Lefty Out There returns to London in March with ‘Tempus’, his much-anticipated third solo exhibition with Maddox. Taking over their new Berkeley Street gallery space, this fully immersive experience reveals Lefty at his untethered best, free from constraint and unbound from convention.
An exploration of time through the lens of growth, energy and artisanship, ‘Tempus’ is Lefty’s most complex and intricately crafted show yet. Envisaging a show entirely in color, his sophisticated palette is intertwined with multidimensional shapes, forms and proportions. Exploring just how far he can push his abstractions, his trademark polymorphs breathe and grow as the exhibition unfolds through more than 30 unique works.
Hailing from Chicago, Lefty’s immersion in the city’s buzzing street art scene marked the start of his career-long obsession with patterns. Always chasing perfection, his studio in Los Angeles is part traditional artist’s atelier, part experimental workshop. Harnessing the power of machinery, technology, carpentry and a myriad of different mediums and techniques, the new works reflect the patience and passion Lefty invests in every stroke and contour.
Inextricably linked to time, the underlying theme in ‘Tempus’ is dimensionality. In Caeruleum Porta and Rosa Porta, Lefty creates a 3D portal into each work by deepening or decreasing the intensity of colour with each layer of paint. Using CNC machining, he crafts his organic shapes in their truest form, with their rounded contours emerging from the canvas. In a series of Texere works — a Latin word that means “to weave” — separate planes of polymorphs are seamlessly meshed together. Outlined in undulating, custom-made frames, the pieces feel thrillingly alive.
Lefty’s ambition has always been to cover the world in his polymorphs, and with ‘Tempus’ he is one step closer to achieving that goal
says Maeve Doyle, Artistic Director at Maddox.
Constantly evolving his practice through experimentation and innovation, this bold new show defies categorisation, with everything from textural knitted works and multi-layered amorphous canvases to incredible sculptural pieces.
Lefty Out There, ‘Tempus’ 15th March – 4th May 2024, Maddox Gallery
About the artist
Lefty Out There (born Francesco Campanella) creates intuitive, repeated shapes and achieves the rare feat of working in contradictions. His work is both bold and intricate, organic but uniform. Born in Chicago in 1991, Lefty Out There was interested in art from his teenage years. Gifted with higher than average eyesight – Lefty sees things in more detail than most. Visiting museums, posting stickers across his hometown, consistently drawing, and sketching in the classroom, he soon became involved in the city’s burgeoning street art scene. This began the evolution of his now iconic patterns using the urban landscape as his canvas. The interlocking polymorphs – now Lefty’s signature – appear as hypnotic and almost spiritual as they reproduce and multiply endlessly across every surface. Having studied music his entire life, Lefty has applied his education to visual art and is drawn to the rhythm of his patterns. As if listening to a metronome, he counts 1 – 2 3 – 4 in a rhythmic cadence to encourage a steady and mechanical brush stroke.
Lefty’s pattern taps into the synergy between repetition and the divine, depicting the world as a constantly evolving network of interconnections. By incorporating new technologies into his creative process such as computer programming and precision-engineered machining his artworks have grown into large scale installations for notable locations like the META Headquarters, Chotto Matte, and Nobu. Lefty expresses his mantra “cover everything” by engulfing spaces with his polymorphic pattern with the purpose of bringing attention to the world around us. In addition to creating work for galleries, Lefty has collaborated with global brands including Google, Chicago Bulls, and most recently transformed a classic Porsche to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the 911. Other passion projects include supporting Project Zero Conservation and other ocean-based charities while preparing for a sustainably created reef-themed installation at Burning Man 2024
In 2019, Lefty made his European debut with Maddox Gallery with a solo exhibition titled VIVUS. Following its success and increased artist popularity, Lefty returned to Maddox in 2022 with VIVUS II, a new body of work that explored a visual abstract representation of the world we live in today. Lefty currently resides in LA and will exhibit a multidimensional body of work exploring the intersection of dimension, shape, and color, exclusively with Maddox Gallery, at our Berkeley Street Gallery in March 2024.
