exhibition

Souled Out

Artists Beejoir, {Artist.name}, {Artist.name}, Kate Westerholt

29.Feb.08 - 22.Mar.08
Mon-Sat 11-7

The Leonard Street Gallery
73A Leonard Street
London EC2A 4QS
020 7033 9977
info@tlsg.co.uk
www.tlsg.co.uk
Tube Old Street, Liverpool Street, Shoreditch / Hoxton

New works by Beejoir, also featuring fellow Souled Out Studios artists Mau-Mau, Cyclops and Kate Westerholt

29 FEB 2008 - 22 MAR 2008

Leonard Street Gallery is pleased to present Beejoir, along with fellow Souled Out Studios artists Mau-Mau, Cyclops and Kate Westerholt, in our upcoming exhibition SOULED OUT, opening 29 February 2008.

The title of the exhibition draws its name from Beejoir’s Bangkok studio, Souled Out Studios, and offers a fresh look at his latest imaginative conceptions along side fellow artists whom share the same desire of presenting profound visuals that both allure and confront the viewer.

The tone of the exhibition promises to be nothing less than an eclectic visual representation of modern urban life and political anxieties mixed with aesthetic warfare revealed through sculptures, paintings, installations, plastered signs, skate decks and knitted mayhem.

A Beejoir Limited Edition print of 75, will also be released the night of the opening. This will be the last traditional screen print edition on paper from Beejoir for quite some time.

Originally from the UK, yet now thriving in Bangkok, Beejoir has become one of the most epic street artists to date. While developing his style, Beejoir has focused mostly on political art inspired by world events, history, philosophy, politics, the newspaper and watching the media. His trade mark slurs and rants have appeared on walls all over the world, encompassing both intensity and satire in his work. His unique style of sandwiching two very different images together has created some beautiful and powerful images over the past few years.

Roots planted in the surf and country vibes of the North Devon coast, Mau-Mau brings an air of rural sophistication to the art he has been knocking out for over a decade. Mau-Mau has chalked up a reputation through the environmental and politically astute threads that have consistently run through his artwork; Bitterly topical with a tongue-in-cheek sweetener. Mau-Mau’s prolific body of work away from canvas and wall spaces provides testament to his strength in depth.

Cyclops is a Bristol based artist whose tribal fury combined with photo realistic imagery creates an impressive style of his own. He first tried his hand at graffiti at thirteen while his doodling in school caused him suspended quite often.

"I can't stand not being able to do what I want. It's juvenile, but I don't see how I can be bombarded with sick adverts channelling [sic] into my fucking third eye. Yet, it's mostly illegal for me to represent when and how I want. If the money was right, there'd be adverts on the popes fucking forehead." - Cyclops

Cyclops can be seen collaborating continuously in London and abroad with various street artists such as Beejoir, Sweet Toof and Sick Boy. He creates various characters from frenzied faces that survive in sync in the chaos of a woman's hair to drone-like cyclops whose presence becomes transcendent as Renaissance-like halos hang overhead.

Kate Westerholt creates original samplers with a 21st Century twist. Her work is a kind of cross-stitch time clash - Westerholt playfully adds snippets of contemporary culture to the 18th Century colonial American embroidery motifs she’s inspired by. Traditional pictorial scenes of figures, birds and flowers are inscribed with the vernacular of now. These are not nice girl samplers. Whereas historically such embroideries have incorporated biblical references, it’s modern urban culture that crop up in Kate’s work.