Blink Art Present Kyle Bean, Ryan Hopkinson and Craig Ward at Colette 213 rue Saint-Honoré 75001 Paris Until August 30th
KYLE BEAN ‘MATERIALS & MESSAGES’
Kyle Bean is an artist and designer with a passion for craft and conceptual thinking. His work straddles the boundaries of sculpture, set design and illustration, and is characterised by a whimsical and meticulous reappropriation of everyday materials and handcrafted techniques. Since graduating from the University of Brighton in 2009 with a degree in Illustration, Kyle has been driven by a desire to surprise and evoke fun through careful manipulation of materials in his creations. Now his highly tactile works are often seen adorning the pages of publications or forming bespoke installations for luxury brands. This summer, Kyle has collated some of his most characterful pieces exploring the notion that the ’medium is the message’. A brain made from toothpaste, a chicken made from eggshells and an anvil made from a bath sponge, the works here showcase Kyle at his most playful, presented through a mix of framed prints and physical 3D pieces.
Situated at Colette in Paris, ‘Materials & Messages’ marks his first solo exhibition and a chance to see some of the variety of physical objects and photographed pieces that he has worked on over the past couple of years.
RYAN HOPKINSON ‘TORNADO SERIES’
Ryan Hopkinson is a photographer and director with an unmistakeable concept-led aesthetic that blends elements of art, science and technology with a strong focus on experimental techniques and graphic compositions. Favouring practical special effects, Ryan explores the unique beauty of the objects he photographs through manipulation, alternative materials and technical processes. Ryan created this breathtaking series of Tornados with artists Lightning + Kinglyface. Working in the studio, they created these swirling vortex, which formed under a precise balance of artificial environment and rising smoke. Each tornado measured at around 4ft in height, and had its own unique character and temperament.
CRAIG WARD MIXED SERIES
Craig Ward is a designer and art director currently based in New York, known primarily for his pioneering and experimental typographic works. Author of the best selling book, ‘Popular Lies About Graphic Design’, a contributor to several industry journals, former ADC Young Gun and recipient of the TDC’s Certificate of Typographic Excellence. ‘You Blow Me Away’, is a still from a series in which letters were screenprinted on a sheet of glass which Craig then blasted with ballbearings & pool balls and photographed to capture it at various stages of its destruction. ’I Brought Myself Down’ is the last in a series of four typographic studies on former US President Richard Nixon. Following the Watergate scandal, Nixon’s persona and public image quickly unravelled with his answers in interviews becoming ever more disjointed an incoherent and the soundbites that followed have informed this series. “I brought myself down…” was Nixon’s final admission of defeat. In ‘Don’t Let Go’, a a personal piece created in 2011, a close family member of the artist was taken into hospital for the last time. The desire was to create a very physical piece, something human and genuine. The letters themselves were created by Ward photocopying his own hands and arms clinging to one another and assembled digitally.
