Preview: New Works by Ryan Hewett at the Unit London

South African artist Ryan Hewett looks straight to the core of his subjects in boldly expressive paintings. For his upcoming exhibition "Untitled" at the Unit London, opening April 24th, Hewett depicts world leaders and influencers as we aren't used to seeing them. His portraits of President Obama, JFK, Martin Luther King, and Contemporary artists like Ai Weiwei are stripped down to the most vague details. If there is any power to be represented, it is in his gestural technique, heavily influenced by figurative painters like Frank Auerbach. By focusing on the raw human nature of his subjects, Hewett creates a non-specific portrayal that is free of judgement.

South African artist Ryan Hewett looks straight to the core of his subjects in boldly expressive paintings. For his upcoming exhibition “Untitled” at the Unit London, opening April 24th, Hewett depicts world leaders and influencers as we aren’t used to seeing them. His portraits of President Obama, JFK, Martin Luther King, and Contemporary artists like Ai Weiwei are stripped down to the most vague details. If there is any power to be represented, it is in his gestural technique, heavily influenced by figurative painters like Frank Auerbach. By focusing on the raw human nature of his subjects, Hewett creates a non-specific portrayal that is free of judgement. Instead, the viewer is encouraged to make his or her own opinions. Images of revered icons like Ghandi and dictators like Adolf Hitler are executed with the same brush and palette; fluid and peaceful, or brutally aggressive at the same time. This brings to light a frightening truth, that the power to do good or despicable evil exists within all of us.

Ryan Hewett in his studio

Topics

Figurative Art, Frank Auerbach, Portraiture, Ryan Hewett, the unit london

Andrew Salgado, Figure Painting, Portraiture

October 15, 2015

Canadian-born artist Andrew Salgado borrows a variety of influences from art history and popular culture, to paint portraits of deconstructed identities. The people Salgado chooses to portray are complex personalities. Salgado acknowledges this, but does not strive to paint the person's whole identity. Instead, Salgado uses a variety of abstract elements to underline the now-ness during which his subjects were painted.

Yuichi Ikehata’s Powerful Sculptures of Physical Fragments

Figurative Art, sculpture, yuichi ikehata

March 6, 2016

Japanese sculptor and photographer Yuichi Ikehata creates chilling scenes that bridge the gap between reality and fiction. In his surreal ongoing series “Fragment of Long Term Memory," his intention is to comment on the fragmentary nature of memory and render it physical. "Many parts of our memories… are often forgotten, or difficult to recall. I retrieve those fragmented moments and reconstruct them as surreal images. I gather these misplaced memories from certain parts of our reality, and together they create a non-linear story, resonating with each other in my photographs," he says.

Portraits of Hooded Figures by Karel Funk

Hyper Realism, Karel Funk, Portraiture, Realism

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Born in Canada and based in Manhattan, Karel Funk discovered the meaning of personal space while riding the New York subway for the first time. His subjects are the every day men and women he observes there at a close range. As Funk closes in past the comfort zone, he's met with a certain rejection. Their clothing, hair or headphones act like a modern day armor that shields the viewer from any possibility to engage. Some paintings show only a jacket, a hood, or the back of a girl's ponytail. What is left for us to speculate are things like folds in fabric, which Funk renders to a hyper-realistic point, and we become a voyeur to these details.

Sarah Joncas, Oda & King and Alex Garant Present New Works in “Transfigure”

Alex Garant, Figurative Art, Kit King, Last Rites Gallery, Sarah Joncas

September 1, 2015

A new group exhibition at Last Rites Gallery in New York is looking at how 4 different artists style the human figure: Alex Garant, Sarah Joncas, and collaborative artist duo Kit King and Corey Popp (aka "Oda") make their subjects more exciting and complex by enhancing their portraits in various ways. Whether through color, line, shape, or dramatic composition, their subjects undergo a certain transformation in their works. Their collective exhibition, "Transfigure", currently on view through October 3rd, explores this idea.

Preview: New Works by Ryan Hewett at the Unit London

Andrew Salgado Deconstructs Identity with Figurative Abstraction

Yuichi Ikehata’s Powerful Sculptures of Physical Fragments

Portraits of Hooded Figures by Karel Funk

Sarah Joncas, Oda & King and Alex Garant Present New Works in “Transfigure”

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