EXPO CHGO ONLINE: Archi.Tech.Stories | UNPACKING THE BEAUTY OF AGE

The first part of our curation, entitled Archi.Tech.Stories explores the union of architecture and technology through the eyes of Andy Burgess, Klari Reis and Tom Leighton. Our Young Masters alumni, photographers Fabiano Parisi and Isabelle Van Zeijl, joined by art historian, ceramicist and textile artist Matt Smith will present a trio show exploring the dense layering of history: Unpacking the Beauty of Age.

Within the Environmental Impact in the Era of Pandemic programming, we are thrilled to introduce a recent artwork commission in collaboration with Conservation International by Deborah Azzopardi, Mother Nature (2021), inspired by Conservation International’s film Mother Nature with a powerful voice-over by the Oscar-winning artist and producer Julia Roberts.

Burgess, who has made a name for himself exploring the relationship between modernist architecture and contemporary painting, aims to instil the artwork with feelings of positivity and calmness, while staying true to his British and London heritage and his love of early 20th century art, architecture and collage. He will be creating a multi-layered narrative, incorporating his signature open primary colours and clean lines.

In 2021 Andy Burgess will be creating a series of site-specific artworks for the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in London. The project, initiated by CW+ – the official charity of the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust – and facilitated by Cynthia Corbett Gallery, which represents Burgess internationally, aims to improve and enhance the NICU environment for patients, relatives and staff.

Working together with the NICU team, Burgess will be reminiscing on the hospital’s neighbourhoods and its iconic views, sights and buildings in collaboration with hospital staff. The selected London scenes will be transformed by the artist in his unique, abstract, geometric style and printed on medically compliant vinyl – to then be installed in corridors and waiting areas of NICU.

“This project inspires me tremendously and I’m excited to be embarking on this creative journey with the hospital and CW+,” explains the artist, Burgess. “I am delighted to have been identified for this unique opportunity and to be working with NICU staff to contribute to the improvement of the environment in this innovative way.”

Leighton asks us to reconsider our cities, what they are and what they might become. He pushes us to notice the beauty inherent in these populated places, the architecture and our place within it. At once futuristic and reflective, Leighton’s work demands multiple takes.

 “My photography is very exploratory – I don’t go on planned ‘photo shoots’, but I am constantly trying to track down exciting architecture or city views. In my work I have complete control as I contort & construct urban spaces. I show a complete disregard for the fundamentals of physics as I introduce gravity defying structures. I chose to use multiple natural light sources to create a collision of shadows and hyper real lighting. All this allows me to produce areas of ambiguity – and by doing so I play with the brains capacity to ignore or falsely correct what doesn’t make sense. My photographs are akin to a memory of a place - a distorted, reconstituted reality”

Leighton has travelled through Europe, Asia and North America, building up an impressive body of photographic images that he then combines to make fantastical landscapes. His works are a celebration of architecture. Crammed with colour, form and energy, they highlight different aspects of the built environment. Structures and colours are carefully crafted to give the impression of populated places. Leighton's works ask playful questions, and show us the beauty and variety of our designed world.

Collections include: AT&T Corporate Collection, USA; Prudential Douglas Elliman, NYC, William Blair, Chicago / London; The Sandor Family Collection, Chicago; The Shein Family Collection of Pennsylvania; The V&A Museum, London; The UBS Art Collection, London; JCA Group, London; MuCEM (French National Museum of European and Mediterranean civilisations) Marseille.

Klari Reis's work has been exhibited worldwide and public collections include Microsoft Research in Cambridge, UK; Next World Capital’s offices in San Francisco, Paris, and Brussels; MEG Diagnostic Centre for Autistic Children in Oxford, UK; Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children in London; the Stanford University Medical Center Hoover Pavilion in California; and Elan Pharmaceuticals, Genentech, Acetelion and Cytokinetics in South San Francisco.

