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IT'S CHILLY SOMETIMES

Black Book Gallery is pleased to present It’s Chilly Sometimes, a group exhibition featuring ten contemporary artists from around the world, opening October 1st from 7pm-9pm. Included in the exhibition are the artists: A.CE (UK), Alexander Chappell (UK), Charley Peters (UK), Dotmaster (UK), EINE (UK), HUSH (UK), Laura Benetton (UK), Lucie Flynn (UK), Masagon (JPN) and Nasepop (ARG). Working across various styles—from hypnotic patterns and vintage letterforms to hyper-graphic paintings of cyberspace—these artists each explore modes of modern communication through their signature lens.

It’s Chilly Sometimes juxtaposes a range of artistic perspectives, reflecting degrees of contemporary culture that—when viewed together—allude to our collective experience as a society in constant flux. Vintage aesthetics remixed with ultra modern materials, virtual landscapes rendered with painstakingly realistic detail—these artists are confronting old ways of seeing with new ways of making and vice versa.

Masagon (Japan) is a street artist whose abstract compositions utilize mesmerizing patterns, composed in vivid colors and pared-down shapes. Ben Eine (UK) also rose to prominence as a street artist—first as a graffiti writer in London, now considered a pioneer in the realm of stylized typography and large-scale urban art.

Lucie Flynn (UK) makes bold mixed media works in hyper-pop palettes that refer to letterpress design, abstract expressionism, contemporary portraiture and the painted gesture. Alexander Chappell (UK) creates hyper-detailed portraits in graphite and acrylic that reveal the emotional complexity of his subjects’ inner selves.

A.CE (UK) developed his style in the early days of the British skate and street art scenes. Two decades later, his signature wheat-pasted designs featuring old school cartoons and retro graphics have become ubiquitous and instantly recognizable.

Nasepop (NL) is among Amsterdam’s most well-known urban artists for his ultra-graphic aesthetic, inspired by digital design.

Charley Peters (UK) also explores digitally-native forms in her large-scale paintings. Like a post-internet Mondrian, her compositions invoke a De Stijl aesthetic, but in a visual language associated with 3D renderings and virtual reality.

Similarly, Laura Benetton (UK) creates abstract compositions with airbrushed precision, often incorporating neon light as an additional formal device and a nod to minimalists like Dan Flavin.

Hush (UK) channels the styles of Japonisme and Art Nouveau in his multi-layered portraits, bridging Asian and European aesthetics with his own visual language. Finally, Dotmaster (UK) critiques the social norms and status quo of late-stage capitalism with sardonic humor and an agit-prop spirit.

Full of irony as well as sincere beauty, the works on view in It’s Chilly Sometimes embrace the irreverent, the poetic, and everything in between. Just as the seasons change, and the world navigates between the real and the virtual, the truth and “fake news,” It’s Chilly Sometimes straddles the divide of modern day life and finds meaning in the intersections that connect us to each other.