Andrew Hunt

C A D O G A NC O N T E M P O R A R Y

87 Old Brompton Road

London SW7 3LDTelephone: +44 (0)20 7581 5451

www.cadogancontemporary.com

Andrew Hunt

15th - 27th September 2014

Gallery HoursMonday - Friday 10am - 6pm

Saturday 11am - 6pm

We are more than proud to present this latest collection of Andrew Hunt’s work with the theme ‘spirituality’.

Hunt’s oil paintings have unashamed impact, a quality which made him the poster-boy for the 2008 BP Portrait award and has won him a loyal following of international collectors.

As Andrew describes in his illuminating comments, this body of work has an abstract, a figurative, a narrative, a spiritual and a comic element - but most of all these pieces are different, unique and striking.

One important collector of Andrew’s work described his first exhibition with Cadogan Contemporary in 2002, as ‘not lift music’. That phrase sums up this show perfectly.

Christopher Burness

For this collection of paintings I have been inspired by the omnipresent themes of faith and religion in art. For a figurative artist preoccupied by narrative painting religion remains the cornerstone of all storytelling throughout history and presents an exciting and necessary subject on which to assert my brush.

In keeping with the spirit of religious painting I had the foremost desire to create a body of work that is striking and bold. Work that does not sit sheepishly on the wall, but instead, proclaims itself to the viewer with strong, dark and light colours.

My loose and often sketchy technique owes a lot to my love of narrative illustration. The paintings become the covers of graphic novels in which characters and stories of faith are laid bare. There is also an element of urban art, the bare canvas, the drips and runs do not only depict the anatomy and narrative of the painting, but they become the wall on which my message is scrawled. The modern fresco.

In such stories a man in the grip of prayer, his hands exaggerated, the clasp is overstated and amplifying the Silent Words of the figure behind.

Bible Focal is a piece drawn from the real life observation of a man wearing two sets of glasses on a street bench in Sheffield, clearly unable to obtain a pair of bi-focals. It demonstrates the duplicity of faith when one’s piety sits in contrast to one’s actions, like wearing two faces.

There are more conspicuous comic references in the pictorially dynamic Saviour and in Xenu - a less than earnest take on scientology.

Classical themes are explored in the urban take on mythology with Cupid and in Mother and Child where the ubiquitous scene of the Madonna, gentil and reflective, so familiar from Renaissance paintings, is punctured by a toddler’s goofy toy.

Sacrificial Lamb is a surreal scene drawing on the theme of martyrdom and paying the ultimate sacrifice. The chess pieces reflect the warring factions at the control of a higher order. The politicians, the faith leaders, the war mongers...the butchers.

In Sunday School, the local pub becomes the arena of the anecdote. Nebuchadnezzar’s fiery furnace of Old Testament Babylon, becomes the steel mill foundry and a piscatarian raconteur tells his story to his less than receptive companions. The Holy Man is a more sculptural reflection on faith. There are other biblical references, in Jezebel, found guilty of blasphemy and fed to a pack of dogs, but the brazen character of the Bette Davis film was also firmly in my mind.

Andrew Hunt

Bible Focaloil on canvas

40” x 40” 102cm x 120cm

Saviouroil on canvas

48” x 48” 122cm x 122cm

Sacrificial Lamb oil on canvas

42” x 60” 107cm x 152cm

Mother and childoil on canvas

28” x 28” 70cm x 70cm

Jezebeloil on canvas

36” x 24” 90cm x 60cm

Cupidoil on canvas

42” x 48” 107cm x 122cm

Holy Manoil on canvas

60” x 48” 152cm x 122cm

Sunday Schooloil on canvas

48” x 60” 122cm x 152cm

Xenuoil on canvas

24” x 36” 61cm x 92cm

Silent Wordsoil on canvas

60” x 42” 152cm x 107cm

C A D O G A NC O N T E M P O R A R Y

87 Old Brompton Road

London SW7 3LDTelephone: +44 (0)20 7581 5451

www.cadogancontemporary.com