Immortalising subjects from the stars of the day, in his famous works Marilyn Diptych (1962) or Double Elvis (1963) to mundane items like soup cans, Warhol’s unique vision pervaded all aspects of contemporary American society and came to define visual culture for decades to follow.

consumer goods such as Coca-Cola bottles and Brillo Boxes. His interest in the theme of mass production also extended onto his own process, creating silkscreen prints enmasse in his famous studio, The Factory.

Warhol is also known for his fascination with celebrity culture and the godlike status of icons, including politicians. In the early 60s he produced numerous portraits of Mao Zedong, Marilyn Monroe, Jackie Kennedy and Elvis Presley, among others. While he is considered to be mostly apolitical, Warhol’s ‘Death and Disaster’ series which includes the likes of Orange Car Crash and Electric Chair confront the violence underscoring the American Dream.

The diptych Silver Car Crash (1963) from this series holds his record sale to this day, fetching $105.4 million at a Sotheby’s auction in 2013.

Born in 1928 in Pittsburgh, USA, Andy Warhol was a child of Slovakian emigrants. He pursued his studies in commercial art at the Carnegie Institute of Technology before graduating in 1949 with a BA in Pictorial Design and settling in New York. He worked as a commercial illustrator for fashion magazines, experimenting with different methods of printmaking. It was not until the late 1950s when he was introduced to his trademark method of silk screen printing, allowing him to replicate images in different colours. Discovering silk screen printing led him to produce his first noteworthy works.

He had his first notable exhibition with Ferus Gallery in the early 60s, showing his iconic Campbell’s Soup (1962) prints, representing the popular brand of canned soup in various coloured editions. Warhol’s prints and editions soon began to pour into the art market.

Challenging the boundaries between ‘high’ and ‘low’ art with his brightly coloured silk screens and subversive subjects, Warhol was inspired by Neo-Dadaists like Jasper Johns, Marcel Duchamp and fellow Pop artist Roy Lichtenstein, rebelling against the strict formalism of Abstract Expressionism. Warhol’s iconography was rooted in advertisements and commercial design, depicting everyday

Warhol has had a lasting influence on the wider cultural scene of New York. From being the founding editor of the magazine Interview, and manager of the popular band The Velvet Underground to creating many influential underground art films produced in his Factory - with a famous example being Chelsea Girls (1966) - Warhol did it all. His later works included the notable Reigning Queens (1985) silk screen series and also dealt with increasingly religious themes, such as the large-scale print Sixty Last Suppers (1986), based on the famous original

by Da Vinci. He died a year later, in 1987.

Warhol is still one of the most influential artists today with an enduring legacy both on the art market and in his presence in prestigious institutions like the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Tate galleries in the UK, where he had his latest touring retrospective in 2020. Alongside his permanent estate at the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, his pieces are included in all major international public and private collections, and he is one of the highest-selling artists on the auction market.

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ANDY WARHOL Marilyn, 1967 Screenprint 91 x 91 cm

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ANDY WARHOL Green Pea Soup, 1968 Screenprint in Colours on Wove Paper 89 x 58 cm

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ANDY WARHOL Liz, 1964 Lithograph in Colours on Wove Paper 58 x 58 cm

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AMERICAN. B. 1978

RETNA

‘It is important to have art in the streets as a cultural fabric that is woven into the city for the upliftment of civic pride. Awareness of the Arts which every great nation and city contains is a long tradition that we are grateful to be a part of.’

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merican street and graffiti artist RETNA is famous for his iconic typographic compositions, across a range of media from photography, painting, sculpture, and graffiti; all of which explore an underlying unity between different cultures. His artworks fuse visual references to fashion, various types of linguistics and calligraphy including Blackletter, Egyptian Hieroglyphics, Arabic, and Hebrew, as well as symbols from urban culture into powerful and often monochromatic images.

He is one of the highest-selling street artists working today with numerous impressive auction results under his belt, with exhibitions across venues, institutions and galleries in Los Angeles, Miami, London and Hong Kong.

museum in 2013 for the artist to create an installation for the show RETNA: Para mi gente.

Another notable exhibition was The Future of the Past: Mummies and Medicine (2016) at the San Francisco Legion of Honor, showcasing a large-scale installation of RETNA’s calligraphic paintings, contextualized within ancient Egyptian culture and spirituality. His artwork was featured as the album cover of Justin Bieber’s Purpose, released in 2015.

Among his eclectic range of influences for his contemporary text-based works, RETNA cites Renaissance imagery, medieval manuscripts, Art Nouveau and 20th century urban artists including Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring. With a practice rooted in varied typographic forms, RETNA works from a hybrid alphabet consisting of Egyptian hieroglyphs, Arabic calligraphy to Blackletter, making the content of his artworks indecipherable and enigmatic. He creates unique pictographic landscapes that celebrates the idea of multiculturalism and interconnection, while exploring the possibilities of conceptual meaning within the image, revealing new ways of understanding and perceiving visual codes.

Marquis Lewis was born in 1979 in Los Angeles with a blended cultural heritage, being of African-American, El Salvadorian, Spaniard, Pipil and Cherokee descent. Choosing the moniker RETNA from the lyrics to a Wu-Tang Clan song, Lewis joined the buzzing graffiti scene of the city as a teenager, developing his now signature calligraphic style that features a keen attention to detail and skilful layering.

The incorporation of text into his later artworks is a direct result of his background in graffiti art. The artist uses a paintbrush in addition to a spray can in order to paint intricate lines and give the finished work an intuitive and dynamic, yet precisely composed effect. Since emerging on the scene, he has been renowned for many publicly and privately commissioned murals in New York, Miami, Mexico City and Los Angeles, as well as for numerous collaborations with famous brands such as Louis Vuitton, Nike and VistaJet. His gradual transition into the contemporary art world was marked by the group exhibition Art in the Streets, hosted by the LA Museum of Contemporary Art in 2011.

This was followed by an invitation by the same

RETNA continues to be amongst the most successful graffiti artists working today. His artworks continue to fetch high prices at international auction houses. His early works such as Shadows of Light (2012) and Sad to See (2012), both featuring his signature calligraphic lines, are amongst his highest-selling works.

Notable exhibitions include his solo exhibition at Maddox Gallery in London entitled MARGRAVES (2017), LA Art Machine in Los Angeles and Don Gallery in Milan among others.

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RETNA Even The Heart Skips A Beat, 2016 Enamel, Acrylic and Crystalline on Canvas 274 x 182 cm

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RETNA Sabrosura Negra, 2016 Oil, enamel and acrylic on canvas 183 x 183 cm

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RETNA What Difference Does It Matter What I Say. You’re Gonna Do Watever The Fuck You Want Anyway, 2013/14 Enamel, Acrylic and Crystallina on Canvas 244 x 244 cm

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DUTCH. B. 1984

JOSEPH KLIBANKSY

‘What I find important is that people remember my work and that it has ‘stopping power’.’

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rom his show-stopping polished bronze sculptures to his surrealist pastel paintings, Joseph Klibansky is a master of all mediums.

The artist’s practice is rooted in technological advancements and by utilising the limitless potential of digitally enhanced art, Klibansky is able to create both complex sculptural compositions as well as render his monumental paintings by digitally layering hundreds of images. The Dutch artist is best known for his highly reflective sculptures, depicting animals and distinctive characters as shining monuments that can be found all across the globe, from the snowy mountains of Switzerland to the dusty desert of Dubai. Although relatively young, Klibansky has already proved himself to be a serious player in the art world.

Reflections of Truth has come to be a recurring motif throughout Klibansky’s work, with him returning to the concept later in his career.

In 2017, Klibansky had his first ever solo exhibition at Museum de Fundatie in Zwolle, the Netherlands. Entitled ‘Leap of Faith’, the exhibition spanned five months, featuring paintings, collages and sculptures by the artist. Klibansky’s artworks were an immediate hit and led to the artist exhibiting at the 57th Venice Biennale that same year. Between 2018 and 2019, Klibansky had six more solo and group exhibitions in the United Kingdom, China, Switzerland and the United States. To compliment two of these solo exhibitions, Klibansky created a monumental outdoor sculpture entitled Self-Portrait of a Dreamer that occupied public space both in Amsterdam, the Netherlands and in Guangzhou, China. Standing at 13 feet, the colossal sculpture portrays a gravity-defying astronaut balancing on a chair.

Joseph Klibansky was born in Cape Town, South Africa in 1984 to a creative family. Moving to the Netherlands during his childhood, Klibansky studied business and despite immersing himself in creative environments from a young age, proceeded to pursue a career as an entrepreneur. However, swiftly after graduating from business school in the Netherlands, Klibansky realised that his dreams were rooted in creativity and thereafter, exclusively devoted his talents to art. Klibansky soon became fascinated with the power of technology and the limitless potential of digital imagery.

In 2008, Klibansky started his digital paintings, detailing dystopian metropolises, where the natural and man-made collide. Perfecting his technique, Klibansky continued to make artworks for his New Urban Wonderland series, with Garden of Evolution - painted by Klibansky in 2012 - being the culmination of his hard work.

That same year, Klibansky ventured into the medium of sculpture, debuting Reflections of Truth, a sculpture of Pinocchio rendered in his now distinctive style of highly polished bronze.

In 2020, Joseph Klibansky first exhibited at Maddox Gallery in an Autumn Contemporary show, both in the Westbourne Grove, Maddox Street and Gstaad gallery locations. Later that year, the artist collaborated with Maddox Gallery again, but this time to take over Annabel’s, an exclusive private members club in the heart of Mayfair. Transforming the interior and exterior of the club with a menagerie of his bronze sculptures, the collaboration was a success.

Returning to London later in 2021, Klibansky is scheduled to unveil a solo show at Maddox Gallery’s Westbourne Grove this September, with an exhibition that is set to astonish and amaze.

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JOSEPH KLIBANKSY Forever Mine (Black/White, Gold, Pink and White Splash), 2021 Silkscreen and Acrylic on Canvas 155 x 125 cm

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JOSEPH KLIBANKSY Big Bang, 2019 Patinated and Polished Bronze 140 x 70 x 70 cm

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JOSEPH KLIBANKSY My Heart Is Yours, 2019 Silkscreen and Acrylics on Canvas 170 x 170 cm

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JOSEPH KLIBANKSY White Universe, 2020 Polished Bronze Sculpture 50 x 45 x 35 cm

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JOSEPH KLIBANKSY Happily Ever After, 2019 Polished Bronze Sculpture 92 x 220 x 77 cm

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ITALIAN. B. 1965,1968

MIAZ BROTHERS

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hallenging traditional notions of portraiture, the sibling duo Renato and Roberto Miaz present a radical new approach to the genre. Using layers of aerosol paint, the brothers create largeformat canvases that appear out of focus. The hazy renderings encourage the viewer to engage with the image, pushing the limits of perception and interpretation. With a diverse range of subjects, from portraits of people, to scenes and even iconic brand packaging, the creativity and ingenuity of the Miaz Brothers is limitless.

skills whilst exploring new digital innovations.

Between 1996 and 2000, the brothers collaborated with an array of iconic brands, including Nike and Swatch watches. Following this and alongside the new millennium, the duo decided to make a change and moved to New York to further progress their careers. In the consequent years, the Miaz Brothers have continued to travel extensively, discovering new cultures in all the corners of the globe and expanding their practice in the process.

In recent years, the Miaz Brothers have narrowed their diverse operation to focus on portrait painting, exploring the transitory nature of existence. Their blurred renderings of assorted characters provide viewers with an active visual experience that continues to mystify and amaze.

Born in 1965 and 1968 respectively, the two brothers Renato and Roberto were raised in Milan, Italy. Both siblings were close from a young age, exploring artistic processes and embarking on creative adventures together. The duo both proceeded to study art and European design at university and were guided by similar principles. Wishing to take a more holistic approach to their training, the Miaz Brothers modelled their education on the training of Renaissance artists, focussing on travel, philosophy and studying a diverse range of practices. Their mutual eschewal of the gallery system and harmonious relationship made their decision to become a creative duo a natural and inevitable choice for their joint progression.

