Expo Chicago 2024

ANDY BURGESS

b. 1969, London, UK

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.

Burgess explores in depth the genesis of modern architecture in Europe and the US and its relationship to modern art, avant-garde design, and abstract painting. Burgess explains his fascination with modernist architecture thusly:

‘Despite the huge impact of early modern architecture, the innovative and subtle minimalist buildings that I am researching, with their concrete and steel frames, flat roofs, and glass walls, never became the dominant mode of twentieth century building. We have continued to build the vast majority of houses in a traditional and conservative idiom, so that these great examples of modern architecture, designed by the likes of Gropius, Loos and Breuer to name but a few, are still shocking and surprising today in their boldness and modernity, almost a hundred years after they were built.’

Alongside the large-scale paintings, Burgess creates collages which reflect his love of vintage graphics, particularly those from the 1930s–50s, a “golden age” in American graphic design and advertising. Burgess has been collecting vintage American ephemera for many years; this ephemera is then unapologetically deconstructed, cut up into tiny pieces and reconstructed into visual and verbal poems, dazzling multi-coloured pop art pieces, and constructed cityscapes.

Andy Burgess’s latest work combines two of his greatest artistic passions, mid-century and modernist architecture, and collage. In this new series of highly intricate pieces, Burgess has used hand painted paper to construct renditions of his favorite modern architecture. Replacing acrylic paint with gorgeous permanent inks he has introduced another level of textural interest. The ink adds a beautiful translucency and wash-like textures to the surface of the image…. making the finished work somewhat tapestry and mosaic like. The pleasure of these works lies in the complex shapes, the analogue quality of the fabrication and the sparkling crystalline colors. Those familiar with his work will recognize some of the iconic subject matter such as Frank Lloyd Wright’s wonderful Guggenheim Museum and famous Fallingwater residence as well as Los Angeles classics such as The Stahl House and other desert modern masterpieces. But there is an eclectic range of architectural subjects that spans decades and continents in a quest to do justice to the architecture of modern times!

Burgess has completed many important commissions for public and private institutions including Crossrail (London’s largest ever engineering project), Cunard, APL shipping, Mandarin Oriental Hotels, a new medical centre in San Jose, California and most recently, Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in London.

In 2021 Andy Burgess started 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 was reminiscing on the hospital’s neighbourhoods and its iconic views, sights and buildings in collaboration with hospital staff. Known for his unique, abstract and colourful style, Andy has transformed selected London scenes into incredible artworks to create a warm and welcoming environment for both parents and staff to enjoy. The display, installed on the 16th June 2022, includes a panorama of London, an image of Albert Bridge and another of a London Underground station. Additionally, Andy produced two smaller scale abstract pieces developed from the colour palettes of his larger works, which were gifted as part of the commission. CW+ also acquired two existing works by Andy for the unit through Cynthia Corbett Gallery.

Burgess’s collectors include the Booker prize-winning author Kazuo Ishiguro, actor and writer Emma Thompson, the Tisch family in New York, Beth De Woody, Board Member of The Whitney Museum and Richard and Ellen Sandor in Chicago, who have one of the top 100 art collections in America.

In March 2023, Burgess publicated of a new limited edition book of abstract ink on paper collages called Tiger’s Eye in conjunction with an exhibition at Laughlin Mercantile in Tucson, Arizona and the release of four luxurious silk scarf designs based on the collages.

Andy Burgess has been represented internationally by Cynthia Corbett Gallery since 2004.

MILES REGIS

b. 1967 San Fernando, Trinidad and Tobago

In the life and studio of LA-based, Trinidad-born artist Miles Regis, every action is an opportunity for creative self-expression. Prolific in both fine art and fashion design, Regis freely swaps the materials and languages of each to enrich the other. His large-scale mixed media paintings on canvas and linen incorporate dimensional collage elements of denim, buttons, leather, printed matter, sequins, and patches of eclectically sourced found textiles along with his dexterous, gestural, richly hued abstract and figurative painting techniques. Aggressively hopeful and humanistic, Regis embraces a storytelling stance in his stylized renditions of fundamental scenes of love, loss, freedom, survival, activism, and living history.

