SUBLIMINAL PROJECTS X STANLEY DONWOOD
SUBLIMINAL PROJECTS is pleased to announce Lost Angeles, a solo exhibition of art by British artist Stanley Donwood.
LOST ANGELES
Work by Stanley Donwood
April 28 – May 26, 2012
Opening Reception: Saturday, April 28th • 8PM – 10 PM
There is no future. We have evicted ourselves from our own cities, rendered our agriculture poisonous, criminalized the poor, aggrandized the rich, honored the stupid and ridiculed the intelligent…I have no solutions, no wisdom to offer…Whilst Rome burns, I take up my little chisel and I carve a panoramic apocalypse of my own…and if you want to see it, you’re more than welcome. – Stanley Donwood, 2012
Lost Angeles will feature a new body of work where Donwood turns his poignant perception on the impact of current societal trends and behavior towards Los Angeles. His visual meditation on society envelopes viewers in a beautifully, graphic landscape of impending doom. The fluid black and white scene resonates with honesty and forewarning. True to form, Donwood once again succeeds in giving flawless design to his version of our tragically flawed future.
On display will be an 18-foot apocalyptic panorama of the City of Angels being destroyed by fire, flood and meteor storm. Originally carved into 18 separate panels of linoleum then hand burnished onto Japanese Kozo paper, the never-before-seen, limited edition print was inspired by subject matter similar to Donwood’s 2006 work titled London Views.
Donwood began London Views in 2004 after being shaken by the Indian Ocean tsunami that claimed more than 229,000 lives. His original drawings evolved from being visual recordings of the destruction into ruminations on the environmental repercussions of contemporary lifestyle. Inspired by the aesthetics of the woodcut illustrations in the 15th century publication Nuremberg Chronicle, Donwood carved scenes from his drawings into a 10 foot-long linoleum panorama. This visual narrative of London being consumed by natural disaster was then laboriously transferred onto rolls of Kozo Washi-a durable, fibrous paper first developed in Japan over 1,300 years ago.
Selections from the Lost Angeles series (2012) will be accompanied by the London Views (2006) print and a small linocut titled Fleet Street Apocalypse (2008), all connected by a similar theme. Individual relief prints from the original linocuts, a selection of limited edition screen prints, several books by Donwood, and jigsaw puzzles of scenes from Lost Angeles will also be on view.
Whether presented in the form of prints, paintings, or publications, the biting wit of Donwood’s observations is present and impeccably executed.
Stanley Donwood gained recognition in 1994 when he began designing album art for the Grammy-award winning English rock band, Radiohead. His work has since been used for 15 singles, 9 EPs and various studio albums including The Bends, Kid A, OK Computer, and Hail to the Thief. In addition to his work with Radiohead, Donwood has successfully exhibited paintings, etchings, linoprints and screenprints across Europe, Asia and the US. He has published 5 of his own monographs, created a record label (Six Inch Records) and designed all official artwork for the Glastonbury Festival since 2002. Donwood currently lives and works in Essex, England.
Please visit www.slowlydownward.com for more information on his projects.