Cynthia Corbett Gallery at SCOPE Immersive

For Scope Immersive 2020 Cynthia Corbett Gallery proposes an exploration of architecture as seen through the eyes of Andy Burgess, Fabiano Parisi and Tom Leighton.

Lauded by Annabel Sampson, Deputy Editor of Tatler as “the next David Hockney” painter Andy Burgess, who hails from London but lives in Arizona, continues to expand upon his fascination with contemporary architecture. A new series of paintings on panel and canvas colourfully re-imagines iconic modernist and contemporary houses. Burgess selects the subjects for his paintings with the discernment of the portrait painter. Buildings are chosen for their clean lines, bold geometric design and dynamic forms. Burgess approaches his subjects with a fresh eye, simplifying and abstracting forms even further and inventing, somewhat irreverently, new colour schemes that expand the modernist lexicon beyond the minimalist white palette and rigid use of primary colours. Real places are sometimes re-invented, the architecture and design altered and modified, with new furniture and landscaping and a theatrical lighting that invests the painted scene with a dream-like quality and a peaceful and seductive allure. Andy Burgess has been represented internationally by Cynthia Corbett Gallery since 2004.

Italian-born Fabiano Parisi's photographs, immortalising the dark beauty of contemporary ruins, have never been so strikingly poignant. Parisi began his career as a photographer following a degree in Psychology, coming to photography through a project photographing derelict asylums, which sparked his interest in the abandoned buildings which are the subject of his art practice today. He has two ongoing series: The Empire of Light and Il Mondo Che Non Vedo (The World I Do Not See). The latter title is taken from a collection of poems by Fernando Pessoa, a hint at the poetic qualities of Parisi’s work. 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 awarded a special Prize and in 2012 & 2014 he was a shortlisted finalist for the Young Masters Art Prize.

The photographs of London-born Tom Leighton engage with the urban landscape. By digitally altering photographs, he tries to deconstruct and retranslate the cities that we inhabit. Creating fictional landscapes allows him to ignore the constraints of possibility and logic. However, as much as he pulls apart and constructs his unique urban views, he aims to create a believable view of the world, which verges on the surreal, but remains rooted in reality. Following his BA in printmaking from the University of Brighton in 2004, Leighton gained an MA from the Royal College of Art in 2006. Throughout his practice, Leighton has worked with urban landscapes. In 2006 he won the John Purcell Paper Prize and the Thames & Hudson Book Prize. He has exhibited in London, Paris, Tokyo and the United States. Collections include The Sandor Family Collection, Chicago, MuCEM (French National Museum of European and Mediterranean civilisations), Tiroche Collection, UK/Israel, The Shein Family Collection of Pennsylvania, Felix Robyns, 12 Advisors Group, London/Brussels, Nicholas Topiol, President of Christian Lacroix, Paris, The UBS Art Collection, JCA Group, London & The Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Cynthia Corbett Gallery has represented Tom Leighton internationally since 2006.