LOS ANGELES, CA.- Lazarides LA introduces, EuroTrash, a stellar line up of some of the hottest European artists: JR, Conor Harrinton, Antony Micallef & Vhils. The exhibition’s opening reception is Tuesday, June 8th from 7 – 10 PM with the exhibition running through the 27th at 320 North Beverly Drive, Beverly Hills, CA 90210 open noon – 8 PM daily.
Hailing from France, JR will bring his unique vision to Beverley Hills. Immersing himself within cultures where struggle and conflict are rife, he presents his monochromatic photographs, often over 20 feet high by wheat-pasting them on unconventional locations. Whether it’s on the walls and bridges of Ile Saint Louis, Paris or the rooftops of a Rio Favela, JR transforms these sites into stages for his powerful black and white portraits to highlight the humanist matters that are so often overlooked.
Renovating the urban environment much like JR, is the innovative Portuguese artist Alexandre Farto aka Vhils. He utilizes and manipulates a variety of surfaces to create his extraordinary vision. From the brick façade of buildings that he chisels away at with masonry equipment to peeling off layered flyposters, he reveals mystifying and striking portraits that explore the sub-cultures and dynamism of a city.
Interested in opposing elements, Cork born painter Conor Harrington explores the illusion of power and the emotional side of masculinity in his large-scale paintings. Never forgetting his street roots, Harrington combines the fast pace of graffiti art with traditional oil painting that results in energetic murals of soldiers and conquerors existing within a chaotic abstracted landscape.
After his sell out exhibition, Impure Idols, 2007, and his wildly successful Becoming Animal, 2009, Antony Micallef returns to LA with his distinctive style of painting. The London based artist draws on many icons of contemporary society to both celebrate and condemn modern day living. His most recent works are built upon a profound belief in the act of painting and mark making – figures and faces loom through the veil of loose, confident, almost abstract brushstrokes and animals and humans merge in the happy accidents of the artist’s stream of consciousness.
Immortalizing the individual in monumental proportions is what these exciting artists do best. Using the overlooked, misunderstood and mundane elements of our everyday, each artist captures our attention with their distinctive style and alternative approach. Sharing a vested interest in their individual and collective surroundings and society, they poetically express a desire for universal appreciation.