Taking up residency in our Shepherd Market gallery for 2020, the Miaz Brothers are set to exhibit their latest body of work in an exciting solo exhibition at Maddox’s Mayfair Gallery in 2021.

Their first exhibition was in 1996 at the Viafarini Gallery in Milan. Focussing on visual interpretation and genetics, the installation not only signalled the beginning of a deep interrogation of visual perception for the artists but also marked the start of the Miaz Brothers trialling a plethora of different mediums. During this time period, the Miaz Brothers were regularly operating in unconventional venues alongside their gallery shows. Nightclubs and music events offered a more experimental approach to their practice and presented a diverse audience, allowing the brothers to hone their artistic 99

MIAZ BROTHERS Mona Lisa, 2021 Acrylic and Spray Paint on Canvas 249 x 184 cm

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MIAZ BROTHERS Axis Around The Island, 2020 Acrylic and Spray Paint on Canvas 140 x 189 cm

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MIAZ BROTHERS And All the Consequences, 2020 Acrylic and Spray Paint on Canvas 132 x 150 cm

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BRITISH. B. 1965

DAMIEN HIRST

‘It’s amazing what you can do with an ‘E’ in A-Level art, a twisted imagination and a chainsaw.’

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ising to prominence in the early 1990s, Damien Hirst has come to define British modern art. Exploring death and science through his works, Hirst’s art both shocks and amazes. His works are challenging both visually and philosophically and continually push the very definition of art itself. From diamond-encrusted skulls to dissected cows, Hirst’s art is not only iconic but also utilises found objects, both living and dead, in a way that had never been seen. After finding early success at art school and becoming a leading light of the Young British Artists group, Hirst has continued to have a prosperous career and remains a trailblazer of the art world.

Despite being born in 1965 in Bristol, England, Damien Hirst spent his childhood in Leeds.

From a young age, Hirst developed a strong interest in the concept of death and continued to explore this throughout his childhood. By his teens, Damien was making regular visits to the anatomy department of Leeds Medical School, practicing life drawing and reconciling himself with the idea of his own eventual mortality.

In 1984, Hirst moved to London, working in construction before attending Goldsmiths College to study Fine Art. Hirst’s move to the capital marked the beginning of his career, not only because of the work he was making but also because of the people he met for example, Sarah Lucas and Tracey Emin.

During his studies, Hirst created art that would act as a harbinger of his later works, with themes of science, life and death pervading his every creation. In his second year of university, he created Medicine Cabinets, a precursor to his later 1992 installation Pharmacy, with both works combining Minimalism with science.

In 1988, that same year, Hirst conceived and

curated Freeze, a group exhibition that would later be known as a launching point for a whole generation of British artists. Freeze would also be the location of Hirst’s very first Spot painting, a series that has won him critical acclaim across the globe. By the time Hirst had graduated, his work had already been recognised by notable collectors and curators such as Charles Saatchi and Norman Rosenthal.

In 1991, Hirst started work on arguably his most famous series to date, Natural History. His radical series consisted of suspending whole animals in a formaldehyde liquid. His first work of the series, a preserved shark entitled The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living, was unveiled at the Saatchi Gallery’s Young British Artist’s exhibition. It both shocked and delighted, and remains one of the most iconic symbols of British modern art today.

From cows to sheep, Hirst continued to preserve a menagerie of creatures within glass boxes, along with other more banal items like household chairs and tables.

Hirst has continued to intrigue and astonish throughout his career with diamond encrusted skulls and stained glass windows made from butterfly wings, proving that no medium is out of this artist’s reach. Since 1987, Hirst has had over 80 solo exhibitions and has participated in 260 group shows globally.

Hirst continues to be one of the greatest provocateurs in recent art history, redefining everything we thought we knew about art.

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DAMIEN HIRST Flumequine, 2007 Spot Etching 141 x 109 cm

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DAMIEN HIRST Cathedral Print, Duomo, 2007 Screenprint with Glazes and Pearlised Colours, on Wove Paper 119 x 119 cm

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DAMIEN HIRST Mickey & Minnie (Large Glitter), 2016 Screenprint with colours with glitter 152 x 123 cm

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AMERICAN. B. 1958 | D. 1990

KEITH HARING

‘Art should be something that liberates the soul, provokes the imagination and encourages people to go further.”’

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ising to prominence in the early 1980s, Keith Haring is an American artist renowned for his vivacious paintings, murals and his use of a distinctive pop graffiti technique. Drawing from traditional street art, Keith Haring’s artworks feature a combination of bold imagery and bright, contrasting colours that instantly grab the attention of viewers. Firmly believing that ‘art is for everybody’, Haring made his artwork as accessible as it is memorable, by creating art in both public spaces and at a range of affordable prices. Subsequently, during his lifetime Haring attracted a wide audience and became a household name whose artwork remains both instantly and globally recognisable.

in numerous group and solo exhibitions, garnering international attention. In 1982, Haring exhibited at the seventh edition of the esteemed Documenta exhibition in Kassel, alongside other prominent artists such as Marina Abramovich and Carl Andre.

By 1983, his international reach saw no bounds with Haring’s work featuring at both the São Paulo Biennial and the Whitney Biennial. Until this death in 1990, Haring would continue to exhibit across the globe.

In April 1986, Haring opened the Pop Shop, a retail store in New York that sold toys, posters and other commercial items bearing his designs. Considering the shop as an extension of his work, Haring believed that art should be accessible to everyone, and wanted his work to be readily available at affordable prices. To offer even greater accessibility to his art, from 1982 to 1989, Haring also created over fifty public artworks, ranging from murals to paintings and present in capitals around the world.

Born in 1958 in Reading, Pennsylvania, Keith Haring was surrounded by a rich visual culture from a young age. Fascinated by popular cartoons created by Walt Disney and Dr. Seuss, Haring learned basic drawing skills from his father who worked as an amateur cartoonist.

As he got older, Haring decided to pursue a career in graphic art. He studied briefly at the Ivy School of Professional Art in Pittsburgh before dropping out and realising that he had little interest in becoming a commercial artist.

In 1988, Haring was unfortunately diagnosed with AIDS and for the remainder of his life, dedicated himself and his artwork to generating awareness of the illness. Establishing The Keith Haring Foundation as a result, Haring continues to provide funding and imagery to both AIDS organisations and children’s education, even today. Haring passed in 1990 due to AIDS related complications, at the tender age of 31.

Since his death, Haring’s legacy has continued to prosper, with collections all over the world continuing to celebrate and exhibit his art.

Instead, Haring enrolled in the School of Visual Arts in New York and on moving to the East Village in the city’s bustling centre, he discovered a burgeoning artistic community developing outside established gallery and museum spaces. He soon immersed himself in the city’s graffiti culture, befriending artists such as Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat. These relationships, particularly that with Andy Warhol, proved to be a significant factor in his future success.

Following Haring’s graduation from the School of Visual Arts in 1980, the artist began participating 111

KEITH HARING Best Buddies, 1990 Screenprint 56 x 71 cm

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KEITH HARING Pop Shop Quad IV, 1989 Silkscreen on Paper 69 x 84 cm (each)

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KEITH HARING X-Man (Icons), 1990 Silkscreen with Embossing 54 x 64 cm

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KEITH HARING Silence = Death, 1989 Screenprint 99 x 99 cm

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AMERICAN. B. 1991

LEFTY OUT THERE

‘If anything, street art is like a pop-up ad and that’s what I love about it.’

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nown for his signature mark-making, Lefty Out There is a pioneering multidisciplinary artist and illustrator.

Reminiscent of interlinking cells or organic formations, his forever multiplying hooks captivate the viewer.

He refers to these patterns as “squiggles”, which strike as both a result of an intuitive process and also as part of a larger, intricate cosmic design. The prolific artist made his name in the street art world before moving on to notable collaborations with brands including Facebook, Nike and Samsung, in addition to earning critical acclaim and recognition within the world of fine art.

Born as Franco Campanella in Chicago in 1991, Lefty Out There was interested in art from his teenage years. He was visiting museums, posting stickers across his hometown consistently drawing and sketching in the classroom. He soon became involved in the city’s burgeoning street art scene, starting to develop his now iconic patterns by using the urban landscape as his canvas. The interlocking “squiggles”, rendered both in colour and in monochrome, appear as hypnotic and almost spiritual as they reproduce and multiply endlessly across every surface.

major fashion campaigns for NYFW and Nike.

While the overarching leitmotif of his iconic “squiggles” remains prevalent throughout his newer works, it’s blended into experimentations with different materials and geometric abstraction. His works often reference minimalist Masters like his work Mondrian (2019), showing his interlocking hooks against a block colour backdrop, painted with acrylic onto wood. There are also nods to the psychedelic aesthetic of Op Art in his series of black and white works on wood.

Represented by Maddox Gallery, his works have been exhibited in commercial galleries and popups in Los Angeles, New York, Miami, Mexico City.

Lefty Out There taps into the synergy between repetition and the divine, depicting the world as a constantly evolving network of interconnections. His public murals can now be spotted across the cities of the USA, Asia and Europe. Incorporating new technologies such as lasers, LED boxes and computers into his process of creation, his artworks have since grown into large scale installations for prestigious locations like Nobu, club E11EVEN, Chotto Matte and the Ambassador Hotel in Chicago. His growing recognition has also led him to work on 119

LEFTY OUT THERE Mutatio, 2020 Acrylic on Canvas 188 x 188 cm

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LEFTY OUT THERE Influunt Purpura, 2019 Acrylic on Canvas 122 x 122 cm

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LEFTY OUT THERE Ciemus, 2019 Acrylic on Canvas 122 x 122 cm

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AMERICAN. B. 1990

BRADLEY THEODORE

‘Street art allows you to be yourself. Your focus is on impressing the people who in return share your work with other people through social media and word-of-mouth.’

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urks and Caicos born American painter and street artist, Bradley Theodore, is known for his vibrant Día de los Muertos style murals and canvases depicting celebrity icons like Anna Wintour or Frida Kahlo. His signature leitmotif of the skull both immortalizes these influential cultural figures, as well as symbolizes the true spirit of his subjects. As a self-taught artist, Theodore’s influences are authentic and wideranging, from pop culture and the traditional art historical canon to the colourful, dynamic scene of graffiti and street art. Working across various media from prints and paintings to largescale murals, Theodore’s practice engages with prominent themes within contemporary pop and visual culture as well as art history, exploring what it truly means to be human.

Born in the Turks and Caicos Islands, Bradley Theodore grew up in Miami, Florida and later moved to New York City where he embarked on his art career. The aesthetic influence of Miami’s vibrancy and bright colour palette continues to influence his artwork. Theodore taught himself painting by watching YouTube tutorials, as well as studying the techniques of canonical artists like Salvador Dali. Working as a digital designer in New York City, he immersed himself in the city’s buzzing artistic scene and started creating his first colourful murals featuring his iconic skeleton motif on the Lower East Side. One of his most famous works is Anna and Karl in New York, depicting Anna Wintour and Karl Lagerfeld in colourful skeleton-form in honour of their lasting friendship. This piece was a catalyst for Theodore’s popularity and success as a street artist. He was chosen as Google’s virtual artist in residence in 2016 and was the subject of a documentary in the same year entitled “Becoming: Bradley Theodore”, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival.

Since then, he has created murals and paintings depicting numerous celebrities including Kate Moss, Kendall Jenner, Cara Delevingne, and Queen Elizabeth II. His public works can be seen on the streets of Hong Kong, London, Los Angeles, Oslo, and Paris.

He has also collaborated with designers such as PUMA, Moët & Chandon, Jordan Brand, RMK, Kent & Curwen and Moleskine. Aside from commercial collaborations, making public art remains of crucial importance to Theodore’s mission to contextualize his work outside of formal gallery settings.

