
Talk
Artist's Talk: Alexis Peskine - Power Figures
16 Sep 2017
October Gallery
London, United Kingdom
Tues-Sat - 12.30 - 17.30 pm
Entry Free
October Gallery presents Alexis Peskine first solo exhibition in London. Growing up in Paris, Peskine’s practice focuses on the complexity of themes impacting people from the African Diaspora and explores, in particular, the Black Experience.
Peskine's signature pieces are large-scale portraits rendered by the painstaking process of hammering nails of different lengths and diameters, with pinpoint accuracy, into wood to create breathtaking composite images. The base of each work is made of wooden planks stained with coffee and earth giving a silhouette to each portrait. Then by embedding the differently sized nails at precisely controlled depths, Peskine creates a three-dimensional contouring to his images. Finally, gold and silver-leaf overlays colour the heads of the embedded nails, adding further subtle qualities to the intricately organised optical illusion. Metaphorically connecting the nail to the Black Experience, the figures he depicts portray strength, perseverance, self-possession, with an energy startlingly reminiscent of the power figures of the Congo.
Peskine obtained a BFA in Painting and Photography at Howard University, Washington, DC, an MA in Digital Arts at Maryland Institute College of Arts in Baltimore, and when awarded the prestigious Fulbright Scholarship, he continued at M.I.C.A to complete a further MFA Degree. He has participated in many international fairs and exhibitions, including the 3rd Black Arts World Festival and the Dakar Biennale, Dakar, Senegal; Addis Foto Fest, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; Frieze New York, Pulse Art Fair, New York, Miami Art Basel’s Prizm exhibit, Miami, USA; Biennale Internationale de Casablanca, Morocco; AKAA (Also Known As Africa) and Afriques Capitales, La Villette, Paris, France; and 1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair, London UK.
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