AnnaKustera present the first solo exhibition in New York of Stuart Semple. The artist will show a series of new, large-scale paintings and installation pieces dramatically inspired and conceptually informed by his obsession with the reproduced and constructed image. Remarkably original, Semple carries the Pop Art tradition to a new, highly relevant and provocative level. Writing in “Artforum.com,” critic Adam Ganderson described him as “The offspring of Andy Warhol and Jeff Koons, as styled for MTV.” Semple lives up to this imagined art heritage, his work dizzyingly reconceptualizing multiple fragments of cultural detritus and effortlessly synergizing the profane and the commodified to create startling new signification. Beyond the surface, beauty of the ever bright and enticing surreality of the Pop landscape is a secret dread that Semple innately understands and Semple’s compositions are infused with that dark foreboding. “They all have this idea of a failed moment or the collapse of a particular situation,” he says. “They occupy this place where the tragedy has happened, where atomization and individualism have reached a peak and the individual is literally stranded. I think the key word for everything here might be entropy.”
Since studying painting and printmaking at Bretton Hall, at only 28 years of age Stuart Semple has gone on to exhibit his work in both group and solo exhibitions worldwide in London, Mexico, New York, Italy and Hong Kong. He has also participated in Biennials in Sao Paulo, Mexico and Liverpool. Semple debuted his performance ‘Happy Cloud’ from Tate Modern this past February, where he released 2000 smiley-faced helium and soap clouds into the London skyline. The artist has also collaborated with major fashion houses, presenting his ‘TOY’ project with Moncler at Art Basel in Miami. Semple has also undertaken critically acclaimed curatorial projects internationally, including his recent exhibition ‘Mash-Ups’ for the Design and Artists Copyright Society.
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