Alongside his notorious celebrity portraits, his recent works draw on famous works of art and reinterpret them in his quintessential style, such as the painting The Poker Players (2020) based on the Paul Cezanne original, and The Last Supper (2020) on Leonardo Da Vinci’s masterpiece. For his exhibition at Maddox Gallery, The Second Coming in 2017 that celebrated his collaboration with PUMA on their collection of sneakers, he created a series of sculptures as well as immersive digital works, which is a new territory the ever-evolving artist continues to explore.

His latest exhibition with Maddox Gallery in 2018, The Coronation, saw Theodore turning to oil paint for the first time with his striking portraits of history’s regal anarchists, interpreting crucial historical moments in his signature Día De los Muertos style. Working with a rich array of symbols, his provocative compositions showcase the inherent chaos and corruption underlining the foundation of the modern Western world, prompting the viewer to look beneath the surface of what we now know as the contemporary society.

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BRADLEY THEODORE Marie Antoinette, 2020 Acrylic on Canvas 152 x 122 cm

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BRADLEY THEODORE Karl & Anna, 2018 Oil on Canvas 122 x 91 cm

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BRADLEY THEODORE Karl & Anna, 2018 Oil on Canvas 122 x 91 cm

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BRADLEY THEODORE The Crown, 2020 Acrylic and oil on canvas 152 x 152 cm

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AMERICAN. B. 1940

MEL BOCHNER

‘One of the reasons I focus on ordinary language is because everybody can read it and have some personal reference point. To me, the emotional trajectory of the painting is how one gets from the first word to the last word - from the prim and proper to the crude and vulgar.’

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merican artist Mel Bochner is a pioneer of the conceptual art movement, best known for his intellectual and material approach to interpreting language and the relationship between both text and image through a variety of media. He works across photography, sculpture and painting, continually exploring the question of how we as viewers interpret information, employing various methods of ‘coding’ language such as text, material and colour.

Born in 1940 in Pittsburgh, Bochner studied Art with Joseph Fitzpatrick at high school, who was a teacher of young, gifted artists. He graduated from Carnegie Mellon University in 1962 and moved to New York to work at the Jewish Museum in 1964. He currently lives and works in New York. He also teaches art history at the School of Visual Arts in New York, where he had his first exhibition in 1966 that was heavily rooted in conceptualism, entitled Working Drawings And Other Visible Things On Paper Not Necessarily Meant To Be Viewed As Art, showing photocopies of his friends’ drawing in four black binders placed onto four pedestals.

In the 1970s, Bochner began experimenting with painting as his dominant medium, creating canvases featuring words and bright colours, and recontextualizing language as a form of pictorial expression. This interest has been central to his prolific practice ever since, expanding into further conceptual realms and visual experimentations. He used a range of media from chalk, oil on velvet and glass. He finds inspiration in various verbal codes or rational systems of language for his works; for his bold and bright Thesaurus paintings (2013-14) he starts with one word such as ‘AMAZING’ followed by all its synonyms listed on thesaurus. Other times, like in Bochner’s public work The Joys of Jiddish

(2017), the artist draws on existing slangs and dialects to negotiate and challenge our relationship with language as objective truth.

Bochner landed a position as senior critic in painting and printmaking at Yale University in 1979, where he later also taught as adjunct professor in 2001. He has had many notable exhibitions including at the Whitney Museum of Art in New York, the Tate Modern in London and the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC., with his pieces also being held in collections within the MOMA in New York. His retrospective at the Whitechapel gallery in London presented a comprehensive 50-year survey of his works in 2021, travelling to Munich and Porto. It included the famous recent work Blah, Blah, Blah (2011), which captures Bochner’s enduring fascination with colour and words. His exhibition at the Dia Art Foundation in New York was the recreation of an earlier iconic work Measurement Room from 1969, for which the artist used black tape to tag the numerical measurements of various segments of the gallery space. Bochner has also experimented with a range of printmaking techniques, including etching, photogravure, cyanotype, mirrored glass, silkscreen, salt prints and monoprints of varying scales and textures. An example is one of his recent colourful prints, Kvetch (2020), a monoprint with engraved and collaged elements.

He is represented by Simon Lee Gallery in London, Marc Selwyn Fine Art in Los Angeles, Galerie Nelson-Freeman in Paris, Galleria il Gabbiano in Rome and Two Palms Press in New York. Mel Bochner continues to define Postminimalist and conceptual art to this day, creating works that explore the relationship between language, colour and physical space.

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MEL BOCHNER Top Dog, 2018 Monoprint in Oil with Collage 235 x 131 cm

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MEL BOCHNER HAHA, 2020 Monoprint with collage, engraving and embossment on hand-dyed Twinrocker handmade paper 119 x 119 cm

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MEL BOCHNER Blah, Blah, Blah, 2017 Monoprint with collage, engraving and embossment on hand-dyed Twinrocker handmade paper 70 x 56 cm

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BRITISH. B. 1938 | D. 2019

TERRY O’NEILL

‘I look back at all the pictures and I can’t believe the life I’ve had.

They’re all memories for me.’

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ritish photographer Terry O’Neill is best known for taking rare, candid photographs of the celebrities as well as fashion scene of the 1960s. Capturing the Zeitgeist and his subjects in both unconventional and dynamic settings, O’Neill’s work showcased the unknown and more human side of well-known figures like Judy Garland and the Rolling Stones. He was awarded an honorary fellowship at the Royal Photographic Society in 2004 and received the Centenary Medal in 2011. O’Neill is one of the most collected photographers in the world with his works featured in many prestigious exhibitions as well as within the collection of the National Portrait Gallery in London.

Born in 1938 in East London to Irish parents, O’Neill launched his photography career working for a technical photographic unit at London’s Heathrow Airport. While working there, he started developing a fascination for capturing people in the transitory environment of the airport in their natural rhythm, waiting for their planes and unaware of being photographed.

Unbeknown to O’Neill at the time, one of the figures caught on his lens happened to be Home Secretary Rab Butler, leading O’Neill to land a job on Fleet Street with the Daily Sketch as a commercial photographer in 1959.

During the 1960s, O’Neill immersed himself in the world of celebrities and fashion icons, taking pictures of a plethora of iconic figures ranging from politicians to pop stars. Known for his photographs of musicians in unstaged settings, O’Neill managed to show a different side to the public persona of many of the music scene’s greatest stars, including The Rolling Stones, The Beatles and David Bowie.

Arguably his best-known musical photographs are of Elton John, which were collated and

published in the book Eltonography in 2008.

O’Neill’s dynamic and evocative photographs radiate the spirit of the swinging 60s with a timeless energy. His lens also captured politicians from Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher to John Major and Nelson Mandela, as well as members of the Royal Family, including Queen Elizabeth II herself.

O’Neill was also known for photographing actors as well as behind the scenes of movie sets. Most notably, the photographer is famed for a series of pictures of his soon to become wife, American actress Faye Dunaway, following her win at the Academy Awards the previous night. Winning for her performance in the movie Network, Dunaway sits by her Oscar, poolside at the Beverly Hills Hotel and in her dressing gown. Published both in black and white as well as in colour, these images carry a sense of tender intimacy while demonstrating a keen photographic eye for composition. These are now included in the permanent display at the National Portrait Gallery in London.

Other notable exhibitions include the Getty Image Gallery in London, the San Francisco Art Exchange and Leeds Gallery (2011).

O’Neill is credited as executive producer of the movie Mommie Dearest (1981) and for the photography of the opera film Aria (1987). The photographer was also awarded with both an honorary fellowship at the Royal Photographic Society in 2004 and received their Centenary Medal in 2011.

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TERRY O’NEILL Faye Dunaway, Morning After the Oscars, 1977 Gelatin Silver Print 102 x 102 cm

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TERRY O’NEILL Frank Sinatra, Miami Boardwalk (B&W), 1968 Platinum Print 60 x 75 cm

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TERRY O’NEILL The Beatles, London, 1963 Gelatin Silver Print 70 x 93 cm

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TERRY O’NEILL Brigitte Bardot with Cigar, Spain, 1971 Gelatin Silver Print 61 x 51 cm

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TERRY O’NEILL Michael Caine, 1970 Gelatin Silver Print 79 x 60 cm

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TERRY O’NEILL Audrey Hepburn with Dove, 1966 Gelatin Silver Print 120 x 80 cm

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TERRY O’NEILL Raquel Welch on the Cross, 1966 Archival Pigment Print 105 x 105 cm

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TERRY O’NEILL David Bowie with Elizabeth Taylor, Beverly Hills, 1975 Gelatin Silver Print 58 x 48 cm

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NIGERIAN AMERICAN. B. 1980

DAWN OKORO

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‘I always knew I wanted to be an artist, but not how to be an artist.’

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old and vibrant, Dawn Okoro’s work explores ideas of identity and self-reflexivity.

Channelling her Nigerian heritage and a sense of displacement from her homeland, Okoro’s work utilises colour, movement and texture to highlight the many facets behind the human persona. Painting conceptual portraiture and executed on a block colour background, Okoro’s figures exist in a negative space which helps her to capture the spirit of the subject. Taken from magazines or her own photographs, the artist’s command of composition and colour merge to create engaging imagery with vivid narratives.

Influenced by fashion photography as well as punk culture, Okoro continues to experiment with fashion design and videography, in addition to her more typical painted style.

Born in Houston, Texas in 1980, Dawn Okoro spent much of her childhood in Lubbock, Texas. Whilst Okoro’s mother was born and raised in the United States, her father was originally from Nigeria and emigrated to the US later in his life. With her father leaving the family shortly after Okoro was born, the artist was raised by her mother and a stepfather. Okoro notes that throughout her upbringing she was ‘fully immersed in American culture’, and that this tension between her American life and her Nigerian heritage continues to inform much of her work.

Growing up in a small town that was native to predominately white people, Okoro found herself drawn to fashion and was captivated by both its creativity and the boundless possibilities that it presented for self-expression. Art and fashion design swiftly became a core part of her childhood and although she knew from a young age that she wanted to be an artist, a lack of opportunity and the ongoing systemic prejudices of the art world rendered a viable

career in the arts seemingly impossible.

In 2002, Okoro moved to Austin to attend the University of Texas, where she majored in Psychology with a minor in Fashion Design. Still unsure on her career path, in 2009, she looked to join the legal profession, attending Texas Southern University, and more specifically, Thurgood Marshall School of Law. Although she had always wanted to be an artist, it was not until she graduated that she felt confident enough to pursue art full-time.

To launch her career, Okoro began by curating her own exhibition, which garnered many positive reviews and a great attendance. Now focusing completely on her artwork, she started submitting her work to open calls and with greater exposure, found that her popularity continued to excel. Following this, the artist found herself being invited to participate in group exhibitions at several established institutions, including the Midtown Arts Centre in Houston, Texas, Curtiss Jacobs Gallery, New York and the Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Art, also in New York. Building her reputation within the art world, as well as on social media, Okoro secured her first solo exhibition in 2018.

Entitled Punk Noir, her debut solo exhibition first exhibited at George Washington Carver Museum in Austin, Texas. Marking an unprecedented success for Okoro, the artist proceeded to tour with Punk Noir for the next two years, visiting Cogean Gallery in Bremerton, Washington, South Dallas Cultural Center in Dallas, Texas and Omenka Gallery in Lagos, Nigeria.

Following several years of success, in late 2020 Dawn Okoro joined Maddox Gallery.

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DAWN OKORO Roshi, 2018 Acrylic and Metal Spikes on Canvas 183 x 183 cm

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DAWN OKORO The Three Graces, 2018 Acrylic on Canvas 183 x 183 cm

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DAWN OKORO Stilled, 2018 Acrylic, Copper Leaf and Metal Spikes on Canvas 91 x 91 cm

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SPANISH. B. 1989

COCO DAVEZ

‘Faceless brings together the joy of colours and my comic side, it’s my creative engine. Some people have an aura around them, a specific colour that expresses who they are.’

