copyright © 2012 FramelessGallery | Andrei Gaita
Daniel Regan Nataleigh C-type photograph, 20 x 30 inch, limited edition
Striking portraits of people who have been affected by Alopecia (hair loss) and Breast Cancer are to feature in an exhibition aiming to challenge people’s perceptions of body image. The Uncovered exhibition by London based artists Daniel Regan and Agata Cardoso aims to raise awareness about these conditions in a show supported by the charities Alopecia UK and The Pink Ribbon Foundation.
Photographer Daniel Regan’s long-term project aims to raise awareness about Alopecia through a series of arresting portraits. Alopecia can affect men, women and children of any age and lead to partial or total hair loss. The appearance altering condition affects more than one million people in the UK, but little is known about the exact causes of it.
Although it is not damaging to physical health, Alopecia can have destructive effects on a person’s confidence and self-esteem and there is currently no known cure. Some alopecia sufferers wear wigs, fake eyebrows, make-up or use eyebrow tattoos, but Daniel’s images illustrate how bald really is beautiful.
A group of 10 brave women, men and children stepped in front of the camera for the series of stunning, intimate black and white photographs, which capture the different stages of alopecia – from patches to total baldness. Daniel has been backed by Alopecia UK, a charity set up to provide help and support to people who suffer from hair loss. He said: “I wanted to challenge the traditional images portrayed surrounding body image in today’s society and at the same time empower people with Alopecia.” “I want to promote dignity and respect for people who don’t conform to what is perceived as ‘the norm’ and challenge social expectations. I found it incredibly interesting to get to know these people as each one had a different story to tell about how alopecia has affected them.”
Fine artist Agata Cardoso’s work primarily focuses on the female form and her subject matter lies within the many complexities of the female body and identity. Her exhibited project focuses on portraits of women affected by breast cancer.
Discussing the project, Agata says: “My mother was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2006; two weeks later she underwent a double mastectomy. She had decided that she’d rather live without her breasts and survive, than live with them and die. Although two of my aunts had previously had breast cancer, I'd never of thought that cancer would affect me or my closest family. Supporting my mother though breast cancer, I realised that cancer doesn’t mean death, as I had previously thought. My mother was the first woman I had photographed, and ever since then, I have created a series of portraits of women who have recovered from breast cancer.
”We live in a culture that worships youth and an idealized beauty - we are not used to being confronted with physical disfigurement which is a reality for women who have had breast cancer. All the women that I have photographed have come to terms with their bodies and have learned to accept them and love them - something that I find incredible and inspirational.”
Agata has self-funded this project leading her to travel across the UK and Portugal creating a body of work that truly reflects this subject as a labour of love.
Private View: Monday 14 May 6 - 9pm
Opening Hours:11am - 7pm Monday to Saturday
Collective Works, Studio Mischer’Traxler at Frameless Gallery 2012
Opening Hours: 10am - 8pm
Katharina Mischer and Thomas Traxler form Studio mischer‘traxler.
Based in Vienna they develop and design products, furniture, installations and more, with a focus on experiments, context and conceptual thinking. Balancing between hand craft and technology, they envision whole systems, processes and new production methods that deal with contemporary themes and indicate sustainability and the relevance of nature. Their Results make use of unexpected materials and are often characterized by external inputs, for example the condition of the weather, human interaction or the usage of the existing.
After graduating from the IM-masters department at the Design Academy Eindhoven and several years of collaboration, Katharina and Thomas found Studio mischer‘traxler in 2009. Their work won the Austrian Experimental Design Award 2009, the DMY Award 2009 and was shortlisted for the Brit Insurance Designs of the year 2010 Award. Exhibitions on contemporary Design displayed their projects in Museums including the Boijmans van Boiningen, the Design Museum London and the Triennale Milano, as well as on International Festivals.
Projects are in the permanent collections of the Art institute Chicago and the MAK Vienna. They have been invited to lecture and give workshops in various institutes and Universities in Austria and Europe. In 2011 studio mischer'traxler was honoured with the 'W-hotels designer of the future award' by Design Miami/Basel and W-hotels.
This exhibition includes their most recent installation “Balanced” showing for the first time in the UK.
Agata Cardoso Julia in the studio C-type photograph, 30 x 30 inch, limited edition
Limited Funghi Studio Mischer’Traxler
What is it with faces and music? Smiley faces, sad faces, indifferent faces, pooh-faced what other adjectives etc and it goes on. Elegiac music, rock and roll, rhythm and blues, soul, juju hi-life, jolly music. These express life in a way nothing else does. Faces and music expresses states of our lives. Two things that are often beyond description yet they move us, touch the soul and can stay with us for the rests of our life.
These diverse artists and their works have been brought together by Kwame Akuffo demonstrating different contemporary approaches.