Tapping into the emotional experiences of exotic cultures around the world and presenting them in ways that are relevant to today’s modernized societies, Regis favors the simplicity of black and white structure, starkly juxtaposed with the complex dimensions of color; recurring motifs include his use of eyes, encouraging the viewer to look deeper. His paintings are often layered with vibrant hues, powerful imagery, text, abstract brush strokes, and purposeful objects the same eye-catching iconography and palette which also appear in his original wearable art. Hand-painted by the artist, each garment highlights a delicately detailed working of both surface and narrative, in the same process that expresses the personal and collective mythologies enshrined in his art works.

During the summer of 2017 Regis made his first foray into the word of artisanal perfume, creating an original series of signature scents developed during a month-long art-and-fashion residency at LA’s Institute for Art and Olfaction. Regis has also been delving into new technologies as an early adopter of the emerging realm of Virtual Reality as a fine art application. One of the main elements in constructing inter dimensional visual worlds based on his art is a painstaking process building the compositional structure layer by layer -- a technique ideally suited to Regis’ established language of painting. The results, which he sometimes pairs with his own original auric electronic beats, are kinetic, vibrating, seductive travels in AbEx hyperspace, and all on their own make the case for VR as a proper tool for all kinds of artists.

Regis and his art was featured in a Ford F-150 Truck national TV commercial in January 2021 and his 15 foot painted art sculpture is now in the permanent collection of the Ford Motor company.

Regis is in the permanent collection of Intel Corporation, Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, California African American Museum, PAMA in Canada and Senegal's La Musee Borindar; and has appeared in association with CNN, Art Basel Miami, The Coachella Music and Art Festival, CCH Pounder, Million Dollar Listing, Volcom, American Rag Cie, Art For Amnesty, Campaign for Black Male Achievement, Manifest Justice, Adobe, and Tonny Sorenson. Regis has exhibited at Art Basel Miami and The Coachella Arts And Music Festival and has been featured on CNN, Forbes Magazine, The Huffington Post, Extra TV and Ebony Magazine.

MY BEAUTIFUL WOMEN

“This new ‘My Beautiful Women’ series is a celebration of feminine influences in my life. It is a celebration of all the women and female presence in my life. The portraits are an acknowledgement of the beauty and grace of the maternal forces I have been privileged to experience in the past, present and speaks of future hope. It is a conversation about past, with my African and East Indian ancestors. My present, American family life experiences and a future global understanding of the role of the feminine.

These new paintings seek to capture the cultural and ancestral beauty experienced from my past life living in Trinidad, to my current American lifestyle living in midst of a glossy, glitter filled façade that is the beauty of Hollywood. A challenging of many past established beauty standards in a sense.

It is my hope that the viewer feels the many moods of love I have experienced over the years, from the never-ending devotion and love I continue to feel from my 85-year-old mother who still lives in Trinidad, to the warm and nurturing energy of love and compassion my children and I feel from my wife. Continuing the love energy flow with the memory of the magical and mythical maternal instincts present with both of my grandmothers always celebrating their African and Indian roots respectively, to my present with the keen maternal instincts present in my 18-year-old daughter, as bookends to the story.

Each painting highlights a delicately detailed working of both surface and narrative, in the same process that expresses the personal and collective mythologies enshrined in my art works, recalling the status-quo blasting majesty of the ‘Black is Beautiful’ moment in America.” Miles Regis

Miles Regis is represented internationally by Cynthia Corbett Gallery.

ASHLEY JANUARY

b. 1987, Rantoul, Illinois, USA

Ashley January creates contemporary paintings informed by her maternal experience. Exploring themes of preeclampsia, premature birth, and birth trauma, her newest body of work continues to address the Black maternal mortality and morbidity crisis in America. She lives in Chicago with her family while working from home and her studio at Mana Contemporary.