C

oco Davez, otherwise known as Valeria Palmeira, is a self-taught multidisciplinary painter, illustrator, photographer and creative director known for her unique and colourful designs blending abstraction and figuration.

She is famous for many collaborations with major international brands and platforms across fashion, art and culture. Her recognizable compositions often feature portraiture, bold colour schemes, potent symbolism and familiar imagery adopted from various sources from art history to popular culture. Her most iconic and personal project to date is her book Faceless (2019) featuring famous cultural figures depicted in Davez’s idiosyncratic style described by her as “neorealistic with a touch of pop”.

Born in Madrid in 1989, Coco Davez began painting at the age of 21, in 2010. As a selftaught artist, she cites Pablo Picasso as her biggest inspiration, particularly his early Cubist masterpiece Demoiselles D’Avignon (1907). Almost instantly after she started releasing her work on social media - which remains one of her primary platforms as an artist to this day - she started gaining the attention of various galleries and publishers, who approached her for collaborations.

of character associated with the person she is representing, as if conveying their personality onto her canvas through particular colour combinations. Her simple, geometric lines are both childlike and exude a sense of artistic confidence and self-aware style. Her portraits are a refreshing take on contemporary society’s obsession with the cult of celebrity, while also paying homage to the art historical canon. With Faceless released in 2013, Davez re-entered the art world with a newfound force and has had a prolific output of projects ever since, including collaborations with prestigious international brands such as Chanel, Netflix, Jean Paul Gautier and Bombay Sapphire. For each of these editions, her unique treatment of colour and subject matter shines through with daring artistry and a style that is instantly recognizable.

Davez’s Faceless portraits were exhibited at Maddox Gallery in 2019 as her first solo exhibition in the UK. Among the most imaginative and unique artists of our time, Davez’s visual universe is a true trailblazer for the virtual age.

Her first group exhibitions took place in Santiago de Chile and at La Casa Encendida in Madrid, followed by her first solo presentation in Lisbon at Pickpocket gallery in 2011. Her most famous Faceless collection was born out of a period of crisis that followed her initial success, prompted by a downturn in publishing projects. It was during that difficult period that she began experimenting with acrylics on canvas, painting faceless portraits of well-known figures she admired including Patti Smith or Frida Kahlo. Her treatment of colour is both intuitive and driven by a sense 157

COCO DÁVEZ Freddie Mercury, 2019 Acrylic on canvas 79 x 68 cm

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COCO DÁVEZ Queen Commission, 2019 Acrylic on canvas 144 x 111 cm

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COCO DÁVEZ The Beatles, 2019 Acrylic on canvas 114 x 95 cm

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FRENCH. B. 1969

INVADER

‘What I do and create is more important than who exactly I am.’

B

eginning his practice in the late 1990s, Invader is an anonymous French street artist best known for his pixelated mosaics.

His works are inspired by vintage graphics and video games, with his own moniker taking inspiration from the video game, ‘Space Invaders’. Composed from single tiles, Invader’s murals resemble classic 80s graphics, evoking a deep sense of nostalgia.

Like other street artists, Invader uses public space as a canvas and aims to ‘invade’ the world on an international scale. From Manchester to Marrakech, Invader’s work can be found across the globe. In 2015, Invader went interstellar, teaming up with the European Space Agency to get a mural in space, proving that the artist’s reach truly has no limits.

Due to the anonymous nature of Invader, little is known about the French street artist’s upbringing or education. The unidentified artist was first brought to the public’s attention in the late 1990’s, when mosaic Space Invaders started to appear on the streets of Paris. Inspired by the 1978 Atari game, Invader’s miniature alien mosaics soon evolved into a whole cast of 8-bit characters that began materialising across the city. Although Invader has always prioritised working in the public space, by the new millennium, the French artist had started exhibiting in both group and solo exhibitions.

been involved in fifteen group exhibitions and subject to nineteen solo exhibitions.

Alongside Invader’s exhibited work, the artist has launched the Space Invaders Project, which endeavours to liberate art from its usual context of museums and institutions.

Instead, the artist creates public artwork all around the globe, with the aim of creating at least 20 to 50 works in one city alone. Like the video games from which the characters originate, each creature is awarded a score based on location, intricacy and how difficult it was to install. Invader currently has 3960 murals across 79 cities and on 6 continents. By creating murals all across the world, the earth itself becomes an exhibition and each unique piece a fragment of a tentacular installation.

His first ever solo exhibition, entitled New Player Insert Coins, took place in 1999 at Jean Charles de Castelbajac CS, in Paris, France.

This was closely followed by Same Player Shoot Again, which was held the following year at Galerie Almine Rech in Paris. Invader’s reach soon became international as he came to feature in his very first group exhibition outside of Europe, at The Almine Rech Gallery in New York. Since then, Invader has 163

INVADER Oh...Alright, 2011 Screenprint 58 x 59 cm

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INVADER Alias LDN-01, 1999 88 Ceramic Tiles / Resin 21 x 26 x 4 cm

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INVADER Aladdin Sane Blinky (Pink), 2014 Screenprint 45 x 43 cm

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AMERICAN. B. 1955

JEFF KOONS

‘I like to think that when you leave the room, the art leaves the room. Art is about your own possibilities as a human being. It’s about your own excitement, your own potential, and what you can become. It affirms your existence.’

O

ne of the most renowned living artists, Jeff Koons is best known for his bold pop artworks and kitschy aesthetic that reflects on contemporary culture’s obsessions with celebrities, mainstream media and sex. His playful pieces draw attention to seemingly banal images that reincarnate throughout culture.

Prolific across different media, he is most famous for his oversized readymade sculptures shaped like children’s toys, inflatables and luxury commodities, employing bright neon colours and sleek, glistening surfaces that add a visceral dimension to his trademark aesthetic and highlight the relationship between media and reality, commodification and desire.

Koons was born in 1955 in Pennsylvania. He pursued a degree at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where he encountered painter Ed Paschke, who proved to be a crucial influence on his early style. In 1977, Koons settled in New York where he worked for the Museum of Modern Art briefly before becoming a broker on Wall Street. The world of finance served as a significant inspiration for his interest in mass consumerism as the bedrock of the American Dream. He produced the Inflatables series in the late 70s, casting a balloon animal in highly polished stainless steel, achieving a mirror-like effect. The banality and kitsch aesthetic of these objects reflect the artist’s tongue-in-cheek humour and concern with the relationship between consumerism and desire.

A notable example of such artwork is his widely celebrated Balloon Rabbit. These sculptures earned him considerable acclaim by the mid 1980s on the pop art scene alongside pioneers such as Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein.

realistic, colourful paintings depicting various objects, jewellery and toys associated with a childlike consciousness and the naive pleasures of visual culture. A famous example is the work Balloon Dog. This exploration continued in his Easyfun-Ethereal (19992000) paintings and later inflatable sculptures like Popeye (2002-13) and Hulk Elvis (2004 present), representing familiar characters from pop culture. His most recent series, Gazing Ball (2012 - present), consisting of reflective, blue mirrored glass balls, evoke an immersive, multisensory experience in the viewer.

Jeff Koons is currently represented by Gagosian gallery and has his work featured in some of the most prestigious international public and private collections in the world. He has had many notable retrospectives at a plethora of museums including the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, MOCA Los Angeles, the Centre Pompidou in Paris, The Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, the Whitney Museum in New York, and the Guggenheim in Bilbao.

Koons remains one of the most iconic, controversial and coveted contemporary artists with record-breaking auction results and a dominant market of both original works and editions. His sculpture Balloon Dog (Orange) sold for $58.4 million in 2013 and Rabbit fetched $91.1 in 2019, both of which marked a record price for a living artist at auction. His oeuvre has come to define the pop art movement and continues to push the boundaries of contemporary art to this day.

Koon’s Celebration series (1994 - present) expand on his previous readymade sculptures, showing large-scale sculptures and hyper 169

JEFF KOONS Gazing Ball (Monet Water Lilies), 2018 Archival pigment print on Innova rag paper glass 98 x 96 cm

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JEFF KOONS Gazing Ball (Van Gogh Wheatfield With Cypresses), 2017 Archival Pigment Print on Innova Rag Paper Glass 90 x 104 cm

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JEFF KOONS Balloon Rabbit, Monkey And Swan, 2017 Porcelain with chromatic coating Rabbit: 30 x 14 x 21 cm Monkey: 25 x 21 x 40 cm Swan: 24 x 16 x 21 cm

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BRITISH. B. 1968

DAVID SHRIGLEY

‘I don’t really want to tell jokes about trivia; I’d kind of rather tell jokes about things like life and death.’

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ritish artist David Shrigley is best known for his iconic cartoonish drawings of childlike imagery such as animals, food or toys drawn in vibrant colour, combined with deadpan text fragments from overheard conversations or Freudian slips. His work taps into the quick and punchy spirit of contemporary visual culture, gaining him an audience far beyond merely the commercial art world. Shrigley also works in other media such as sculpture, installation, animation, photography, tattoos and music. He constantly challenges boundaries between high and low art through his signature, subversive humour and clever combinations of text and image.

David Shrigley was born in 1968 in Macclesfield, UK, and is currently living and working in Brighton.

After taking the Art and Design Foundation course at Leicester Polytechnic in 1987, he moved to Glasgow to study Environmental Art at the Glasgow School of Art until 1991. Both Shrigley’s writing projects and collaborations with musicians started early on in his career and continue to be an integral part of his practice.

In 2003, he directed the music video for the famous band Blur for their record ‘Good Song’, as well as made a collaborative album entitled ‘Worried Noodles’ in 2007, working with various musicians to interpret his texts as lyrics. Shrigley also started regularly contributing cartoons to The Guardian in 2005.

Between 2012 and 2014, he mostly produced black and white drawings of his signature cartoonish characters and fragments of writing. He had a mid-career retrospective at the Hayward Gallery in London in 2013 and was nominated for the prestigious Turner Prize in the same year. In 2016, he was commissioned to install the Fourth

Plinth on Trafalgar Square in the shape of a monumental ‘thumbs-up’ sculpture cast in bronze in the spirit of his signature deadpan humour. In 2015, colour took over his drawings yet again, continuing until the present.

Shrigley’s compositions are usually simple, centred on one main figure or image, often a mundane subject like a cat, an alarm clock or a boot, paired with pithy text. Examples are Untitled (Old is New) from 2018 showing a sphynx and Untitled (The World) from 2018 showing a crocodile with a ball held in its mouth, saying ‘the world’. In the same year, he released a series of News drawings imitating a frontpage of a news magazine featuring funny statements such as ‘Hot Milk is Too Hot’, some of which were displayed at Stephen Friedman gallery’s booth at Frieze London fair in 2018.

The display also featured some of Shrigley’s neon light installations and an animated video entitled Endless Joint (2017). In the storage unit of the gallery’s booth they also installed Shrigley’s sonic sculpture Extractor (2018), a fake fan with the artist’s voice imitating its sound.

From 2015 to 2018, Shrigley’s exhibition ‘Lose Your Mind’ organised by the British Council travelled to six countries and showed works from a variety of media, including ceramics and sculptural installations of mixed media and found object pieces.

In 2020, Shrigley’s Lockdown Drawings, consisting of 340 colourful artworks inspired by the UK’s coronavirus lockdown in spring 2020 were on view in the Stephen Friedman Gallery, which also represents the artist.

Shrigley’s popularity amongst art and non-art audiences continues to grow as he conjures refreshing, child-like views of the world paired with tongue-in-cheek social commentary.

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DAVID SHRIGLEY My Rampage is Over, 2018 Screenprint 75 x 56 cm

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DAVID SHRIGLEY Fucking Ace, 2018 Screenprint 84 x 64 cm

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DAVID SHRIGLEY I am Currently on Fire, 2018 Screenprint 76 x 56 cm

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BRITISH. B. 1974

SCHOONY

‘I believe it’s impossible to create great work without failure along the way.’