Artists:
Agorsor (Ghana)
Bruce Chidovori (Zimbabwe/UK)
Lorenzo Belenguer (Spain)
Peter Ngugi (Ghose, Kenya)
Madhumati (India)
Larry Otoo (Ghana)
Tola Wewe (Nigeria)
Private View: Tuesday 29 May 6 - 9pm
Opening Hours:11am - 7pm Monday to Saturday
Larry Ottoo Easy acrylic on canvas, 110 x 75cm 2011
Inspired by urban environments and a Norwegian background, the variations of paintings, photographs and film in this exhibition shows an expressive range of interactions between forgotten landscapes and the human body. Interpretations of rural nature and raw shapes become a contrast to fairytale looking animals and abstract surrealism. The base of student work in this exhibition conveys a contemporary trace of Norwegian heritage.
Private View: Tuesday 5 June 6.30 - 9.30 pm
Opening Hours:11am - 7pm Monday to Friday
Mariann Lunde Joe Bloggs
GAS will be showing a selection of artwork from represented Artists and Designers:
Delphine Lebourgeois: initially a commercial illustrator, creates work from a culmination of typography, freehand illustration and collage. She seeks to bring together the decorative and conceptual often hoping to surprise and entice her audience with hidden narratives. Her work is fast becoming collectible internationally.
Anna Marrow: an accomplished screen printer works in an organic and bold way, using colour with confidence when creating her hand printed images. Her already small editions are often made more collectible by the finishing touches of glitter, watercolour and pencil added after the printing process. A recent development in Anna’s work is in producing one-off prints and some original paintings combied with screenprinted elements.
Gordon W Robertson: a multi talented craftsperson who works ultimately as a sculpture and 3D printmaker. His surface patterns are hand drawn, scanned and manipulated digitally and then redrawn and hand etched onto zinc, copper, pewter, silver and paper. Resulting in a collection of highly individual one off pieces and limited editions as both ‘objets’ and wall art pieces.
Jo Cruz: a fashion led printmaker creates sumptuous designs on silk. Using bold colour palettes and retro graphic imagery to create useable wearable pieces that blur the boundaries between fashion, design and fine art. All of his works are created in small editions or as one offs.
Gary S Holt: is primarily a dedicated traditional printmaker and his new body of work is born out of his love of experimenting with this love of print. He starts with initial composite illustrations and collages, which then translate into limited edition screen prints. Gary has extended his creative process to printing on wood, and recently creating rich interiors pieces such as wallpapers and hand printed lampshades.
Jonas Ranson: is a technically superior printmaker concerned with not only aesthetic but also concept and narrative. His work is often mistaken for being digitally produced but is unique in its attention to detail and craftsmanship. He uses 4-colour separation printing techniques on his hand printed wallpapers, a time consuming and intricate art in itself. The results are visually complex and often geometrically abstract whilst remaining undeniably beautiful.
Private View: Wednesday 13 June 6 - 9pm
Opening Hours: 11am - 7pm Monday to Saturday
Delphine Lebourgeois Deesse 5, limited edition giccle print, 2012
Jonas Ranson Colourways 3, limited edition print, 2012
Exposure 24 is a collective of nine emerging photographers from Coventry University, exploring the power of exposure in a range of contexts. With the photographic exposure being one of the most powerful and versatile means of documentation the exhibition aims to celebrate the stories of their subjects and the diversity of their practices.
Coming from a course renowned for innovative teaching, under the lecture of Jonathan Worth, the students have been encouraged to explore photography over a broad spectrum of subjects, approaches, and mediums. This approach to teaching has led to the production of a diverse range of work under a shared affinity towards narrative photography.
The span of subject matter covers the intimate self-portraiture of Emma Bashforth and the exploration of childhood memories through toy photography by Chloe Short to Dorrell Merritt’s night based narratives highlighting female melancholia. Stacie Walker and Bijash Chauhn investigate dual cultural identity, one beginning at her roots and the other looking at 3rd generation immigrants, while Elena Chimonas studies the emotional process of athletes through portraiture. Kayleigh Dolphin’s surreal digital realm contrasts with the arcane processes of Pete Lord and Julia frost; one creating life size composite portraits and the other an array of tiny, precious artefacts.
Collectively, Exposure 24 has developed affiliations with photographers Tom Hunter, Adrian Wilson, Takashi Arai, Jo Gane, Harry Hardie and Jonathan Shaw, who have all been helping to develop the style and direction of the students’ practice.
The show has achieved press coverage in the likes of Hypebeast, TWIN, and Dazed and Confused.
Private View: Monday 18 June, 6 - 9pm
Opening Hours: 11am - 7pm Monday to Saturday
Pete Lord Composite portrait series, BW photograph, 2012
