Rene Gonzalez

Episode 49 of The Artists Contemporary Podcast is with painter @lewis_brander @lewis_brander is currently exhibited in First Light at @collectivending alongside @sonyaderviz curated by @campbell.hector. In this epsjdoe Anna and Lewis talk a lot about Lewis’s journey to this show. After graduating from Goldsmiths in 2019 Lewis was exhibiting in a wonderful range of exhibitions and really picking up momentum. He then took the decision to move to Athens, here Lewis’ work took a shift and his whole way of working developed. In Athens Lewis started sketching and working from what was around him. He started heading into the mountains studying the buildings, the sky and ancient ruins. The was a drastic shift from the figurative work Lewis had been making in London. Lewis moved back to London just before the pandemic and First Light is his first exhibition since leaving London. It is a series of work that references both London and Athens as long as his own personal experiences. Lewis talks about being ready to show this body of work and almost sees it as a homecoming to the London art scene. Anna and Lewis also discuss the gallery side of the art world and Lewis wants to mention all the support he has received form @campbell.hector and the @collectivending team! Tune in to learn more about Lewis and his practice.

Episode 47 of The Artists Contemporary Podcast is with @shaq.whyte Shaqúelle Whyte is a London based artist currently studying an undergraduate in Fine Art at The Slade, UCL. Whyte’s practice evolves around the narrative and life of a series of characters. He depicts them traveling through different scenes and experiences, from running free in fields in a dream like scape to referencing his Grandma’s bible study groups in the domestic. Whyte’s practice is also so much about the way he uses paint and colour to create depth. In the episode Whyte discuss the process of making moments in paintings, the shift in texture and brush stroke to make an impasto area of flesh or cloth. The energy in Whyte’s mark making comes through to allow the works to become other worldly and site between utopia and dystopia in the realm of his characters. Whyte talks about his experience of art school and the process of re learning how to painting and make work that he has gone through. He found going back into art history and really getting to understand how and why artist such as Bacon, Rothko and many many more made art. This allowed Whyte to find his own hand writing as he put it in his practice. Whyte is an artist who when out of the studio is always busy seeing contemporary art and a few of his favourite spots are @theforesproject @plop.residency and @theartistroomgallery and he has also exhibited with @delphiangallery and @danielraphael_gallery. Listen to the episode to learn more about @shaq.whyte practice and the world in which this characters exist in and to see his works in person visit the @sladeschool BA show in May!

The Artists Contemporary Podcast is back! The Podcast will be released every two weeks :) In episode 46 @anna_s_woodward is joined by London based artists @samking_art. Sam is currently exhibited on The Artists Contemporary Atelier. In the episode learn more about Sam’s practice and how it has developed recently due to something very personal to Sam. Sam uses his work to understand and process his own experiences of his body. Sam first experiences of art was through street art before studying at The Art Academy in London. This is where he combined his interest in street art and the body. Sam is currently working towards his first solo show with @brushes_with_greatness which will open later this month. Beforehand tune into the Podcast to learn more about Sam and his practice.

Episode 45 of The Artists Contemporary Podcast is out and this episodes guest is London based painter @kristychanart Kristy studied at @sladeschool for her undergraduate and then went onto @sothebysinstitute where she studied contemporary art theory. She found having the theory based master after her practice focused undergraduate really helped her look into and understand her work. Kristy makes abstract paintings that respond to day to day events in her own life. Kristy will often depict moments of humour and this is reflected in the titles of her work. In the episode kirsty talks about her experience of painting while in hotel isolationism Hong Kong and her connection to those pieces and the process. Kristy currently has a solo show with @theartistroomgallery on until the 15th January, Visit their Instagram/website to learn more about the exhibition. Kristy was so recently exhibited with @the_artistellar group exhibition. Follow @kristychanart to keep up to date with all her latest exhibitions and works. Thank you for listening!

Episode 44 of The Artists Contemporary Podcast with London based artist @rene_thatpainterguy Rene’s practice revolves around painting and his own relationship to nature and his environment. Having lived in Canada, Costa Rica and London, he depicts worlds that merge and fantasies these habitats. Rene studied at @cglartschool which saw his practice change from street art to painting. Rene creates mostly large scale paintings that depict a world that feels familiar to the viewer yet has a utopian feel to. Rene has exhibited within the UK and internationally including shows at @messumswiltshire and @kristinhjellegjerdegallery, in 2021 Rene will be taking part in Arc Painswick first exhibition ‘The Garden of Eden’ @arc.stay Tune in to learn more about @rene_thatpainterguy and the worlds that he creates within his work.

