Gerald Laing and Mark Vessey exhibition at Home House: In collaboration with Olivia Connelly
A Space for Art are delighted to collaborate with art dealer Olivia Connelly, presenting works by Gerald Laing and Mark Vessey. Olivia specialises in contemporary, urban and Pop art, working closely with and representing key artists in these genres.
GERALD LAING
As one of the original wave of Pop artists Gerald Laing produced some of the most significant works of the British Pop movement, and today continues to hold his rightful place as one of the most important artists of his generation. Laing first came to prominence in London in the early 60s, where he pioneered the painting of enormous canvases based on newspaper photographs of models, astronauts and film stars. His 1962 portrait of Brigitte Bardot is considered his most iconic work of the period and regularly features prominently in major Pop museum retrospectives. Its subsequent silkscreen edition, one of several editions of his early works hand-printed and published by the artist in 1968, is highly prized by international collectors.
MARK VESSEY
British photographic artist Mark Vessey is best-known for exploring and celebrating icons of pop culture. Lovingly curated, the subjects of his images include magazines, books and vinyl records that have had special significance within the popular cultural heritage of the 20th and 21st Centuries.
Vessey’s photographic art honours the past, reminding us of the things we cherish and what they mean to us. By shooting them using medium and large-format photography he draws our attention to the physicality of objects and magnifies their significance. As he describes, ‘Some of the collections span a long time in someone’s life; it’s not just something they’ve gone out and bought in one weekend. Building the collection may have been a part of their consciousness for years and, as it grows, it becomes more important.
These ordinary yet extraordinary objects have a particular quality or resonance that over time has garnered them cult status, such as the UK style bibles I.D and The Face magazines which have both featured in his work. Iconic and symbolic, these humble items have become touchstones in people’s lives, encapsulating an era or a moment in time. Vessey’s work aims to capture the beauty in these cherished ephemeral, paying tribute to them not only as physical artefacts but also to what they evoke and signify.
Since art school Vessey has long been inspired by the New York underground and Pop Art scenes and their associated artists Keith Haring and Andy Warhol, admiring the energy and unpretentious simplicity.
There is a clear affinity to Pop Art in his approach, like the original Pop artists Vessey’s photographs elevate manmade articles to artistic dignity. In a similar way to Pop Art Vessey uses scale, oversizing his subjects to transform them and draw attention to their details. Pop Art merged mass culture with fine art, infusing it to create artwork that was accessible. It is this approachability that is also important in Vessey’s art. As an artist he aims to create work that is both unpretentious and accessible, since pop culture is a shared culture, something that can bring us joy and devotion, that breaks down barriers and connects us all.
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