LONDON.- Lazarides Gallery will present a solo exhibition by Paul Insect – BULLION, on view 20 July – 18 August 2007. East London-based artist Paul Insect is known for his striking works and unique style of paintings which take found imagery from popular culture and materials from the street, and mutates them to explore the prevalence of violence, the science of anatomy and the finality of death. BULLION is his first exhibition at the Lazarides Gallery and presents a diverse selection of new hard-edged paintings and screen prints including ‘Untitled 6’, 2007, and ‘Bullion’ - an installation of half-a-ton of golden ‘bullion bars’.

Insect’s unique style of art takes a dark and humorous approach to the pop imagery that we encounter in everyday life. For example in ‘Untitled 6’, he represents one of the myriad shooting targets used in American ranges. In this work, Insect presents a regular guy in t-shirt and jeans, transformed into an aggressive killer. The viewer has become the target, reversing the dynamic, and is pushed into an uncomfortable situation having to face up to the threatening stranger. ‘Dunce Boy’ (illustrated above) takes the slang term and associated cone-shaped hat from the classroom, and represents it with the Stars and Stripes, a gun and a skull. The outcast has become the aggressor, a figure of pity, but harbouring latent violence.

‘Bullion’ is a half-ton installation of golden ‘bullion bars’. Taking their inspiration from popular movies, this most sought after commodity gleams invitingly at the viewer. On closer inspection, the lust and desire created by the bullion is revealed in the bite marks in some of the bars.

Paul Insect’s work is heavily influenced by detailed anatomical drawings. He describes the beauty of the human body as very much like insects. Living on the Murder Mile in East London, the young artist gathers a great deal of inspiration from its mysterious murky past. East London’s history of secret sects and illicit gangs has led to the ‘in sect’ reference in Paul’s name. He also takes a lofty view of insects: “the last things on earth more powerful than us with so many different varieties. Amazing machines”.