NEW PIXART - ANA ZARAGOZA

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NEW PIXART — ANA ZARAGOZA Private View : Tuesday 13th December 2011 EXHIBITION : 13TH -17TH DECEMBER 2011 THE GALLERY CORK STREET, LONDON, W1 This December, Aretha Campbell Fine Art is proud to present, NEWPIXART, a new exhibition of work by Spanish artist Ana Zaragoza. Following two acclaimed shows in Lugano, Switzerland, this will be Ana's first solo show in the UK. Zaragoza's large pixelated oil paintings range in subject matter from Chassidic Jews to the popular culture favourite Mickey Mouse. The dichotomy of the two subjects is further enhanced by her monochrome palette and textured imagery. The paintings are created on a canvas - covered frame, around which a gridwork of threads are individually hand-wrapped. The threads are then fixed onto the canvas with appropriate materials, which allow them to be painted on without the possibility of movement, simultaneously giving volume to the work. Depending on the desired effect, materials such as modelling paste, gesso, glue or acrylic pumice are used in the preparation. Each square is subsequently hand painted. Pixel art was brought to the mainstream with the release of gaming consoles in the early eighties. Those 8-bit graphics we all loved back then often evoke feelings of nostalgia, reminiscent of a different time. Pixel Art has overtaken this nostalgia, establishing itself as a unique and separate art form. The term pixel art was first published by Adele Goldberg and Robert Flegal of Xerox Palo Alto Research Center in 1982. The concept, however, goes back about 10 years before that, for example in Richard Shoup's SuperPaint system in 1972 and at Xerox PARC. Pixel Art has parallels with a number of traditional art forms, such as mosaic and counted-thread embroidery, in the construction of pictures from small units of colour; the pixels of modern digital computing seem to quote these tactile surfaces but exist in a different sphere altogether. A similar concept on a much bigger scale can be seen in the North Korean Arirang Festival. Ana Zaragoza is a board member of the Annika Linden Foundation, a private Foundation committed to supporting community based NGO projects across South East Asia. A percentage of all sales from this exhibition will be going to the foundation. The foundation is committed to supporting health and education community-based projects in from rehabilitation centers and prosthetic limb workshops to scholarship programs. For further information or images please contact: Aretha Campbell 07815894391 aretha@arethacampbellfineart.com www.arethacampbellfineart.com www.alf.org