S

choony is a renowned British urban artist and sculptor known for his life-sized casts from various materials from plastic to gold.

With a successful career spanning over 30 years as a prosthetics and special-effects expert, and having worked on numerous Hollywood productions, Schoony gradually transitioned from creating spectacular props into making complex visual art pieces. His most iconic work, Boy Soldier (2008), is a fiberglass sculpture showing a child wearing a combat helmet and holding a grenade.

The sculpture was featured in KICKASS 2 and Little Favour, two popular Hollywood movies.

Schoony remains one of the few artists today working in the discipline of life-cast sculpture.

Fusing new technologies such as 3D scanning, digital modelling and 3D printing with exquisite craft and more traditional methods of sculpture, his artworks resonate with a daring political edge and pertinence that continues to push the boundaries of the art world.

Born in Hertfordshire in 1974, Schoony has been working on films since the age of 15, focusing primarily on special effects, prosthetics, props and make-up. Notable films the artist has worked on include the Harry Potter series, Gladiator and Where the Wild Things Are. While working in the film industry, Schoony developed a keen eye and expertise in creating hyperrealistic sculpture and casts. He was inspired by the creative energy in his environment, including his family members, who also worked in film, to apply his skills and vision in the field of visual arts.

The street art exhibition One foot in the Grove at Mutate Britain in 2008 proved to be a career-making milestone for the artist, whose most famous work Boy Soldier appeared

as an installation alongside a roster of wellknown street artists such as D*FACE, Inkie, Dan Baldwin and INSA. This work was first unveiled in front of the Houses of Parliament in the anti-war protests of 2008. Another famous and more recent piece is called Bruiser (2017), showing a little girl emerging from a panel wearing boxing gloves. Both artworks have been produced in multiple editions cast in various materials from wood to bronze and gold. Since his breakthrough, his works have been especially popular amongst celebrity collectors like Brad Pitt, Benedict Cumberbatch, Rita Ora and Damon Albarn from the famous British band Blur.

The shirtless child is a recurring motif in his works. It’s a strong juxtaposition of childlike innocence and naivety to the horrors of war and violence, confronting the viewer with how children are forced into war in conflict zones across the globe. Schoony’s powerful use of symbolism reinforces the political message underlining his works, addressing Western society’s dissociative and commercialised relationship with warfare.

Alongside receiving wide-ranging critical appeal from the art world press, Schoony also has permanent representation by Guy Hephner gallery in New York and Waluso, as well as Maddox Gallery in London.

Most recently, Schoony has been taking a step towards digital media with his work including animation and the creation of his own NFTs (non-fungible tokens); a move that is testament to his commitment to consistently push the boundaries of his craft and medium. The work Where The War Things Are (2021) is a version of the famous piece Boy Soldier, released on the platform Superrare.

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SCHOONY Pink Drip, 2020 Wood and Fibreglass 140 x 70 cm

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SCHOONY Half Size Boy Soldier, 2020 Graphite 60 cm

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SCHOONY Bruiser (Pink Gloves), 2020 Wood and fibreglass 122 x 60 x 35 cm

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AMERICAN. B. 1975

JUSTIN BOWER

‘ I want [my art] to be familiar, disturbing and electrifying.’

A

merican artist, Justin Bower, explores the notion of identity in a post-human society through his large-scale oil on canvas paintings. In a culture where technology is displacing religious belief systems, Bower’s futuristic paintings interrogate the human condition. Playing with non-fixed facial features and the hallucinatory effects of Op Art, Bower’s pixelated portraits become an armature for the artist to investigate the effects of the ever-evolving world around us.

Often citing Willem de Koonig and Leonardo da Vinci as his key influences, the style of Bower’s work can be seen as a contemporary fusion between the naturalism and proportion of Renaissance art, mixed with the painterly strokes of Abstract Expressionism.

Born in San Francisco in 1975, Justin Bower was interested in art from an extremely young age.

Spending his childhood copying Old Master paintings, Bower always had an attraction to figurative art, especially depictions of the human body. Wishing to refine his artistic technique and his theoretical knowledge, Bower went on to complete his undergraduate degree in Art and Philosophy, at the University of Arizona. In the early 2000s, Bower moved to Los Angeles to pursue his artistic career, taking the opportunity to undergo further training. By 2011, Bower had received his Masters in Fine Arts from Claremont Graduate University and since has both been nominated and won a plethora of grants and awards, including The Feitelson Fellowship Grant (2010) and The Joan Mitchell award (2010).

a later exhibition at New York’s Unix Gallery in 2013. Bower has also come to host solo shows at Lancaster Museum of Art & History (2015), the Pomona Art Museum (2017), and the Riverside Art Museum (2019).

With an ever-increasing following, Bower’s paintings can also be found in a number of public art collections, such as The Weisman Art Foundation in Los Angeles and the Cosmopolitan Collection in Las Vegas. As popular in public as in private, Bower’s works have also been sought after by many notable collectors and prominent patrons within the art world, with both the president of Fundación Jumex Arte Contemporáneo, Eugenio Lopez, and Mexican business magnate, Carlos Slim, owning pieces of his works.

Bower first exhibited with Maddox Gallery in 2020 in a group exhibition in our Los Angeles gallery. The artist is to have a solo show with Maddox in June 2021, at our Los Angeles location in the fashionable West Hollywood design district. The show promises an in-depth discussion on technology, identity and what it means to be human.

In addition to this, his work has been the subject of several solo exhibitions in galleries across the United States, including a 2010 exhibition at Ace Gallery in Beverly Hills and 187

JUSTIN BOWER Eternal Emergence, 2020 Oil on Canvas 213 x 183 cm

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JUSTIN BOWER Mesmerized II, 2020 Oil on Canvas 122 x 91 cm

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JUSTIN BOWER Lit from Within, 2020 Oil on Canvas 213 x 183 cm

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GERMAN. B. 1983

MIKE DARGAS

‘My art mainly deals with the emotional world. Therefore, I don’t paint concrete imagery. All of my paintings are trying to catch an emotional snapshot and aim to evoke a certain feeling in the viewer.’

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erman artist Mike Dargas is known as a pioneer of hyperrealistic painting. In his attempt to capture the innate essence of his subjects, Dargas’ portraits feature exquisite detail and authenticity, possessing an ethereal quality and sense of intimacy which is enhanced by the meticulous craft of his realism. He often depicts his models with liquids being poured onto them, resulting in a poetic and almost seductive effect. Invoking the profound subject studies of canonical artists like Salvador Dali, Dargas makes us reconsider the intricacies of human thought, emotion and feeling.

Mike Dargas was born in Cologne in 1983, where he still lives and works. After having attended art school and being the youngest one to graduate from his class, he started gaining notoriety in the tattoo art scene, claiming numerous awards and prizes for his unique designs. He trained as a carpenter, creating sculptures out of industrial materials such as wood and metal. Dargas cites artists including Salvador Dali, Caravaggio and HR Giger as primary influences, and traces of surrealism and symbolism around the subconscious loom large in his intimate portraits, providing upclose snapshots of the human psyche. He also created a golden portrait of Dali himself in 2019 as a tribute to the famous father of Surrealism.

the picturesque. His works have an inherently seductive quality given the tactility and photographic effect evoked by his hyperrealistic style. With many notable group and solo presentations around Europe and the US, including WHITECONCEPTS (2017) and Ponyhof galleries (2015) Germany, Galerie Atelier I.S. in Belgium (2013), Palau de Casavells (2015) in Spain, C24 Gallery (2017) in New York, Art Angeles in LA (2018) and Maddox Gallery (2019) in the UK, Dargas’ works are also included in prestigious private collections around the world.

Now represented by Maddox Gallery and expanding the limits of portraiture, Dargas aims to capture the true essence of his subjects’ character, which radiates from his canvases with mesmerizing intensity, drawing the viewer in. His works have an atemporal, transcendental quality that celebrates human spirit, beauty and individuality across the ages. creating works that explore the relationship between language, colour and physical space.

To achieve a visceral effect in his paintings, he often experiments with various textures like liquid honey or smoke dripping from his subjects’ faces, as exemplified in Nothing Else Matters (2015) or Breathe Me (2017). Dargas uses these techniques to invoke authentic emotion from his subjects, prompting them to be present and react to the sensation naturally in the moment. He then captures every micro-expression and wrinkle with a precise hand that sharpens the final effect of 193

MIKE DARGAS Sweet Motion, 2019 Oil on Canvas 183 x 122 cm

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MIKE DARGAS Stormi, 2018 Limited Edition Archival Pigment Print 135 x 112 cm

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MIKE DARGAS Black and Gold, 2018 Limited Edition Print 122 x 102 cm

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CANADIAN. B. 1952 | D. 2017

RICHARD HAMBLETON

‘I painted the town black. They could represent watchmen or danger or the shadows of a human body after a nuclear holocaust or even my own shadow.’

O

ften called the ‘Godfather of street art’, Canadian-born Richard Hambleton was a prolific graffiti artist and influential member of the street art scene in New York in the 1980s with peers such as Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat. Though his influence on the legacy of street art is undeniable today, Hambleton had a famously fluctuating career, with his oeuvre re-gaining considerable recognition after his death. He is best known for the recurring visual motif of the Shadowman, an ominous life-sized black silhouette.

Born in 1952 in Vancouver, Richard Hambleton studied at the Vancouver School of Art before creating his first significant series, the Image Mass Murder works in 1976. These powerful graffiti paintings imitated the chalk outlines of victims’ bodies drawn by police during investigations and gained Hambleton the recognition both of the mainstream press and the art world.

He travelled to New York in 1979, where he met pioneers like Keith Haring and JeanMichel Basquiat. His famous Shadowman works started popping up across the streets of New York, in the shape of an all-black human silhouette as a reminder of the rising crime rates in the city. These quickly spread onto the pages of local and international newspapers, putting Hambleton on the map as one of the leading voices of street art. He continued his Shadowman series across European cities such as Venice, Berlin and Paris, including 17 black silhouettes painted onto the Berlin Wall.

Alongside his public works, he also started producing paintings in the studio and showing more commercially. A new variation on his iconic character depicted on his canvases was the Marlboro Man, a similar shadowy figure on

a horse. Hambleton’s commercial success was marked by fashion collaborations by the likes of Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren in 1983, which used his signature imagery for their collections. These years saw the peak of Hambleton’s career. He was included in the prestigious Venice Biennale in 1984 and 1988.

The artist gradually withdrew himself from the public eye and the art world alike around the 1990s, shaken by the death of his peers, Haring and Basquiat, as well as struggling with drug addiction. He emerged with a new set of paintings called Beautiful Paintings (2007), which used bright colours and abstract painterly brushstrokes. Their reception by the New York art scene was rather negative and led him to sink into obscurity. In 2009, a notable exhibition Richard Hambleton – New York in collaboration with Giorgio Armani spanned over his entire career and included his Shadowman and Marlboro Man works, touring internationally.

Hambleton’s oeuvre received renewed attention after his death in 2017, through the documentary Shadowman, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in the same year.

This saw a critical rise in his market prices and the curatorial interest in his work, causing his pieces to claim record auction results within months. His paintings are included in the collections of prominent institutions such as the Andy Warhol Museum, the New Museum of Contemporary Art, the Brooklyn Museum, and Queens Museum in the United States, and the Checkpoint Charlie Museum in Berlin.

As the ‘Godfather of street art’, Hambleton’s lasting influence on the world of street art, as well as the power of his symbolic imagery and activism resonate with a newfound force today.

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RICHARD HAMBLETON Shadow Head With White Background, 1992 Oil on Canvas 41 x 52 cm

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RICHARD HAMBLETON Horse And Rider, 2011 Oil on Canvas 135 x 84 cm

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RICHARD HAMBLETON Standing Shadow W. Orange/Pink, 2009 Oil on Canvas 204 x 76 cm

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AMERICAN. B. 1957

GEORGE CONDO

‘I describe what I do as psychological Cubism.’

