Opera Gallery Presents: A Brunch with Artist Nick Gentry

About

Nick Gentry is famous for creating art from obsolete technology including old floppy disks, CDs and VHS cassette tapes. Members of the public are invited to bring along old vinyl sleeves and a selfie of themselves to the brunch. Nick will then paint portraits based on each selfie onto the vinyl sleeve as part of his series of portraits of Londoners, which celebrates the sheer diversity of age, race, gender, of our capital city. The works will be a multifaceted representation of “The Face of London”, and the final artworks will be donated to a charity of Nick’s choice.

The brunch also will include a short talk, where Nick, in conversation with Opera Gallery director Federica Beretta, will discuss the 30th anniversary of the internet, artificial intelligence, biometrics, and how all of these inform his artistic practice.

In Nick’s art, obsolete technologies including vinyl, floppy disks, CDs and VHS cassette tapes are put back in the spotlight, for us to comprehend how quickly technology is progressing. Nick sources his materials directly from members of the public as part of his ‘social art’ project, which allows for shared histories to become part of a collective identity. A selection of his artworks will also be displayed in the gallery especially for the occasion.