EOAPROJECTS.COM EOA.PROJECTS GALLERY @EOAPROJECTS 40 ELCHO STREET EOA. #EOAPROJECTS LONDON SW11 4AU PROJECTS Mon- Sat 10:00 - 17:30 Alex Katz, Vivien in Black Hat, 2010, Silkscreen in 34 colors, Very Important People 73 x 102 cm, Edition of 75 Sir Peter Blake, Mel Bochner, Chuck Close, Damien Hirst, Noorah Kareem, Alex Katz, Jeff Koons, Eric Parnes, Mohammed Shammarey and Joe Webb PRIVATE VIEW FRI 6 FEB / 6.30 - 8.30 PM EOA.PROJECTS GALLERY 40 ELCHO STREET LONDON SW11 4AU A Very Important Person (VIP) is a person who is accorded special Mel Bochner’s approach and materials constantly vary; in fact, privileges due to his or her status or importance. The special the artist formally disavowed allegiance to a single material in treatment usually involves separation from common people, and his famous essay titled “the Medium and the Tedium” (2010). a higher level of comfort. Bochner—who has produced paintings, installations, and photography—is noted to be one of the most influential pioneers of Conceptual art, and the organizer of the first Conceptual art ARTISTS exhibition in 1966. A recurring theme in Bochner’s work is the relationship between language and physical space or color. This Sir Peter Blake is perhaps the most recognized and highly is famously demonstrated in his “Measurement” installations regarded artist of the British Pop Art movement. Much of his of the late 1960s, visualizing the exact dimensions of rooms output – such as the sleeve for The Beatles’ ‘Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely and exhibition spaces, and thesaurus-inspired paintings of a Hearts Club Band’ – has achieved iconic status. single word and its synonyms. Bochner formally studied under Blake’s work reflects his fascination with all streams of popular Douglas Wilson and Wilfred Readio, though his eventual style culture, and the beauty to be found in everyday objects and would draw strong influence from the works of Clyfford Still and surroundings. Many of his works feature found printed materials Jean Dubuffet. such as photographs, comic strips or advertising texts, combined with bold geometric patterns and the use of primary colours. The Chuck Close reinvented painting with his monumental portraits, works perfectly capture the effervescent and optimistic ethos rendered with exquisite, exacting realism from photographic of the sixties, but are also strikingly fresh and contemporary. sources. Playing with ideas of scale, color, and form, Close There is also a strain of sentimentality and nostalgia running has become famous for his rigorous, gridded application of throughout his work, with particular focus towards childhood individual color squares, which, although abstract up close, innocence and reminiscence, as can be seen clearly in his recent form unified, highly realistic images from afar. “I think most Alphabet series. Blake is renowned for his connection with the paintings are a record of the decisions that the artist made,” he music industry, having produced iconic album covers for the said. “I just perhaps make them a little clearer than some people Beatles, Paul Weller, The Who, and Oasis. have.” Close’s artificially restrictive painting techniques stem in part from physical limitations—he suffers from an inability from contemporary and historic references. Past projects have to recognize faces, and had a spinal injury in 1988 that left him addressed pop culture, consumerism, corporate life, and violence, largely paralyzed. Close is particularly known for his portraits of as well as the Persian Empire and ancient Mesopotamia. His artists, having depicted Robert Rauschenberg, Cindy Sherman, works also build upon the artist’s experiences as an Iranian- and Richard Serra, among countless others. His work links him American: “I do see the two worlds from both ends—from the East not only with Photorealists but also to Conceptual Art. and from the West,” he says. “I can be found somewhere in there. Damien Hirst Undoubtedly the most acclaimed contemporary Mohammed Shammarey is a self-taught artist; he works with artist of his generation. Genuine star of the YBA (Young British painting, photography, silk-screen printing and sculpture. He Artists) movement, Hirst has always made a point of mixing up has held many solo exhibitions including shows held at his his genres. Artist, entrepreneur and celebrity, he has produced atelier in Baghdad (in 1988, 1991 and 1999); FA Gallery, Kuwait, much of the most spectacular works in recent years and helped 2010, and Word, Object, Motion (with Simeen Farhat), Anya Tish to revolutionize the art market. From Freeze, the artist’s first Gallery, Houston, Texas, in 2010. He has also participated in group exhibition which he organized while still at Goldsmith’s College exhibitions such as Word into Art, British Museum, London, 2006; in 1988, to the prestigious Turner Prize awarded to him in 1995, Dafatir: Contemporary Iraqi Book Art, University of North Texas, from the diamond-encrusted skull (For the Love of God, 2008) to Denton, Texas, travelling exhibition, 2005–2008; Iraqi Artists in the controversial sale of his work at Sotheby’s in the same year, Exile, Station Museum of Contemporary Art, Houston, Texas, Damien Hirst always seeks to subvert the system and thereby 2008; and Modernism and Iraq, Wallach Art Gallery, Columbia create some truly emblematic pieces of art. Inspired by such University, 2009. 