LONDON.- Eleven presents a group exhibition at Mark Hix’s Cock ‘n’ Bull Gallery at Tramshed featuring work by Kent Christensen, Cedric Christie, Adam Dix, Gerry Fox, Roland Hicks, Natasha Kissell, Natasha Law, Peter Newman, Jennie Ottinger and Jonathan Yeo.
Many of the new works exhibited have been created in response to Tramshed and its surroundings. Artists including Gerry Fox and Peter Newman already exhibit in HIX restaurants across London. Gerry Fox’s work has been a talking point at Tramshed since it opened with a piece from his Nudes Moving series sitting playfully in the men’s toilets. Peter Newman’s light box has drawn in the masses at Hixter, lighting up the restaurant with a scene shot just around the corner.
Kent Christensen playfully interprets some of the restaurant’s most decadent menu offerings creating a series of mouth-watering paintings emerging from East London landscapes. Cedric Christie unveils a new Phoenix sculpture made from steel and colourful billiard balls which curves around the gallery wall onto the floor. His use of inconspicuous materials plays with depth, scale and form as the steel scaffolding echoes structural industrial materials of the gallery and restaurant. Natasha Kissell’s newest paintings imbed stunning modernist buildings into whimsical utopias, juxtaposing serene landscapes with urban dynamism.
Eleven’s artists are a natural fit with Cock ‘n’ Bull’s ethos of challenging conventions alongside their commitment to bringing diverse artistic programming to the gallery. Working across a variety of media including paintings, sculpture, video, photographs and limited edition prints these artists illustrate their own progressive and unique artistic perspectives.
Cock ‘n’ Bull Gallery is located in the basement of Tramshed restaurant at 32 Rivington Street, Shoreditch, London EC2A 3LX. A wide range of artists, from the established to the undiscovered, are given the opportunity to showcase their work with exhibitions changing frequently. It is a celebration of Mark Hix’s love for art and hunger for innovation and creativity. Cock N’ Bull Gallery is open daily from 11am to 6.30pm.
Kent Christensen’s oil paintings investigate how we live: our obsessions, addictions, and pleasures. He applies an iconic status to his oversized candy and sugar rich treats that emerge from landscapes to become absurd, surreal objects. The colourful and alluring qualities of these rich foods make them enticing visual subjects, masking their true unhealthy nature, and provide a vivid visual metaphor for our times.
Cedric Christie explores the artistic potential of every day materials, transforming seemingly ordinary objects into beautiful works of art. Steel rods, shiny plastics, billiard balls and scaffolding have all been experimented with and pushed to their limits. Blurring the boundaries between artistic movements and mediums, his works are visually alluring and intellectually multifaceted.
Adam Dix’s work explores our associations between communication technology and our absorption with it. Focusing on the abundance of communication devices, his work encapsulates the allure for the user to stay in a mode of constant connectivity and how these instruments interrupt and influence our command of the world around us.
Gerry Fox brings paintings of the past to life through his video works. In his Nudes Moving series, Fox restages seductive works by Schiele and Rodin. Using high speed film, he creates mesmerisingly slow fluid movements effused with sensuality as the figures seamlessly move in and out of moments of shear eroticism and tenderness. Each work is digitally manipulated using cutting edge technology to faithfully miming painterliness of the originals.
Roland Hicks’ meticulous hyperrealist works magnify the insignificant and overlooked detritus of our daily life. His works examine items of stationery turned into spontaneous sculptures, evidence of a minimal creative gesture. His works possess an inherent sense of absurdity as to why someone would assemble such compositions and it continues to question the point at which something becomes art.
Natasha Kissell’s paintings effuse aspiration and radiate wonderment. Often including modernist architecture, she places highly designed structures into imaginative landscapes. Whether it is a man-made structure or the delicate details of the natural world, her paintings act like beautiful utopian visions.
Natasha Law’s paintings work as a snapshot of the intimate as her figures are suspended in a moment whether posed or spontaneous. Bold blocks of colour and purposeful lines delineate Law's sanguine semi-nudes. Tousled hair, the curve of a hip, or discarding clothing, the works allude to the privacy of domestic spaces and relies on the viewer’s own voyeuristic fascination to draw them into her intriguing vignettes.
Peter Newman’s work from his Metropoly series encapsulates a view of looking upwards in the City of London. The photograph provides a unique vantage point capturing a renowned skyline where immense architecture and the natural world compete for attention in an ever evolving city landscape.
Jennie Ottinger creates a quick solution to digesting well known fables through her books where a few words and images suggest the infamous story lines. Her expressive characters visually bring to life stirring plot points from the novels as her playful adaptations of classic stories allow the reader the pleasure of absorbing the main points of the novel in a mere few minutes.
Jonathan Yeo first gained critical acclaim for his distinctive portraits and his sitters have included many celebrities, politicians, and dignitaries. Merging a smooth realism with a strong painterly touch, his latest limited edition prints feature portraits of notable cultural personalities. Each print is hand finished by the artist making each one unique.