Parisi uses only natural light, shooting early in the morning. The colours and chiaroscuro are at their best at this time of day, and are left untouched by digital image manipulation software. Parisi’s photographs have an honesty and integrity that is part of what makes them so inviting. The artist often selects buildings with frescoed walls, which create an illusion of a painterly surface in his photographs and a textural sensibility that belies the photograph’s flat surface. His method highlights the patina of these forgotten places. The artist prints his work himself onto carefully chosen papers that enhance and maximise his colours and tones. Parisi has a strong relationship to Art History; the subject of the ruin was prevalent in the 18th and 19th Centuries, and interest is still strong today as evidenced by Tate Britain’s 2014 exhibition ‘Ruin Lust’. From painters such as Piranesi to Turner to Constable, Parisi is part of an important genre in art.

Parisi participated in the 54th Venice Biennale, Italian Pavilion and in Fotografia Festival Internazionale di Roma in 2012 at the Macro Museum. In 2010 he was the winner of the Celeste Prize International for photography in New York; in 2012 he was shortlist for the Arte Laguna Prize, Venice where he was award a special Prize and in 2012 & 2014 he was shortlisted & announced finalist for the Young Masters Art Prize (a not-for-profit initiative presented by The Cynthia Corbett Gallery, London).

Isabelle Van Zeijl has shown work continuously and internationally over the past fifteen years, represented by galleries located in The UK, USA, The Netherlands, Belgium, and exhibiting at emerging and established international art fairs in New York, Miami, Los Angeles, Hong Kong, London, Germany, Belgium, Sweden and Italy. She was nominated for the Prix De La Photographie Paris, and The Fine Art Photography Awards. She was also one of the winners of The Young Masters Emerging Women Art Prize, London. Her work is held in private & public collections in the USA, UK, Belgium, Germany, France and The Netherlands.

Matt Smith started his career at the V&A before developing exhibitions at the Science Museum and the British Film Institute. After retraining as a ceramicist, his work has often taken the form of hybrid artist/curator. His large scale solo shows have addressed themes including the legacy of colonisation in Losing Venus (Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford) and Flux: Parian Unpacked (Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge), LGBT visibility in Queering the Museum (Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, 2010) and Other Stories (Leeds University Art Collection, 2012). Matt co-directed and curated Unravelling the National Trust which saw over thirty artists working with contemporary craft (including himself) commissioned to respond to the histories of the National Trust properties Nymans House, Uppark House and The Vyne. Matt holds a practice-based PhD from the University of Brighton. The PhD explored the use of craft techniques in contemporary art by artists exploring identities. He is Professor of Ceramics and Glass at Konstfack University of the Arts, Stockholm and Honorary Fellow at the University of Leicester’s School of Museum Studies. His work is held in the collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Walker Art Gallery, Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery and the Fitzwilliam Museum as well as numerous private international collections.

The artwork Mother Nature was created for a limited edition exclusive prints to benefit Conservation International. The artist was inspired by 'Nature is Speaking' film series, created in collaboration with Oscar-winning actress and producer Julia Roberts.

'A strongly placed female hand with painted red fingernails lays open whilst delicate but perfect Red Rose petals fall gently into it representing love. The same hand is simultaneously birthing a large blue tsunami of water giving life, and feeding essential nutrients into the planet that we are lucky enough to call home.

The skyline is saturated with a warm yellow hue giving the rugged mountains distinction whilst they echo an indestructible and powerful presence. The mountains are juxtaposed with two white Calla Lily’s representing peace - beautiful, fragile, and exquisite flowers standing tall, cushioned by their vivid emerald green leaves.

All are a sentiment to the purity of life and the beauty that is vigorous with undeniable fragility which ‘Mother Nature’ holds in the palm of her hand.

Together this is a reminder that if she inhales, you inhale. If she exhales, you exhale. If she stops breathing, you stop breathing.

She is the force that makes the wind sing, she is the essence that makes your senses ignite. She is dusk, she is dawn, she is everything you know. She is ‘Mother Nature’.' – Deborah Azzopardi

For all sales enquiries please contact Gallery Founder & Director Cynthia Corbett at info@thecynthiacorbettgallery.com