K

nown for his grotesque nudes and warped portraits, George Condo has occupied a central position in American art for the past forty years. His imaginative and unique visual vocabulary plays tribute to a vast array of arthistorical genres, such as Old Master portraiture, Cubism and allusions to American contemporary culture. Condo paints a cast of characters whose deconstructed faces all confront the viewer with wild energy. Investigating both the macabre and the carnivalesque, Condo’s diverse range of artwork remains united by his very specific pictorial language.

With contorted figures and twisted features, Condo’s paintings have continued to shock and delight throughout his prosperous career.

Born in 1957, George Condo grew up in Concord, New Hampshire. At the age of 18, Condo attended the University of Massachusetts in Lowell, where he studied art history and music theory. After just two years of college, Condo left and started working in a silkscreen shop in Boston. Whilst there, the budding artist also joined a band called The Girls, which led him to meeting the renowned street artist, Jean-Michel Basquiat. Basquiat encouraged Condo to pursue his artistic career and consequently, Condo moved to New York.

New York where he had two solo exhibitions with Pat Hearn Gallery and Barbara Gladstone Gallery. This signalled a turning point in Condo’s career, as since then, he has gone on to host exhibitions all over the world. From the Musée Maillol in Paris to the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, Condo continues to exhibit at the world’s finest art institutions.

Aside from his fine art, Condo is also wellknown for his more commercial art, including a number of book and album covers. In 2006, he was commissioned to create the book cover for Jack Kerouac’s posthumously published Book of Sketches. Later in 2010, he also created the album cover for Kanye West’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy; an album that would look to receive triple platinum certification and continue to sell over three million copies.

Between 1981 and 1983 Condo remained in New York, working in Andy Warhol’s factory applying gold to the pop artist’s Myths series.

During this time, Condo’s first public exhibitions were held in the East Village galleries. Whilst not a solo exhibition, Condo would move to Los Angeles in 1983 to host his first solo show in the Ulrike Kantor Gallery, followed by another at Germany’s Monika Sprueth Gallery in 1984; a show that marked his European debut.

Following these events, Condo returned to 205

GEORGE CONDO Droopy Dog Abstraction, 2017 Screenprint 46 x 41 cm

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GEORGE CONDO Paper Faces, 1999 Screenprint 82 x 123 cm

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GEORGE CONDO The Taylor, 2008 Oil on canvas 102 x 92 cm

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AMERICAN. B. 1937

ED RUSCHA

‘ I like the idea of a word becoming a picture, almost leaving its body, then coming back and becoming a word again. I see myself working with two things that don’t even ask to understand each other.’

E

d Ruscha is a key American artist of the late twentieth century with his influences ranging from pop art and conceptualism, to surrealism and Dada. His diverse oeuvre spans multiple media – from painting to print, drawing, photography and film, alongside an abundance of artist’s books. Welding the visual language of commercial advertising to witty and profound compositions of text, image and colour, his visions of the mid-century American landscape, life and aesthetic have made their mark on art history since the 1960s.

Born Edward Joseph Ruscha IV in Omaha, Nebraska in 1937, Ed Ruscha grew up in Oklahoma City. Moving to Los Angeles to study graphic design and advertising at the Chouinard Art Institute, he was influenced by both pop art and Neo-Dadaism in his early years. His work in commercial advertising was significant in developing the artist’s characteristic mixture of typography and visual and conceptual cues.

Ruscha’s visit to Europe in 1960 marked an important milestone in his career, prompting a series of signature works that situated text at the centre of the image. Manipulating readymade material into what he termed, ‘visual constructs’, he sought to move beyond the trope of the artist as a painterly hand into a conceptual presence and authority.

Continuing to produce such works upon his return to the United States, he nonetheless found national acclaim quickly. Notable works from this period include Honk (1962), Smash (1963) and Hurting the Word Radio #2 (1964), which sold at auction for a worldrecord price of $52,485,000 at Christie’s in 2019. Another early piece Annie (1962) fetched $22,975,000 at Christie’s in 2020.

artist’s books, Twentysix Gasoline Stations – a collection of photographs taken along the infamous Route 66 – that would shape his later iconic works including Standard Station (1966).

The late 1960s until the mid-1970s marked a period of experimentation with different industrial and organic materials, for the artist.

Series such as Stains (1970) and Corrosive Liquids (1973) wielded unusual substances including blood, food and gunpowder on paper to lend a new conceptual charge to the traces of contemporary American life.

Ruscha has held over 21 solo presentations with Gagosian since joining the gallery in 1993, with his first retrospective hosted by the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York in 2004. Since then, he has had major exhibitions at the Venice Biennale in 2005, the Hayward Gallery in London, the Haus der Kunst in Munich and the Moderna Museet in Stockholm in 2009, as well as in London’s National Gallery and Tate Modern in 2018/19.

His play on language and typography have continued to endure in more recent landscape series up until his very latest show at Gagosian New York (November 2020-January 2021), which exorcises text once and for all.

Ruscha’s ‘visual constructs’ continue to define his legacy over American pop and conceptualism to this day with a unique wit and playfulness that simultaneously manages to capture the essence of the sublime.

In 1963, Ruscha published the first of his many 211

ED RUSCHA Bliss Bucket, 2010 Lithograph in Colours 76 x 79 cm

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ED RUSCHA History Kids, 2013 Lithograph in Colours 83 x 80 cm

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ED RUSCHA Cold Beer Beautiful Girls, 2009 Colour lithograph 103 x 78 cm

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AMERICAN. B. 1974

MARC QUINN

‘I guess my goal has been just to figure out how to get through life making stuff.’

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ivotal British multidisciplinary artist Marc Quinn’s practice explores what it is to be human in the world today, spanning over sculpture, painting and installation. Quinn engages with themes like the environment, mass media, identity and the human body by employing a range of materials from organic substances like human blood and fauna, to industrial fabrics like bronze and steel. He was a member of the famous YBA generation along with Damien Hirst, Tracey Emin and Sarah Lucas, rising to prominence in the 1990s. His artworks continue to define contemporary British art, with his most definitive ongoing series to date being his self-portraits made with Quinn’s own blood, entitled Self (1999-present).

Born in 1964 in London, Quinn spent his early years in Paris before moving back to the UK to study History of Art at Cambridge University. In the 1990s, he was represented

by Jay Jopling and exhibited his iconic series Self (1991), a self-portrait made of the artist’s own frozen blood. In the early 90s, Quinn was a member of the loosely affiliated Young British Artists group supported by the art collector Charles Saatchi, alongside Damien Hirst, Rachel Whiteread, Tracey Emin and others, who gained considerable attention after their Sensation exhibition at the Royal Academy in London in 1997. The exhibition, which featured Quinn’s famous Self sculpture, later toured to the Hamburger Bahnhof in Berlin and the Brooklyn Museum in New York.

exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery in 2001, composed of bacteria that contain the DNA of the Nobel prize-winning physiologist in agar jelly. In 2002, he showed his mixed media work 1+1+3 (2002), creating a rainbow at the Liverpool Biennale. For his commission for the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square in 2004, Quinn produced a marble sculpture of Alison Lapper, a pregnant disabled artist. Another notable work, Siren (2008) is a public marble sculpture of British model Kate Moss assuming a yoga pose, located in Folketeatret in Oslo, Norway.

In 2013, Quinn had a solo exhibition for the 55th Venice Biennale at the Fondazione Giorgio Cini, and his first monograph Memory Box was published by curator Germano Celant in the same year. In his recent exhibition, The Toxic Sublime (2015), at White Cube Bermondsey, Quinn showed a new series of sculptures that explore the detrimental impact of humans and technology on the ecosystem.

His ongoing Viral Paintings series (2020 present) are inspired by the COVID pandemic and consist of blown-up screenshots of Quinn’s phone with images of the news.

Quinn currently lives and works in London, continuing to produce pioneering artworks that show a commitment to social justice and push the boundaries of visual and conceptual art.

A series of exhibitions of Quinn’s works followed, including the South London Gallery (1999), The Groningen Museum (2000) and the Fondazione Prada in Milan (2000), where he exhibited his notable work Garden, containing thousands of flowers frozen in silicone oil.

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MARC QUINN Canadian Arctic Circle, 2008 Oil on Canvas 169 x 249 cm

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MARC QUINN Chromosphere, 2018 Pigment print with matt varnish on Somerset Stain 330gsm Paper 80 x 80 cm

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MARC QUINN Heliosphere, 2018 Pigment print with matt varnish on Somerset Stain 330gsm Paper 80 x 80 cm

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MARC QUINN Under the Volcano, Snezhniy, 2008 Oil on Canvas 170 x 249 cm

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POLISH. B. 1987

IGOR DOBROWOLSKI

‘It is very important for me to include, in all of my works a particle of hope, because I believe it’s going to be ‘better’. Even after the greatest tragedies.’

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riven by a passion to capture the profound and often tragic nature of human experience, interdisciplinary artist Igor Dobrowolski creates multilayered visual works that contrast Western consumerism with its devastating effects on the environment and communities in other parts of the world. His often monochromatic, visceral portraits collage fragments of familiar imagery and iconographies from Western cultural and intellectual history, photographs, symbolism and graffiti to create haunting compositions. These confront the viewer with the starkly opposing parallel realities of contemporary society, as well as force us to negotiate our personal positioning within it.

Born in 1987 in Poland, Dobrowolski’s practice is intimately rooted in the visual influences of his childhood environment and hometown of Jelenia Góra. Influenced by the likes of Salvador Dali and M. C Escher, he spent a lot of his childhood making drawings and sketches based on art books he found at home, which initially awoke his interest in pursuing a career in the visual arts. As he grew older and became more exposed to the harsher realities of life in other parts of the world, his sense of purpose crystalised further, wanting to draw awareness to these issues through his art and make a positive change in the world.

scenes of poverty and war. Dobrowolski’s signature style often merges various artistic tropes from photomontage, gestural abstraction and graffiti in an intelligent and provocative layering of image and meaning.

This is reflected in his well-known work Fragile Dreams (2020), created with oil on canvas, expanding on the radical material and conceptual possibilities of the traditional artistic medium. Other paintings have a more subtle surrealist sensitivity and dreamlike quality, mapping a rich vocabulary of symbolism onto abstracted portraits, such as in the works Dry Your Eyes (2018) and Fragile Mirror (2019).

He has had notable exhibitions internationally, including Poland, Germany and the UK, and his works are included in the collections of celebrities like Nicole Scherzinger, Channing Tatum and Gigi Hadid. In 2019, Dobrowolski also worked with the band 5 Seconds of Summer on a live painting masterclass.

Dobrowolski’s pioneering artistic practice and activism continues to push the boundaries of the art world and fuse a material and visual sensitivity with an uncompromising commitment to drawing attention to injustice and making the world a better place

He soon launched an independent billboard campaign focusing on the harmful effects of the fast fashion industry, following the death of over 1000 workers at a factory in Bangladesh that collapsed. A further campaign called Christmas in Yemen (2017) consisted of a series of unsettling yet profound artworks juxtaposing images of consumerism with 225

IGOR DOBROWOLSKI We All Had A Dream, 2018 Oil Paint on Linen Canvas on Board 175 x 125 cm

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IGOR DOBROWOLSKI Just Fly Away Oil on Canvas 155 x 122 cm

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IGOR DOBROWOLSKI She Said I Felt Oil on Linen Canvas 190 x 135 cm

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DANISH. B. 1984

MIKAEL B

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‘I want to create a personal space, an infinite universe, a haven where thoughts can wander and … concerns and negative thoughts can disappear…so we can just be.’

