Newly represented artist Guy Allott will be exhibiting a significant new series of paintings and sculpture in his first solo show in London since 2006.
In this new body of paintings, the very distant past and the far-flung future merge. His scenes are replete with improbabilities and anachronisms: fiery mackerel skies, techno-dystopic animal carcasses erupting from the earth and jolly-but-sad spacecraft (evocative of 1960s toys rather than actual rockets).
In order to create these works Allott must contend with a cultural mother-lode of warped landscapes: the pastoral tradition of Antoine Watteau and Claude Lorrain, the spooky wraiths of English Romantic painters (Samuel Palmer et al), CS Lewis' Narnia, HG Wells’ end-of-empire fantasies, the surrealist 20th-century works of Paul Nash and his followers, mid-century pulp science fiction book covers and Hollywood's vast painted (and now CGI) backdrops. Allott succeeds by carefully gesturing towards these, before returning the viewer to his own personal vision – an expanded exploration of the surrealist English landscape tradition. Allott has continued to exhibit in Museums and Galleries nationally and internationally including 176/Zabludowizc Collection (The Library of Babel); Chung King Projects, Los Angeles (Solo); the Kunstverein, Springhornhof, Germany (Group); Arp Museum, Remagen Germany (Solo); Whitechapel Gallery, (East End Academy); the Walker Art Gallery (John Moores); Reception Gallery, Berlin (Solo) and City Art Gallery, Leicester (Solo).
His work has also been featured in Art in America, Time Out, The Art Newspaper and Modern Painters.
For more information please contact Debbie Carslaw at info@madder139.com
MADDER139 Open Thursday – Saturday 12 – 6pm or by appointment The Gallery will be closed for Christmas between 14th December and the 7th January 137 Whitecross Street and Playhouse Yard, London EC1Y 8JL +44 (0)20 7490 3667