Ashley became the first recipient of the Women’s Caucus for Art, 2022 Emerging Artist Award, and was selected as a finalist for the 2022 Artadia Chicago Award. In January 2023, Ashley had the second installment of her solo exhibition, Human | Mother | Black, at WesternIllinois University. Most recently, her works were featured in the New York group show, Fruits ofLabor: Reframing Motherhood and Artmaking at Apex Art. She was invited to participate in the Unit London (Voices) online group exhibition Naissance/Re-Naissance.

She was also included in the London Art Fair Platform curation through Cynthia Corbett Gallery. Additionally, Tufts University School of Medicine's Center for Black Maternal Health and Reproductive Justice, acquired paintings from her series. Her works have been exhibited in numerous venues including, The Young Masters Autumn Exhibition in London, UK; the South Side Community Art Center, Chicago, IL; Mana Contemporary, Chicago, IL; SoLA Contemporary, Los Angeles, CA; the Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago, IL; Viridian Artists Inc, New York, NY; Laguna Art Museum, Laguna Beach, CA; Pacific Art Foundation, Newport Beach, CA; and the Irvine Fine Arts Center, Irvine, CA. Recently, she was featured in the January 2023 issue ofLuxe Interiors + Design Chicago magazine.
Her paintings have also been featured in the television series, Kings of Napa, on OWN. In 2018, she was selected as a first-place award winner at the Woman Made Gallery’s Midwest Open in Chicago. In 2017, Ashley won the Beverly Bank Best of Show Award at the Beverly Arts Center’s juried competition. When asked about her sentiments towards Ashley’s work and practice, Dr. Joy West, MD, Obstetrician/Gynecologist at Roseland Community Hospital in Chicago, said, “It is fitting that your work, now installed at Roseland Hospital, will reach the women most impacted by birth trauma; the underserved, the systematically excluded, the forgotten. They will be uplifted simply by seeing themselves in your beautiful art. I’m certain of this. Thanks for creating and sharing all aspects of Human | Mother | Black.”

Ashley will be featured in the group show, Neighbors, South Shore Arts (2024), curated by Dorman + Torluemke from January 19 - March 16. Ashley earned her MFA in Painting from the Laguna College of Art and Design, Laguna Beach,CA in 2017 and her BS in Communication with an Advertising concentration and Minor in Studio Art from Bradley University, Peoria, IL in 2009.
Ashley will showcase paintings with Cynthia Corbett Gallery from her new series, Environments of a Heavy Joy, at EXPO Chicago in April (2024).

MATT SMITH

b. 1971, Cambridgeshire, UK

Matt Smith is a multi award-winning artist based in Ireland and England. He is well known for his site-specific work in museums, galleries and historic houses. Using clay, textiles and their associated references, he explores how cultural organisations operate using techniques of institutional critique and artist intervention. Smith is interested in how history is a constantly selected and refined narrative that presents itself as a fixed and accurate account of the past and how, through taking objects and repurposing them in new situations, this can be brought to light. Of particular interest to him is how museums can be reframed into alternative perspectives.

Acclaimed solo exhibitions include Losing Venus at the Pitt Rivers Museum, Flux: Parian Unpacked at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Who Owns History at Hove Museum and Queering the Museum at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery. In 2015/16 he was artist in residence at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. He holds a PhD from the University of Brighton and was Professor at Konstfack University, Stockholm.

In 2020 he was awarded the Brookfield Prize at Collect and the Contemporary Art Society acquired a body of his work for Brighton Museum and Art Gallery. His work is also held in the collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Walker Art Gallery, Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, National Museum of Scotland, National Museum of Northern Ireland and the Crafts Council collection.