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ased in Los Angeles, Mikael B is an urban contemporary artist whose work focuses on transforming experience into abstract design. Influenced by his early years as a graffiti artist, Mikael B uses a mixture of spray and acrylic paint to create his dynamic conceptual works. Taking inspiration from the refracted shapes of Cubism, Mikael B’s artwork focuses on both depth and form, echoing the style of Picasso, but with a street art twist and a pop of colour. Finding fame through the power that is social media, this Danish artist continues to blur the lines between street art and abstraction with an unmistakable style that has won him critical acclaim across the globe.

Born in 1984, Mikael Brandrup was raised in Holbæk, Denmark. From a young age, Brandrup exhibited a strong need to express himself visually, drawing continuously both at school and within his free time. Acknowledging his passion and raw talent, his parents encouraged his creative pursuits, providing him with spray paints and large plywood panels to practice with. This ignited a life-long love of street art for Brandrup, which has become the foundation of much of his artwork. As a teenager, Brandrup quickly became part of Copenhagen’s graffiti scene in Sydhavnen, where he painted hundreds of walls under the moniker ‘KETS’.

After completing national military service, Brandrup - still fuelled by his love of colour and the artistic use of shapes – decided to study graphic design. However, Brandrup’s wish for independence and his natural entrepreneurial flair led him to stop his studies before completing his training, and instead, start up a design agency with his twin brother.

and continued to create artwork in his spare moments, sharing his works to his supporters on social media. In 2014, Brandrup’s work, Vibrant World, a typographical masterpiece went viral, receiving over one million views on Facebook.

This immediately launched Brandrup’s career, which since has grown meteorically. Following his newfound success, the artist sold the agency and moved to Los Angeles with his brother in order to pursue his artistic career.

In 2016, Brandrup had his first ever solo exhibition, Just Be, in Copenhagen, Denmark.

The exhibition was extremely successful and sold out within days. This set a precedent for Brandrup, as with every year following, his solo exhibitions continued to sell out without fail.

His debut show in 2017 at Los Angeles’ Gregorio Escalante gallery proved the same, in addition to, Never Tomorrow in 2018, Brandrup’s largest exhibition in Copenhagen to date. His continued success proves that the appetite for Brandrup’s unique graffiti graphic style shows no signs of slowing. Commercially, Brandrup’s style proves equally successful, as within this period Brandrup also collaborated with many globally renowned brands, including Bentley Motors, LinkedIn, Google, Nike and Mercedes.

In 2020, Mikael B joined Maddox Gallery, exhibiting as part of a group exhibition within our Los Angeles gallery. In May 2021, Brandrup will have his first solo exhibition with Maddox Gallery, Los Angeles, entitled Flow State. The exhibition is informed by geometric abstraction and surrealism and will explore the tangible and intangible world.

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MIKAEL B Firelight, 2021 Acrylic and Spray Paint on Canvas 152 x 102 cm

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MIKAEL B The Swing Symphony #2, 2020 Spray Paint on Canvas 152 x 183 cm

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MIKAEL B Night Drive #3, 2021 Acrylic and Spray Paint on Canvas 72 x 72 cm

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SCOTTISH. B. 1981

ROSS MUIR

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‘Art has become my Mother, my Father & my closest companion.’

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cottish artist Ross Muir recreates iconic artworks and imagery with a contemporary twist. From Adidas tracksuits to witty slogans, the artist creates prints and paintings inspired by the history of art. Vincent van Gogh, Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso are just a few of the historic creatives the artist has paid homage to. Turning to painting later in life, Muir has only just begun to untap his limitless creative potential and we are proud to announce that in April 2021, Muir joined Maddox Gallery’s roster of talented artists.

Born in 1981, Ross Muir grew up in Alexandria in the Vale of Leven, Scotland before moving to Glasgow in 2009. Turning to art later in life, with no formal artistic training and after having received a small set of paints as a gift, Muir was aged 30 when he started his artistic practice. Painting first as a hobby as well as a means of escaping from past troubles, Muir’s raw talent and ingenious creativity immediately shone through. With the support of his friends and family, Muir became a full-time artist just a few years later.

cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic.

This, however, did not deter Muir. Throughout the first national lockdown, Muir instead turned his creativity to the streets, with posters of his signature Vincent Van Gogh portrait - featuring the words ‘Jist Gogh Hame’ - appearing all over the city of Glasgow. As a message that was both witty and incredibly relevant, Muir’s artwork resonated with its onlookers and soon garnered international attention through social media. In December 2020, Muir’s work was recognised by the official Van Gogh Museum in the Netherlands, with the institution proudly posting Muir’s artwork on their Instagram account to announce the temporary closing of the gallery.

In 2021, we were honoured to have Ross Muir join Maddox Gallery’s roster of represented artists, signalling a new era in his prosperous career.

Producing prints and paintings, Muir’s work focused on altered replications of famous artists and imagery. In 2018, his original painting of the Dutch impressionist Vincent van Gogh, entitled Square Gogh, went viral within a matter of days. Muir’s wide-spread success on social media saw many galleries interested in his work, with The Thistle Art Gallery in Glasgow’s West End, taking him on as a featured artist.

In October 2019, Muir had his first ever solo exhibition in Glasgow’s City Centre.

The exhibition was a huge success and was sold-out before even opening the doors.

A second exhibition was also planned for 2020, but unfortunately, this was 237

ROSS MUIR Oh Jessica, 2021 Oil on Canvas 149 x 181 cm

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ROSS MUIR Cut ‘n Burn, 2021 Oil on Canvas 128 x 97 cm

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ROSS MUIR Oh Jessica, 2021 Oil on Canvas 172 x 149 cm

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BRITISH. B. 1992

GRACELAND LONDON

‘I am heavily influenced by the darker side of the human ego and psychology, and fascinated by the idea of ‘the unknown’, which leads to a wonderland of questions’.

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raceland London is a London-based visual artist and illustrator working across print and painting, best known for her unique depiction of contemporary society’s obsession with narcissism and mass consumption. Her paintings draw on a rich vocabulary from digital and pop cultural references to religious and art historical symbolism, influenced by Italian Renaissance and Flemish art, as well as the aesthetic of Americana and horror.

Her colourful figures and scenes are relatable yet grotesque, showing the sinister side of our culture today, depicting decadent landscapes that merge surrealist elements with familiar objects and scenes of the everyday. Her subjects are notably femme fatales, appearing like mythical creatures indulging in temporary hedonistic pleasures.

Graceland London was born in London and studied Fine Art and History of Art at Hampstead Fine Arts before pursuing a Bachelor’s degree in 3D Digital Design and Animation, which has been a continuous influence on the aesthetic and technical aspects of her practice. Graceland London’s work merges the macabre with tropes of kitschy, ‘cute’ feminine aesthetics.

Frequently using a candy-coloured palette featuring bright pinks and purples, her uncanny canvases are populated with teddy bears, cakes and designer accessories next to her glamorous female protagonists who appear like otherworldly creatures, often portrayed naked and covered in bruises with neon-coloured skin. Her practice engages with themes of female identity, human obsession, consumption and narcissism in the digital age, representing haunting scenes of decadence where horror meets capitalism.

international exhibitions, including Art Basel Miami Beach, Bloomsbury Gallery (2020), JD Malat gallery (2020) and a collaboration with the Camden Council in London. Her immersive virtual exhibition As Above, So Below opened in Maddox Gallery in London in 2020, guiding the visitors through a haunted motel in a captivating parallel universe where our vices, existential anxiety and commercialised selfobsession are laid bare. Examples of her unique and instantly recognisable style from this exhibition are The End of the World (2020) and Hennything is Possible (2020), featuring an array of playfully sinister imagery from upside-down crosses and stuffed animals carrying machine guns to self-aware yet humorous quotations addressing the corrupt and consumerist underbelly of contemporary society. This dystopian series was also heavily inspired by the pandemic period and the looming political anxiety about the American elections. The American symbolic and physical landscape both loom large throughout Graceland London’s work - the Art Deco era in Miami, and films like Miami Vice are major influences on her choice of landscapes and colour palette.

Mental health is important to the artist both personally and in subject matter. Her work addresses the psychology behind the suppressed and anxiety-driven vices of the contemporary individual, and she also supports mental health charities through her artworks.

Graceland London has had many notable 243

GRACELAND Twin Flame, 2021 Acrylic and Oil on Canvas 120 x 100 cm

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GRACELAND Lonely Train Ride, 2020 Acrylic and Oil on Canvas 120 x 100 cm

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GRACELAND The Fruits of Hell’s Labour, 2021 Acrylic and Oil on Canvas 130 x 110 cm

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BRITISH. B. 1972

DAN BALDWIN

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‘Colour is my first passion, then the perfection I’m searching for in every painting is about the harmony between texture and composition’.

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ecognised as one of the leading figures in the Young British Artist movement, Dan Baldwin is a contemporary artist best known for his colourful fusion of abstract and figurative styles. Citing pop art as one of his biggest artistic inspirations, Baldwin’s canvases champion colour, as well as exploring the harmony between composition and form.

The themes of his work have continually shifted throughout his career, with his most recent body of work, Fragmented Landscapes, being an in-depth mediation on the vibrancy and joy of colour. Over the past 30 years, Baldwin has exhibited internationally and has gathered a highly influential collector base, with Damien Hirst, Peter Blake and Gilbert & George all collecting the artist’s work.

Born in Manchester in 1972, Dan Baldwin was interested in art from a young age. In 1981, Baldwin moved to the South of England without his father. He cites this as an impactful moment in his life, which contributed towards his fascination with nostalgia and the themes of childhood that remain prominent throughout his artwork. Growing up as creative teenager whose interests included music, drumming and drawing, Baldwin notes that it was not until the age of 16 that he considered being an artist as a full-time career.

moving to Brighton later that year, exhibited at the Brighton Fringe Festival in 1997 and 1998. It was at this exhibition that Baldwin was discovered by the director of the Horsham Arts Centre, who subsequently would host the artist’s first ever solo exhibition in 1999. Exhibiting over two floors, the show generated the most press coverage Horsham Arts Centre had ever had and since then, Baldwin has had over 18 more solo exhibitions across the United Kingdom, the United States and Europe, as well as participating in over 100 group shows worldwide.

The versatility of Baldwin’s style has led to a number of artistic collaborations, ranging from working with fashion designer Sara Berman and international make-up brand Max Factor to creating the album artwork for renowned musician Paolo Nutini. The artist also has a diverse and influential collector base with his art being collected by Damien Hirst, Peter Blake, Gilbert & George and Jake Chapman, to name just a few.

Baldwin studied at Eastbourne College of Art, learning a diverse range of skills from creating ceramics and undertaking life drawing lessons to learning animation and different print-making skills. Following college, he continued his studies at Kent Institute of Art and after graduating with a Bachelor’s degree in 1995, decided to move to London.

In 1996, the artist curated a group show in Islington at the Candid Arts Trust and after 249

DAN BALDWIN Doll, 2016 Mixed media on canvas (acrylic glitter vintage toy) 183 x 122 cm

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DAN BALDWIN Serenity, 2021 Pure Pigment and Acrylic on Canvas 122 x 122 cm

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DAN BALDWIN Forced to Believe or Do Things, 2015 Ceramic Vase 75 x 45 cm

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BRITISH. B. 1996

SEBASTIAN CHAUMETON

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‘The core concept of my work is that context is everything. Everyone comes to images with their own pre-conceptions, and I want to subvert that”.

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orn in London in 1996, Seb Chaumeton is an emerging multi-media artist fascinated by the effects of internet culture.

Reimagining recognisable cartoon characters and internet memes, Chaumeton’s work challenges pre-conceptions and encourages the viewer to reconsider assumptions.

Recently graduating from Chelsea College of Art, Chaumeton has already exhibited globally, with exhibitions at Maddox Gallery in London and Whitestone in Hong Kong. Collaborating with renowned brands including Laurent Perrier, Pizza Pilgrims and P&O Ferries, the immediate success of Chaumeton proves that this artist is here to stay.