‘Luisa Me have operated as an artistic duo since meeting at the Accademia di Belli Arti di Urbino in 2016, their pseudonymous title borrowed from an Italian colloquialism roughly translated to ‘him with me’. Their interdisciplinary practice engages with the artistic and cultural traditions of their Italian heritage, depicting distinctive Christ-like characters, employing altarpiece arrangements and recalling religious architecture through sculptural reliefs. Similarly, the beachfront existence of the artists’ native, coastal Pesaro aesthetically invades through sun-bleached, weathered textures, produced by a sustained addition and sanding back of paint (at points perforating the canvas), as well as ornamental marble dusted vase visage, their surface akin to seaside salt crystals. In The Crab Chair, Luisa Me introduce for the first time an extended narrative framework, with the artworks and accompanying short story not only inspired by Camusian concepts of absurdity and late-20th century Italian cinema’s fondness for a skyline punctuated by cranes and construction, but also their first-hand experience of maintaining a studio in South Bermondsey, a target in recent years for property developers speculatively seeking to preempt the area’s inevitable gentrification. Here, figures partake in cultish, tribal rituals within a paradisal, spa-like oasis inside the surrounding scaffolding and concrete cityscape, a marine mirage of high-heeled clawfoot bathtubs. This primitive, pious populace parade one another around, arms linked to form a four-handed seat (‘Pope chair’ in Pesaro parlance), as a tale of Kafkian metamorphosis unfolds across the three-floors of 9 French Place, resulting in therianthropic human-crab hybrids, hard-shelled, thick-skinned and ready to face the trials and tribulations of a city in constant construction. Luisa Me and Hector Campbell would like to thank Mauro Mattei for facilitating the exhibition. For press enquiries please contact [email protected] ‘ Hector Campbell

Episode 42 of The Artists Contemporary Podcast is now live and this weeks guest is @alfie.rouy who is currently exhibited on The Artists Contemporary Atelier in A Fingers Click of Time. Alfie is a London based artist who recently graduated from @camberwellual. Alfie’s work looks into the representation of feelings and investigating those moments. Through the use of his own imagery Alfie is representing different energies and emotions. Alfie finds a lot of inspiration from the natural world and isn’t an artist who references history/contemporary art. Within Alfie’s work you can see his fascination with the natural world through the forms and tones within his work. A Fingers Click of Time is an online presentation of Alfie’s work that looks into those moments of energy when people are really happy, sad or angry. To view the exhibition in full please visit our website. Thank you so much for listening!

The Podcast Evening with @stacie_art, @manonsteyaertart and @allyrosenbergartist hosted by @anna_s_woodward at @hackneydownsstudios is now available to listen to on The Artists Contemporary Podcast. On the 23rd September @the_artists_contemporary hosted a live podcast evening to run alongside its exhibition at @hackneydownsstudios - The Podcast. The Podcast Exhibition celebrated 1 year of The Artists Contemporary Podcast, through curation the exhibition celebrates artists working across a range of different genres and mediums showing the breath of artists that @the_artists_contemporary works with. Thank you to @stacie_art @manonsteyaertart and @allyrosenbergartist for joining and to @hackneydownsstudios for their support with the exhibitions.

Episode 41 of The Artists Contemporary Podcast, Anna is joined by London based curator, writer and @collectivending member @campbell.hector. Hector studied Art History at Bristol University, while studying he immersed himself in the street art scene and eventually working with Lonely Planet to produce a publication. After graduating Hector moved to London and shifted his focus into the contemporary emerging art world. After graduating Hector worked in research within the Christie’s contemporary at department. Here was an amazing chance to learn more about the contemporary artists going through the auction houses. He then moved onto a sales position within a contemporary gallery in Mayfair. Post covid he is has moved to becoming a freelance writer and curating his own projects/exhibitions in an out of @collectivending. Hector’s most recent exhibition ‘Wishbone’ at @yamamotokeikorochaix with work by @billy_fraser and @mitchvowles. Wishbone transports you back to childhood memories through Mitch’s personal childhood identity and ancestry, and Billy’s memories of bone fire night, fun fairs and Halloween. This summer Hector launched his weekly newsletter than takes the content of his Instagram into a weekly release. The newsletter holds a 400-500 word review of a contemporary exhibition, exhibition recommendations and creative opportunities. As mentioned Hector is one of the founding members of @collectivending. Collective Ending is a south London studio and gallery share house founded by 12 artists and writers. Each year they run a different exhibition and project program that exhibits their members but also gives the opportunity to artists and curators outside the collective. Follow @campbell.hector to keep up to date with all his exhibitions, recommendations and reviews. Also follow @collectivending to learn more about the collective but also for the exhibition program.

Episode 40 of The Artists Contemporary Podcast is now out and this weeks guest is @mady_berry who has recently been exhibited in To the power of 5. In the episode @mady_berry and Anna discuss in depth Mady’s work and it’s representation. A lot of Mady’s works investigates and explores her own personal emotions through abstract representation and mods. Mady’s is trained and works as a custom designer and also creates performance pieces. The worlds that are built in the paintings started to come into themselves during covid. But also Mady as an artist to make the whole world that she is imagining and not just the world to make the costume. As Mady’s practice moves forward she wants to look into bringing the two together. To view the works discussed in this episode please email Anna to receive the exhibition catalogue for To the power of 5.