Family Romance

Based on a recent installation by the artist 'Untold Lives' at Kensington Palace, and inspired by British royal wedding plates, each of these large meet platters commemorates a queer union.

Queer Family Romance subverts Freud’s idea of family romance and uses object collection and collation to create substitute queer family romances using objects. Whitney Davis, Professor of History of Art at the University of California at Berkeley proposes that queer family romance uses collections of objects to come together to form substitute family groups. Davis suggests that this can work with the collector becoming either an inheritor – placing himself within a group of historical objects or queer biographies – or as a progenitor – creating new links between objects, famously in the case of Horace Walpole and the Walpole Cabinet in the V&A’s collections.

This dinner service is in service to the fragile histories that have been so frequently and easily lost. A branch of my family tree, they are my inheritance.

Claude Cahun (1894 – 1954) was a French surrealist photographer, sculptor, and writer, best known as a writer and self-portraitist, who assumed a variety of performative personae. In her writing she consistently referred to herself as elle (she), [5] and this article follows her practice; but she also said that her actual gender was fluid. Cahun is most well known for her androgynous appearance, which challenged the strict gender roles of her time. During World War II, Cahun was also active as a resistance worker and propagandist.

Queen Anne and Lady Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough, subjects of the recent film The Favourite.

Radcliffe Hall and Una Troubridge. Hall (1880 – 1943) was an English poet and author, best known for the novel The Well of Loneliness, a groundbreaking work in lesbian literature. In adulthood, Hall often went by the name John, rather than Marguerite.

Oscar Wilde and Lord Alfred Douglas (Bosie). Douglas wrote several books of verse, some in a homoerotic Uranian genre. The phrase "The love that dare not speak its name" appears in one (Two Loves), though it is widely misattributed to Wilde. The two were lovers, and Alfred's father, the Marquess of Queensberry, accused Wilde of being a sodomite. It was Wilde's failed libel action against the Marquess of Queensbury that resulted in Wilde going to Reading Gaol.

Walt Whitman and Peter Doyle. The romance started in 1865 between the streetcar conductor and the poet and spanned the years of Whitman's residence in Washington, D.C, and continued nearly up through Whitman's death in Camden, in 1892.

Eleanor Butler and Sarah Ponsonby. Known as the ladies of Llangollen, Sarah and Eleanor eloped from Ireland in 1780 to escape impending marriages and set up home together in Wales. They became celebrities and guests included Byron, Shelley, Wellington and Wordsworth, the latter of whom wrote a sonnet about them.

Fanny and Stella. Thomas Ernest Boulton and Frederick William Park were Victorian cross-dressers known a Fanny and Stella. Both were gay men from upper-middleclass families, both enjoyed wearing women's clothes and both enjoyed taking part in theatrical performances—playing the women's roles when they did so.

Edward Carpenter and George Merrill. Edward Carpenter (1844 – 1929) was an English utopian socialist, poet, philosopher, anthologist, an early activist for gay rights. An early advocate of sexual liberation, he had an influence on both D. H. Lawrence and Sri Aurobindo, and inspired E. M. Forster's novel Maurice. He met George Merrill, a working-class man in 1891. Merill was 22 years his junior, and the two remained partners for the rest of their lives, cohabiting from 1898

PRESS: 'Untold Lives: a fascinating peek below stairs at a royal palace' - The Telegraph

Move

The vessels take The Grand Tour as their starting point. They consider the movement of people, and the ability to move. They provide a container within which to bring with you what you need to survive and thrive, as well as acting as a holding place for the sense of self brought with you from where you came.

Their title refers not only to physical movement, but also the generation of affect - the emotional responses of care and empathy that are needed to create a safe landing when people become displaced.

They draw on ideas of queer temporality - examining queer ways to think about history, space, relationships, notions of success and the need to move out of traditional family situations into new spaces.

Matt Smith is represented internationally by Cynthia Corbett Gallery and was the winner of the Young Masters Maylis Grand Ceramics Prize in 2014.