LOS ANGELES, CA.- Sotheby’s S|2 presents the first Los Angeles exhibition of its successful Sotheby’s S|2 Contemporary art series with Adder Among Choughs, an exhibition of new paintings by Los Angeles based British artist Danny Fox. Opening On view through November 17, the S|2 exhibition is open to the public in Sotheby’s new Century City gallery space.

For this exhibition, Fox examines a history of societal advancements and declines, focusing on moments of both triumph and regret through the lens of characters associated with these two extremes. Painted in Los Angeles, this group of six new canvases reflects on Fox’s own developments as he begins to further establish himself and his practice in a new Angeleno environment, thousands of miles from his beginnings in Cornwall. Fox dictates the narrative in this exhibition through the legacies of both personal and public figures, ranging from a famed chemist to an evil militant to a heartbroken grandfather. While the depiction of Fox’s characters is influenced by a variety of sources ranging from vintage Scotch Whiskey advertisements to Post-Impressionist painting to British East India Company portraiture, these characters are all united by a shared departure from family, social norm or civilization.

Nicholas Cinque, S|2 Gallery Director, New York, stated, “Following the success of Fox's first exhibition at S2 in New York, we're excited to present this group of new paintings in Los Angeles. The city plays an influential role in these new works. All of the paintings in the exhibition were created this year during Fox's time living and working in downtown Los Angeles, in Skid Row. With this exhibition in Los Angeles, Fox continues to develop a natural language in his paintings, a synthesis of forms and figures influenced by his environment and a history of art, anecdotes and experiences. Through Fox’s different characters, he constructs a painterly dialogue of semiotics.”

History—both public and personal—serves as the cultural context for Fox’s new paintings developing a discourse that looks at both the past and present. Humphry Davy Of Penzance, The Inventor Of Laughing Gas (above, right) depicts the Cornish scientist Sir Humphry Davy, known for his advancements in the study of synthesized gases. Davy traveled England demonstrating his experiments and the effects of nitrous oxide or laughing gas on himself and audiences. Like the solitary adder, he left his home in Penzance to promote his scientific discoveries to the world.

Danny Fox was born in 1986 in St Ives, Cornwall, and currently lives and works between Los Angeles and London. His artwork has been featured in exhibitions at such galleries as S|2 Gallery, New York; CNB Gallery, London; V1 Gallery, Copenhagen; Faux Pas Gallery, Moscow; and Paul Loya Gallery, Los Angeles. In 2015, Fox was the youngest artist to have a solo exhibition at the historic The Redfern Gallery, London. His work is included in public and private collections including The Saatchi Gallery, London; Hall Collection, USA; and Yusaku Maezawa Collection, Japan.