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Official Unveiling of 'Amy' by Johan Andersson at Gallery II8

Gallery II8 proudly presents the official unveiling of 'Amy' by Johan Andersson from Thursday 25th to Saturday 27th August 2011.

Swedish born, London trained Andersson has been commissioned by Art Below to paint this portrait of Amy Winehouse.

Having graduated from Central St Martins in 2008, Andersson became the youngest ever person to be shortlisted for the BP Portrait Award and listed in The Independent's Top 20 Artists 2008. His work has been displayed at the National Portrait Gallery and he also won the Jerwood Contemporary Painters Prize.

Andersson has exhibited alongside some of the most celebrated and influential contemporary artists including Anish Kapoor, Tracey Emin, Sarah Lucas, Gavin Turk and Howard Hodgkin. His portraits are unique in their depiction of beauty - 'celebrating diversity in the knowledge that we are all uniquely made' whilst revealing 'an ambiguous and awkward underlying tension'.

This powerful piece - a final tribute by Andersson to Amy Winehouse - allows us an intimacy with Amy. Her expression suggests a vulnerability but there is an animated defiance in her eyes. The emotive nature of the piece captivates the viewer compelling us to keep examining it to appease our disquietude.

The painting forms part of his project '27 Club', documenting the tragic deaths of celebrities who passed away at the age of 27. Other members of the so-called 27 Club include Kurt Cobain, Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin and Brian Jones. A poster of the image will also be on display at Camden Town Station from the 22nd August to the 5th October 2011.

This is one of the must-see pieces of the year.

This week we welcome back our friends from Waylight Gallery, Portugal who, after the success of their previous four visits, have returned to put on another spectacular show.

The exhibition starts with a drinks reception on Wednesday 27th April at 6.30pm at Gallery II8 on the corner of Westbourne Grove and Chepstow Road.

As usual they have brought a selection of their finest works; beautiful aesthetically as well as conceptually. The artists hail from all over the world – their paintings a reflection on the different styles and cultural influences which have led them.

A fantastic show with very skilled and experienced artists, I hope to see you there.

Carolina Fungairino presents "Confusiones Culturales" by Luis MELF Esparragoza

Biography

Luis (MELF) Esparragoza

Melf was born in Caracas, Venezuela in 1970. As part of his education he attended several workshops in drawing and painting and studied the human figure at Cristobal Rojas School in Caracas. At a later stage, he studied drawing and painting at the renowned Museum of Contemporary Art in the same city.

In 1990 he made his first trip to Europe (France and Germany) and got the opportunity to work as a collaborator in the studio of artist Jürgen Peter in Hannover. During this trip, his work was shown with great success for the first time outside Venezuela.

Recent exhibitions include the world exhibition “EXPO 2000” in Hannover, Germany representing Venezuela, and the exhibition “Eierversum” also at the EXPO 2000.

In 2001 he established his home and studio in Vienna, Austria and since then he has had various international exhibitions, including:

- Solo exhibition at the Museo de Arte Joven Moya in Vienna, Austria

- Solo exhibition at the Museo de Arte Moderno Juan Astorga Anta in Mérida, Venezuela

- Caisa Cultural Center Gallery in Helsinki, Finland, 11th International Biennial of Portrait and Figure, Drawing 04, Tuzla, Bosnia-Herzegovina, The Venezuelan Art Hall of Budapest.

Melf’s areas of artistic interest include the influence of colours, the concern for the individual and behavior within the environment. For this exhibition he has developed a complex style using a variety of techniques and materials including printing, inks, acrylics, as well as industrial plastic on Italian canvas, ultimately resulting in a stunning three-dimensional artwork.

He currently lives and works in Vienna, Austria.

Gallery II8 is delighted to welcome back Aviruth Meesupa, presented by Carolina Fungairino.

AVIRUTH MEESUPA BIOGRAPHY

Born in the Trat Province in eastern Thailand in 1977. Meesupa is a rare young contemporary artist in all respects. His artistic journey began in one of the most exotic parts of the world when he was nine years old; he painted a Thai bird for his grandfather using pencil and paper and people started to call his work ART. During his childhood he spent most of his playtime drawing and experimenting with pencils, colours, and nature.

At the age of 18 he attended the Fine Art School at Chiang Mai University, Thailand, but after two years he had to quit due to the loss of his father and the need to work in order to survive. In this short period he became interested in realism and also in sub realism. Since then his artistic journey has been full of rich experiences and influenced by travels and both cultural and spiritual encounters. Meesupa is a self-taught painter, and has been both a student and a tutor, including teaching at a nearby prison.

Meesupa has visited several communities across Thailand and has connected with the people in many ways. He draws inspiration from spiritual senses, human expression, and the environment. He uses realism to discover the tensions of expression through the skilful use of colours, light and delicate handling of the brush, all of which work to provide a unique expression.

His works have been shown primarily in his own studio, and selected pieces have already been bought by clients in Europe.

Meesupa lives in Mae Hong Son, northern Thailand, with his wife.

Life drawing class with Laura Cogoni

Wednesday 22nd December 2010 7.30-9.30pm

Chepstow Gallery

133-137 Westbourne Grove

London W11 2RS

This Wednesday let your creative side out with a life drawing class in the heart of Notting Hill.

After the success of her first class, Laura will be hosting another this week at the Chepstow Gallery. At a very reasonable price and with extras included this is not an opportunity to miss out on.

A relaxed and unintimidating environment for artists at any level with a friendly and talented hostess - no better way to spend a Wendesday evening!

Advance booking required: cogoni.laura@gmail.com

‘Portraits From Flateurville’

by Laurent Godard

Wednesday 1st to Wednesday 15th December 2010

Private viewing and live painting performance: 8th December 2010 18.30 to 22.30

Laurent Godard invites us to enter inside Gallery II8, leaving the door to our curiosity ajar, and the door to our imagination wide open.

