Contagion

About

Brian David Downs and Julie Osko
28 October - 25 November 2023

Drawing together the works of Brian David Downs and Julie Osko, ‘Contagion’ features the intricate and often combative drawings of the artists’ who came across each other via serendipitous ‘algorithmic herding’ whilst online in 2019.

Julie Osko holds a Masters in Visual Arts from ESAVL in Liège, Belgium and a Bachelors in Visual Arts from ESA, Saint-Luc, Liège. Whilst Duluth, Minnesota based artist, Brian David Downs, was awarded his MFA from Maine College of Art and his BFA from St. Cloud State University.

Osko and Downs’ partnership was borne from a mutual admiration for one another’s other's work. The pairing was further cemented by a mutual interest in the works of Georges Bataille and Antonin Artaud, thus their friendship was spawned. Through this shared dialogue, a ‘contamination of minds‘ flourished and allowed their practices to coalesce and discriminate a shared vision.

Though distinct, the bodies of work depict themes of violence and duality. Here they examine and dissect the corporeal experience of exhibiting both the inside and outside, or the virtual and the real in an effort to obliterate boundaries.

In celebration of the work, and their first showing in England, the exhibition will feature a lecture by the acclaimed philosopher and psychoanalytic theorist, Dr Isabel Millar, alongside an evening of poetry and music which will accompany the finissage on November 25th 2023.