West Contemporary Gallery presents XX

About

A motley crew of twenty of the U.K’s leading names in fine art are to descend on the capital for the first time collectively for a unique group show at the end of March 2023 as a celebration of British artistic excellence and to celebrate the twentieth birthday of one of London’s veteran gallerists. 

West Contemporary, formed as Beautiful Crime Gallery in 2003, started life at the turn of the 21st century as the new millennium wave of British street art found its way from urban walls to gallery spaces with the emergence of the likes of Banksy in post-Brit-pop Britain. Beautiful Crime Gallery became an innovative fixture in this movement as the first online street art original gallery, combining a new home for original works from the burgeoning street scene with a bricks-and-mortar home in Shoreditch, East London that became a staple of shows, first exhibitions for emerging names and art events of note.

Leaving in 2019 to graduate into an international art consultancy (West Contemporary) and an online gallery (West Contemporary Editions), the institution of art is now bringing together two decades of partnerships under one room for the group show; ‘XX’.

Amongst the names featured in the show is Lauren Baker, considered the leading British female neon and mixed media artist, a London-based Northern artist known for her work in environmentalism and empowerment and that has created installations at The V&A, Tate Britain, and Tate Modern.

Lauren is an Ambassador for One Tree Planted, as well as Save Wild Tigers, and in 2023 will accomplish her goal of curating the planting of 8888 trees. In 2015, Baker created a Steinway piano encrusted with half a million crystals that sold for £420,000.

Dan Rawlings, like Baker, pays homage to the natural world via his works highlighting nature’s resilience around humankind’s creations. Probably best known for his manipulation of metal and light conceived with intricate hand-plasma cutting. Projects include Future Returns a plasma-cut oil tanker housed inside a 19th-century church, and Short Haul, an elaborately hand-cut light aircraft shown at the Urban Nation Museum in Berlin during the 2019 Biennale. Rawlings has exhibited internationally and at the likes of Glastonbury and The Chelsea Flower show and is now considered one of the most exciting names in British art. This is his first show with West Contemporary.

Socially-minded London-based artist Robi Walters transforms discarded materials into beautiful works of art as a recycling practice that has attracted collectors in Sir Paul McCartney, Mary J Blige, and Usain Bolt. Emerging from a difficult start in life and a time in social care, Robi’s artistic practice echoes his own life. The process of taking discarded objects and making them beautiful and ‘wanted’ has taken him to the forefront of domestic art and an Artist-in-Residence placement with Aston Martin.

Fin DAC, notably the only artist to be commissioned by the Frida Kahlo Foundation, is now considered one of the top 5 street artists in the world. The long-time West Contemporary collaborator is known for his mural works around the globe. Since quitting a design/marketing role aged 45 just over a decade ago, the self-taught, non-conformist urban artist has defined and perfected an atypical spray paint style he has dubbed ‘Urban Aesthetics’. His collections are known for selling out within two minutes of release and his murals can be seen in Melbourne, Amsterdam, Hong Kong, Los Angeles, Paris, London, and beyond.

In a field where opportunities for female artists have been notoriously difficult to come by, internationally renowned sculptor Beth Cullen-Kerridge has molded a well-earned space for herself as a leading light of British fine art and sculpture. Having worked with the universally admired Sir Anthony Caro and alongside Sir Normal Foster on the Millenium Bridge, Cullen-Kerridge’s pedigree is impeccable. Following a period establishing her Michelin-starred restaurants alongside TV chef Husband, Tom – Beth is entering a period of her career where she is rightly earning the plaudits her work deserves.

As arguably the world’s most important music photographer and documentarian, Denis O’Regan’s storied career is one of many highlights. As the person on earth to have taken the most photographs of David Bowie, the Artist-in-Residence for the Royal Albert Hall is also widely known for his work alongside The Rolling Stones, Duran Duran, and Spandau Ballet. O’Regan had the honor of photographing the last ever Queen show featuring Freddie Mercury, alongside being the only official photographer of Live Aid and a Royal-appointment as the man behind the camera for the Concert For Diana. Official placements for The Who, Kiss, Neil Diamond, Pink Floyd, The Bee Gees, and Thin Lizzy cemented the London-based artist with a front seat in the tour bus of musical royalty and a heavyweight in British fine art.  

West Contemporary is proud to use this opportunity and group exhibition to introduce The Cameron Twins. Born in 1999, the collaborative artist duo of identical twins Abigail and Phebe work together in a range of different media including screen print, digital montage, photography, casting, sculpture, and installation. Their work has an overall strong and garish style using an oversaturated bright colour palette to create a surreal quality and incorporates many familiar, recognisable, fun images and pop-culture references from childhood, such as Barbie, Trolls and My Little Pony. Considered by the gallery as one (or two) of the most interesting and expressive emerging artists in the U.K., this is the first major show opportunity for the recent graduates to exhibit alongside internationally successful artists.

‘XX’, titled as the roman numerals for ‘20’, will feature original artworks, limited edition pieces, unseen new releases, and classic works across a wide range of mediums including sculpture, and will be open to the public for five days over March and April 2023 at Gallery Different, Fitzrovia, London. Full Artist List: Alexander de Cadenet, Beth Cullen-Kerridge, Bex Leigh, Carne Griffiths, Chloe Natalia, Day-z, Denis O’Regan, Fin DAC, Gabriella Anouk, Jim Threapleton, Lauren Baker, Mark Beattie, Raul, Robi Walters, Russell Marshall, The Cameron Twins, The Connor Brothers, Wildcat Will, Willkay.