Agents of Change – “Unfolding” – May 10 > June 8, 2013
The David Bloch Gallery is proud to have presented Unfolding, a group show by six members of the international art collective Agents of Change, renowned for creating environmental work on a monumental scale.
As well as collaborating as a collective, each artist has pursued art careers in their own right, showing to audiences throughout the world.
Each of the participating artists share a common language that originated from the graffiti art explosion in the late 70ʼs and early 80ʼs. In the following decades their work has progressed and diversified to create its own distinct and refined voice. A deep-rooted understanding of form, material and space has allowed the artistʼs work to unfold, expanding outwards toward new contexts.
Unfolding showcases artists whose work incorporates a strong leaning toward plasticity – using a wide variety of media to produce work ranging from painting through to sculpture and installation. Through experimentation with new materials Unfolding will bring about an examination of new journeys and the opportunity to exploit future dialogues within a well established aesthetic.
About Agents of Change
Agents of Change are a collective of 12 artists who attack space. Formed in 2009, the international collective create work that responds on a site specific basis, integrating both the aesthetic and historical resonance of the environment theyʼre working in. Each project brings greater potential for innovation, both on a practical level in technique and on a more emotive basis in dealing with ever larger historical and political ideas.
Carlos Mare aka Mare 139 (USA)
Mare is a NYC based sculptor/ painter/ scholar/ US Cultural Ambassador who in 1985 pioneered a novel version of urban graffiti as modern sculpture. Throughout his career as a sculptor, Mare has consistently brought innovation to the genreʼs aesthetic and vocabulary. His metal sculptures are inspired by his interests of form, light, space in an architectural environment. His admiration of early avant-garde art and sculpture inspired the merging of aesthetics between ʻgraffitiʼ styles and the modernists of the early 20th century.
Derm (UK)
Dermʼs work is based on a combination of abstracted typographical forms, architectural influences, and graphic and geometric shape. Taking inspiration from the colours and textures of the natural, urban and industrial environments in Scotland, he makes work in found spaces that responds to and comments on the aesthetics of its environment.
Jaybo Monk (France/Germany)
Jaybo (1968) is a runaway, setting out and wandering along in a physical as well as in a creative sense – urban subculture is the driving force behind his artistic activities. This is especially true of his paintings, which are erratic and chaotic as they directly quote various fragments of what surround him – often plumbing great psychological depths, thematically speaking, with lightness meeting existentialistic melancholy, aggressiveness meeting passion and a seemingly standard romantic streak and visionary dimension.
LX One (France)
LX explores the pixel, the smallest unit, as a means to research the base of form, and the skeleton of colours. He works to the beat of geometry, the noise of shapes and a system of tensions in free space that response to architecture, urbanism and design. Inspired by Piet Mondrian and Vasarelly, LX One portrays the absolutes in life: Vertical and horizontal lines.
Remi Rough (UK)
There are few artists whose recent works could be described as “painting visual haikus” without the reader needing to roll their eyes, but Remi Rough is one of them. South London born and bred, Remi has been breaking boundaries with the aid of a spray can and a paintbrush for over 27 years. Transcending the traditional and somewhat idealised vision of a graffiti writer, he is passionate and unforgiving in his creative progression.
Steve More (UK)
Steve More uses materials from his surrounding environment to create abstract works concerned with the passing of time, decay and regeneration. In 2005, following 20 years as a graffiti artist, More switched from painting on the city surfaces to focusing on the inherent qualities of the materials that lay beneath. He works with materials such as concrete, bill posters and found objects to explore wider concepts of urban life. His work is often highly textural occupying a space between painting and sculpture.