LONDON.- CNB presents Britannic Myths, the gallery’s second solo show by the acclaimed British artist Joe Machine.

The twelve paintings that make up the exhibition have been created in collaboration with the academic and writer Dr Steven O’Brien, and are based on a dialogue around his soon to be published book, Britannia Stories.

Britannia Stories explores twenty myths. While all of these are commonly associated with the British Isles, many originate from other civilisations, countries and cultures, and were adopted – and adapted – as a consequence of invasion and conquest. The two men worked closely in examining the origins of all the stories, and on determining the relevance of each to the 21st century, with Machine’s paintings influencing O’Brien’s writings, and vice versa.

Says Machine: ‘The power of the stories lies not so much as folk tales from isolated islands, but in their universal connection to ancient cultures. These dialogues with the divine, and struggles of the human spirit are timeless, and show us how myths are as important today as they ever were.’

‘For the myth is the foundation of life; it is the timeless schema, the pious formula into which life flows when it reproduces its traits out of the unconscious.’ – Thomas Mann

Born in 1973, Joe Machine is an English artist, poet and writer, as well as a founding member of the Stuckists art group. Recent exhibitions include: Woland ART SPACE, Porto Piccolo Gallery, 20 August – 29 September 2015, Trieste; Fairytales – Russian and British, 2014, Russian Cultural Centre in the UK, 29 November - 5 December 2014; Alice in the Wonderland/ Alice in the Artworld, Omnibus, London, 10 - 14 June 2014, and Machine Evolution, 2013, CNB Gallery, London. In 2012, he was a prize winner in the Cork Street Open Exhibition.