We gain an insight into a part of his village; his world, Flateurville. An evolving, multifaceted narrative structure composed of a variety of artistic mediums (painting, film, text, sound, drawings, performance, architecture and installation). All elements are linked by one key part: a story written down many years ago on a till roll.

The story of this village now traverses spatial, temporal and physical boundaries. By mapping Flateurville around the world, the fictive locations that feature in the story have been made concrete, and the story-telling itself is played out in disparate contexts. It becomes an immersive experience for the visitor to these places, transposing his two-dimensional story written on paper into a three-dimensional story to travel through; told to each individual uniquely, based upon our own interpretation of its width, length and depth. Moreover, these contexts are not only used to stage the fiction, but also have become a part of the production turning in to fully developed working ‘creative zones’ for Godard to practice his painting, and for other artists to work from.

Narrative being fundamental to this creation, in ‘Portraits From Flateurville’ the story is told, but it is deliberately fragmented, encouraging the viewer to use a process of invention and imagination towards interpretation. The viewer will become acquainted with the portraits in the paintings, the leading protagonists in the story. Standing face to face will reveal a profound sense of familiarity and identification, as though having met them somewhere once before. The viewer, like the paintings, has an address, an identity and a story here. Lacking in movement, with no suggestion of environment, these figures, conceived using pale creamy oils and ‘dripped’ lines of deep burgundy glosses, remain patiently stoic in their poses until the exhibition is over.

Even in this traditional gallery context (far away from the usual site-specific context that Godard is currently producing on a large multiple scale), the viewer is still integrated into the fiction, into the moral of the story, the secret lying behind the doors to the village: that everyone and anyone has imaginative and inventive powers, stimulating creative output that, once opened, can transform and reveal gateways we never knew existed. Perhaps it was Marcel, Georges, Susan, Lola, Jean-Baptiste, Rene or other characters from the story who could be pronounced the artist of this exhibition: all multifaceted elements of the same person. This same person is able to tell the story, through multiple forms of artistic expression, and a determination to cast the same creative magic to inspire others to create their own Flateurville.

Born in 1967 in Paris France, Laurent Godard read medicine at the Garantiere, Paris. Having practiced as a dental surgeon for the first part of his early career, he turned to acting classes (Cour Florent, Paris), drawing classes, alongside developing his figurative painting technique and his passion for creative writing. His imaginary village evolved out of his participation in all of these artistic mediums, even his role as a surgeon plays a part. He soon established himself as a renowned portrait artist and story-teller, exhibiting in galleries internationally. Today, he continues to develop and expand his village, always searching for new abandoned sites to transform and add to the fictive game, while using all the narrative supports he has at his disposal to be able to tell the story in a variety of different ways and to a variety of different audiences. He is currently working towards the production of it as a feature length film.

Website: www.flateurville.com

www.flateurblog.com

Contact: amyjhilton@yahoo.com

flateurvilleinternational@gmail.com

Iranian Artist Faten Hakimi - Veil 11th - 20th November 2010

Gallery II8 is delighted to invite you to 'Veil', an extraordinary new exhibition from emerging Iranian artist Faten Hakimi, on Thursday 11th November. Hakimi has studied art in both Lebanon and London, and her exhibition at II8 is supported by the Iranian Festival of Arts.

Featuring exclusively female subjects, the exhibition explores the concept of unveiling and the personal truths that are revealed. A striking sense of displacement is manifested in Hakimi's art through her remarkable use of texture and colour.

"The Eastern born and Western trained artist brings to life two distinctly opposed ideologies in one universal beauty that encourages the exploration of the self..."
-Kayhan News (Iranian newspaper)

Nabil Hamad - New Paintings
2nd - 7th November, 2010

"When Nabil turns his hand to oils the instinctive feeling for colour and texture is profound. Paint and ink are this man's surging lifeblood; in his hands they graphically demonstrate the power of nature and the sheer pleasure of being alive. Passion, eroticism and the poignancy of existence are all given space on his canvas." Rob Cassy (author and journalist).

Nabil Hamad studied art and design in Beirut, Lebanon. He then began his career working as an art director for several leading Lebanese magazines and newspapers.

Leaving Beirut for Paris in 1977, he discovered much more about art and refined his skills, achieving a new level of artistry. Nabil also completed a lithography course at Heatherly School of Art in 2005.

Nabil has exhibited in numerous one man shows in both Beirut and London. The London exhibitions have included the following galleries:

Icon Gallery (1983)
Argile Gallery (1989,1996,2004)
West Eleven (2007)

Nabil has also had numberous art books published, as well as six books of his poetry and short stories.

Contemporary Portuguese Artists Return to Gallery 118

This week we welcome back our friends from Portugal who, after the success of their previous three visits, have returned to put on another spectacular show.

The exhibition will take place from 8th to 11th September.

The reappearance of these contemporary Portuguese artists to the London art scene aims to examine the relationship between the artists and their different ways of expression. The understanding and appreciation of their surroundings combined with their manipulation of colour provide each of them with an individual style and a unique view of the world we live in.

The importance of this is shown in a mantra adopted by these Portuguese artists, the famous words of Pablo Picasso "Art is a lie which brings us nearer to the truth". The mergence of these artists with their various modes of expression relates to art's role within human questioning; to constantly challenge and re-address our concepts which results in one final truth towards which we always strive; an understanding of life and of happiness.

Fortunately, whilst on this path towards the dawn of realisation, they have provided us with some bloody good paintings to look at. So, if our brains are a little drained by the exasperation of the meaning of life, or perhaps a little exasperated by the draining of wine glasses, we can still appreciate the skill and beauty of these paintings.

An exhibition of talented artists with a wealth of experience!