Sebastian Chaumeton was born in London in 1996 to creative parents. Growing up in Farnham with a father who studied art at university and a mother interested in textiles, Chaumeton was born into an artistic family and displayed an interest in the arts from a young age. Always knowing he wanted to do something creative, it was not until Chaumeton enrolled at Chelsea College of Art that he realised he wanted to become an artist full-time. During his studies, he explored many types of practices, particularly focussing on ceramics as well as murals. In 2017, the artist executed Big Blu a monumental acrylic on board mural. Taking suggestions on what to paint from members of the public, this was the first time Chaumeton relinquished authorship whilst creating his work, a theme that would later become central to his practice.

mural featured dancing sea creatures that adorned the ferry’s ‘kids club’. That same year, the artist was also commissioned by LaurentPerrier Champagne to create live artwork at London’s primary food festival, Taste of London. Working in collaboration with other food brands like Pizza Pilgrims, Bob’s Lobsters and Yum Bun, Chaumeton painted artworks in front of a live audience inspired by the different food brands and their distinct cuisines.

After finishing his degree later that year in 2019, the artist undertook a three month residency at Maddox Gallery in Shepherd Market, creating a range of multi-media artworks that were exhibited in his debut solo exhibition in the same space entitled, Fuzzy Futures.

In 2020, Chaumeton presented his second major exhibition, Little Fables at Whitestone Gallery in Hong Kong. The group show featured six young artists with Chaumeton’s installation taking centre stage.

In 2021, Maddox Gallery exhibited his latest collection Context Plz, a modern interpretation of The Twelve Labours of Hercules. Exploring the consequences of internet culture, the body of work addresses ideas of perception and comprehension by provoking the viewer to reconsider their initial expectations and challenge their bias.

During the artist’s final year at Chelsea College of Art, Chaumeton was commissioned by P&O Cruises to paint a mural on their latest ship, Iona.

Measuring 7 metres long and inspired by his earlier work Big Blu, Chaumeton’s monumental 255

SEBASTIAN CHAUMETON The Cretan Bull Acrylic, Oil, Enamel and Wood on Canvas 140 x 140 cm

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SEBASTIAN CHAUMETON The Nemean Lion Acrylic, Oil, Enamel and a Pill on Canvas 140 x 140 cm

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SEBASTIAN CHAUMETON The Ceryneian Hind Acrylic, Oil, Fabric and Buttons on Canvas 140 x 140 cm

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SWISS/ITALIAN. B. 1987

MASSIMO AGOSTINELLI

‘The importance of the message art conveys to people, is what inspires me to create.’

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wiss-Italian artist and activist Massimo Agostinelli has been called the ‘next Ed Ruscha’ of contemporary art and is known for his innovative text-based artworks that explore the relationship between language and image in unexpected ways, creating a whole new vocabulary of semiotics. His canvases incorporate familiar images from across art history and popular culture as their backdrop, including Botticelli’s Venus or Sean Connery as James Bond, which Agostinelli then reappropriates. Adding witty, dead-pan text, the artist creates a new contextual dimension to the existing images. Colour is the other crucial element to Agostinelli’s technique, who often renders his painting in monochromatic hues such as bright red or green and hereby colourcodes his unique compositions of visual poetry.

Born in London in 1987, Massimo Agostinelli grew up in Manhattan in New York as the son of Italian-American financier Robert Agostinelli and sculptress Pascale Gallais.

He is currently living and working in Switzerland. After graduating from Webster University, he moved back to London to study printmaking and typesetting, which further developed his interest in typography and how the relationship between text and image can evoke meaning in the viewer.

His first notable series entitled Palindromes (2014) gained Agostinelli much critical and commercial acclaim, officially launching his career in the art world. The series of works on mirrored canvas each mix various narratives from Greek mythology and Renaissance painting such as Peter Paul Reuben’s Adam & Eve, with 20th century politics like the moon landing, and present-day pop culture, accompanied by palindromic statements - words that read

the same backwards - to an arresting effect.

Agostinelli’s subsequent series explore similar themes and expand on his visual vocabulary as well as his techniques, tapping into more pop cultural and historical archives. With the Anagrams series exhibited at HG Contemporary, he morphed the names of pop cultural icons into anagrams by means of lenticular printing.

Examples from this body of work are Elvis (2015) and Michael Jackson (2015). For the solo show Signs at Unit London (2019), the artist took on a more minimalist and conceptual approach, finding inspiration in road signs and astronomy.

A signature subversive streak remains central to his practice, reflected in humorous political stunts. In 2018, he placed basil plants around Art Basel art fair and coloured the water a luminous green as a clever conceptual intervention. 2019 also saw two separate and renowned interventions by Agostinelli, with the artist installing a dead rat with a tag reading “Blase” attached to its tail at Art Basel, as well as creating a site-specific installation of a 1 tonne translucent ice block pulled by a Tesla at the entrance of London’s Frieze art fair, entitled ‘Freeze’. He also placed an ice sculpture in the shape of “XX” inside the fair, referring to the climatic tipping point of 2.0 °C. Agostinelli is amongst the most critical and pivotal conceptual artists living and working today, continually expanding on the possibilities between words and images to challenge our perception of objective reality and its politics.

His artworks can be found in many prestigious international collections such as those of Alpina Gstaad and the founding patron of the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa.

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MASSIMO AGOSTINELLI Now I won, 2015 Matte Ink on Acrylic Mirror 160 x 125 cm

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MASSIMO AGOSTINELLI Mega Gem, 2015 Matte Ink on Vinyl and Acrylic Mirror 160 x 125 cm

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MASSIMO AGOSTINELLI Live Not On Evil, 2015 Matte Ink on Vinyl and Acrylic Mirror 160 x 125 cm

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BRITISH. B. 1992

HARIS NUKEM

‘Often we can feel quite incubated inside of the civilisations we live in, and I don’t think we ever consider how fragile they are. What photographers do is help us understand how lucky we are.’

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aris Nukem originally came to London as a young asylum-seeker and has emerged as an unstoppable and authentic voice in the field of photography and beyond.

His photographs capture the power, strength and vulnerability of the human spirit through a bold take on contemporary portraiture.

His compositions are often highly staged with each detail possessing symbolic meaning, engaging with themes such as belonging, identity and contemporary politics.

Born in Bosnia in 1989 and coming to the UK as a refugee, Nukem currently lives and works in North London. He was a creative child with an interest in different mediums. He had a job as a photographer in publishing for a range of magazines such as Beautiful Bizarre, Mixmag and Lockdown. He has also worked for notable brands shooting commercial campaigns, including Selfridges, BOY London, Twister Tailor, Glitterbox and Without Prejudice.

Nukem has also been involved in many musical collaborations with record labels and artists, including Defected Records, Good Soldier, Warner Music, Universal, IAMDDB, Dennis Sulta, Jordan Stephens and Badass B.

individuals often have tattoos, piercings, body hair and are shown exposed, as a reflection of vulnerability and encouragement to embrace our flaws as strength. In his tonal palette, Nukem cites art historical influences such as the Renaissance painter Caravaggio, which is echoed in his use of shadow and strong contours. Every position, angle and detail is imbued with allegorical meaning in his photographs, composed with artistic precision.

His intimate portraits juxtapose historic and contemporary ideals of beauty as well as contrast the politics of Old and New, celebrating the everyday heroes of today. His photograph Counting Blessings (2019) from a recent series depicts an NHS worker with a cyborgian arm holding a golden child with a motif of a gloria around her head. His daring works merge art historical iconographies with futuristic traits, collapsing the past, present and future together into arresting meditations on tragedy, emotion and humanity. His subjects tend to be almost exclusively women, which he says is a reflection of the largely female-driven fashion industry and a gesture of celebration.

In 2019, the photographer directed a campaign for Visit Britain that focuses on the benefits of living in London for young creatives. He directed the recent music video of English rock band, The Hunna. Nukem first exhibited with Maddox Gallery in 2019 with his show Faith (2019), which raised funds for the charity Help Refugees. Activism remains a key driving force behind Nukem’s practice. For the photographs in the body of work Faith, he tackled key themes of rebellion, intimacy and the power in the collective. His highly dramatised compositions arrange his subjects in unusual settings, such as hallways and bathtubs. The 267

HARIS NUKEM Dopamine, 2019 Archival C-Type, Reverse Dibond and Perspex Mounted 130 x 97 cm

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HARIS NUKEM We Need Heroes, 2019 Archival C-Type, Reverse Dibond and Perspex Mounted 190 x 130 cm

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HARIS NUKEM Joan, 2019 Archival C-Type, Reverse Dibond and Perspex Mounted with Gold Leaf 160 x 116 cm

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HARIS NUKEM Romantic Interlude, 2019 Archival C-Type, Reverse Dibond and Perspex Mounted 110 x 79 cm

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HARIS NUKEM Hero Life, 2019 Archival C-Type, Reverse Dibond and Perspex Mounted 109 x 160 cm

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AMERICAN. B. 1993

DEVON DEJARDIN

‘I’m telling my life story through art and pulling on my own inner conflicts and confusions. No one else can tell my story.’

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evon DeJardin is a self-taught American multimedia artist exploring narratives of spiritual protection and transcendental deities through his large-scale geometric portraits. He rose to fame through his solo exhibition Guardians (2018) at Coates & Scarry gallery in Los Angeles. His figures emerge with a mythical and otherworldly force, part-human, part-animal and partspirit, fusing tropes of classic portraiture and cubism while channelling the dynamism and spontaneity of street art. His geometric lines have both an architectural quality as well as a profound connection to the organic, collapsing the man-made and spiritual realms.

Born in 1993 in California, DeJardin’s passion for creating art as both a form of selfexpression and therapy emerged from a period of severe anxiety and depression, experienced throughout his teenage years.

He began his career as a fashion designer, specializing in menswear. During his course at Azusa Pacific University, DeJardin immersed himself in studying various forms of religion from around the world, which spurred his interest in attempting to manifest forms that synthesise these different spiritualities and cultural contexts. He was inspired by the mythological inclinations of the Romantic painter William Blake, as well as artworks of Cubism masters like Picasso and Duchamp, who in turn looked to non-Western indigenous forms of visual expression and iconographies.

These influences later led him to express such manifestations in the form of mysterious deities on his canvases and sculptures for his seminal exhibition Guardians, premiering at Coates & Scarry Gallery in 2018. It features six-foot-tall canvases of geometric, figurative portraits that brought together DeJardin’s

Cubist and abstract references with his intuitive painterly approach and subject matter that is contemporary and yet timeless. His godlike Guardians appear as universal spiritual protectors, unbound by the limits of just one religion or nation, symbolizing a kind of cosmic hope. They are rendered in subdued, almost solemn grey and blue tones with the occasional flash of rich red or purple. The exhibition put DeJardin on the map, resulting in critical acclaim and a complete sell-out of his canvases.

These figurative characters grew increasingly abstract in his more recent exhibition with DENK gallery in Los Angeles, entitled Umgestalter (Shifter of Shapes) (2021).

This new series of works were born out of the pandemic-Zeitgeist, marking a gradual transition of DeJardin’s painterly technique into more elusive forms that oscillate between the sculptures of Louise Nevelson and the late paintings of Lee Krasner. The term Umgestalter, used by the poet Rainer Maria Rilke, implies a constantly changing and evolving form or spirit, which encapsulates both DeJardin’s personal journey in terms of his early life and battle with issues around his mental health, as well as a more universal sentiment of emerging post-lockdown as a collective having to grapple with overwhelming change. These new works focus more on abstract essence and colour form, which can be seen in the monochromatic canvases Gestalt (2021) and The Storm Cries (2021).

DeJardin’s paintings encapsulate a profound meditation on the spiritual and psychological state of the world in the precarious present.

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DEVON DEJARDIN Untitled, 2020 Oil and Acrylic on Canvas 183 x 157 cm

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DEVON DEJARDIN Untitled (Diptych), 2019 Oil and Acrylic on Canvas 183 x 488 cm

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