2013 - an Exhibition of Works by Mohammed diverse themes as life, death, art, science and medicine Damien Al Shammarey ARTSPACE Dubai. 2012 Anya Tish Gallery Houston Hirst makes use of many varied techniques including installation, Tx Collective Reaction: FotoFest 2014 work is often inspired by sculpture, painting, drawing, etching and silkscreen. literature and poetry, particularly the writings of Rumi, Mahmoud Darwish and the Epic of Gilgamesh. Since 2008, he has lived and Noorah Kareem born 1990 graduated with a diploma from the worked in Houston, Texas. Arts & Skills Institute, Riyadh in 2009. In 2012 Kareem pursued a degree in the field of special Education- Behavioural Disorder Joe Webb (1976-) uses vintage magazines and printed ephemera & Autism, Riyadh. Alumni of the Crossway Foundation Create that he has collected to create hand-made low fi collages, no & Inspire competition 2011. Kareems work had been featured in computer trickery in sight. Webb re-invents the imagery taken Design Magazine, Ayadi Magazine, Al Riyadh newspaper and Al from his collection of printed materials to create simple and Hayat Newspaper and held in private collections in Saudi Arabia, elegant, yet surreal, images that explore love and longing. His the United States and Australia. work is inspired by the collage work of Peter Blake amongst others. To create original editions Webb has stayed true to the Alex Katz is the outstanding protagonist of figurative Painting, texture and feeling of collage by using real collaged elements in and one of the most influential painters in the world. Alex Katz the silkscreens as well as embossing and glazing. was often said to be one of the father of the Pop Art movement, but his style was always independent on the borderline between abstraction and realism. His paintings are the result of a transformation of the three-dimensional word in simplified landscapes and portraits of sophisticated woman on canvas. Katz is well known for featuring his own social milieu often depicting parties, portraits of friends and fellow artists, and most notably, his wife Ada. Katz also worked with collage, printmaking, and set design, increasingly concentrating on these mediums and developing freestanding sculptural cut outs. He later painted large-scale landscapes and continues to work with natural themes in form of large scale flower scenes in his works today. EOA.PROJECTS Jeff Koons playfully tests the boundaries of commerce, celebrity, banality and pleasure. He turns banal commercial or everyday EOA.Projects was established in 2009 as a gallery platform for objects into art icons by using seductive materials, a shift of artists working between the Middle East, Europe and United scale and a contextual displacement. Koons’ large-scale vinyl States. Under the vision of Stephen Stapleton, founder of Edge of “Inflatables”, his enormous chromium stainless steel “Balloon Arabia and The Crossway Foundation, EOA.Projects collaborates Dog” or the giant “Puppy” and “Split Rocker” made of hundreds with artists in building their careers and realising their potential to of flowers all follow this principle. Originally licensed as a an international standard. Through production studios in London commodities broker, in the late 1970ies Koons decided to become and Jeddah, EOA.Projects supports artists in developing new and artist and moved from Wall Street into a factory-like studio in projects including limited edition fine art prints and special SoHo with hundreds of assistants. Since then, he has produced commissions. In 2012, EOA.Projects opened a 400m sq. gallery different series like the Pre-New, a series of domestic objects in in South-West London with a curated programme of exhibitions, strange new configurations, The Equilibrium Series, consisting film-screenings and talks aimed at international audiences. of basketballs floating in distilled water tanks, or the Banality Series culminating with a sculpture of Michael Jackson and his chimpanzee Bubbles. Koons is widely regarded as one of the most important, influential, and controversial contemporary artists. For appointments, a full artist biography and other press enquiries He constantly tests the boundaries between art and commerce, please contact: high culture and mass culture, readymade and art object, by decontextualizing his objects and lifting them to iconic statuses. Mariam M. Hassan He has lifted art out of the enclave of the genius-driven artist Gallery Manager into the realms of nowadays pop and commerce driven culture. +44 (0) 20 7350 1336 [email protected] Eric Parnes is a multimedia artist and considers his art to be Like us on Facebook: EOA.PROJECTS “Neo-Orientalist,” meaning that which delves into the visual Follow us on Twitter: @EOAPROJECTS appropriation and socio-political dynamics between Eastern and Follow us on Instagram: @EOAPROJECTS Western culture.