ANDY BURGESS

b. London, UK

Lauded by Annabel Sampson, Deputy Editor of Tatler as “the next David Hockney” painter Andy Burgess, who hails from London but lives in Arizona, continues to expand upon his fascination with contemporary architecture. A new series of paintings on panel and canvas colourfully re-imagines iconic modernist and contemporary houses. Burgess selects the subjects for his paintings with the discernment of the portrait painter. Buildings are chosen for their clean lines, bold geometric design, and dynamic forms. Burgess approaches his subjects with a fresh eye, simplifying and abstracting forms even further and inventing, somewhat irreverently, new colour schemes that expand the modernist lexicon beyond the minimalist white palette and rigid use of primary colours. Real places are sometimes re-invented, the architecture and design altered and modified, with new furniture and landscaping and a theatrical lighting that invests the painted scene with a dream-like quality and a peaceful and seductive allure.

Burgess explores in depth the genesis of modern architecture in Europe and the US and its relationship to modern art, avant-garde design, and abstract painting. Burgess explains his fascination with modernist architecture thusly:

‘Despite the huge impact of early modern architecture, the innovative and subtle minimalist buildings that I am researching, with their concrete and steel frames, flat roofs, and glass walls, never became the dominant mode of twentieth century building. We have continued to build the vast majority of houses in a traditional and conservative idiom, so that these great examples of modern architecture, designed by the likes of Gropius, Loos and Breuer to name but a few, are still shocking and surprising today in their boldness and modernity, almost a hundred years after they were built.’

Alongside the large-scale paintings, Burgess creates collages which reflect his love of vintage graphics, particularly those from the 1930s–50s, a “golden age” in American graphic design and advertising. Burgess has been collecting vintage American ephemera for many years; this ephemera is then unapologetically deconstructed, cut up into tiny pieces and reconstructed into visual and verbal poems, dazzling multi-coloured pop art pieces, and constructed cityscapes.

Andy Burgess’s latest work combines two of his greatest artistic passions, mid-century and modernist architecture, and collage. In this new series of highly intricate pieces, Burgess has used hand painted paper to construct renditions of his favorite modern architecture. Replacing acrylic paint with gorgeous permanent inks he has introduced another level of textural interest. The ink adds a beautiful translucency and wash-like textures to the surface of the image…. making the finished work somewhat tapestry and mosaic like. The pleasure of these works lies in the complex shapes, the analogue quality of the fabrication and the sparkling crystalline colors. Those familiar with his work will recognize some of the iconic subject matter such as Frank Lloyd Wright’s wonderful Guggenheim Museum and famous Fallingwater residence as well as Los Angeles classics such as The Stahl House and other desert modern masterpieces. But there is an eclectic range of architectural subjects that spans decades and continents in a quest to do justice to the architecture of modern times!

Burgess has completed many important commissions for public and private institutions including Crossrail (London’s largest ever engineering project), Cunard, APL shipping, Mandarin Oriental Hotels, a new medical centre in San Jose, California and most recently, Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in London.

In 2021 Andy Burgess started creating a series of site-specific artworks for the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in London. The project, initiated by CW+ – the official charity of the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust – and facilitated by Cynthia Corbett Gallery, which represents Burgess internationally, aims to improve and enhance the NICU environment for patients, relatives and staff.

Working together with the NICU team, Burgess was reminiscing on the hospital’s neighbourhoods and its iconic views, sights and buildings in collaboration with hospital staff. Known for his unique, abstract and colourful style, Andy has transformed selected London scenes into incredible artworks to create a warm and welcoming environment for both parents and staff to enjoy. The display, installed on the 16th June 2022, includes a panorama of London, an image of Albert Bridge and another of a London Underground station. Additionally, Andy produced two smaller scale abstract pieces developed from the colour palettes of his larger works, which were gifted as part of the commission. CW+ also acquired two existing works by Andy for the unit through Cynthia Corbett Gallery.

Burgess’s collectors include the Booker prize-winning author Kazuo Ishiguro, actor and writer Emma Thompson, the Tisch family in New York, Beth De Woody, Board Member of The Whitney Museum and Richard and Ellen Sandor in Chicago, who have one of the top 100 art collections in America.

In March 2023, Burgess publicated of a new limited edition book of abstract ink on paper collages called Tiger’s Eye in conjunction with an exhibition at Laughlin Mercantile in Tucson, Arizona and the release of four luxurious silk scarf designs based on the collages.

Andy Burgess has been represented internationally by Cynthia Corbett Gallery since 2004.

DEBORAH AZZOPARDI

b. UK

America has Lichtenstein, we have Azzopardi!’ - Estelle Lovatt FRSA

Deborah Azzopardi acquired her worldwide fame for the joyous Pop Art images she has created over the past 39 years. Her unique and feminine take on contemporary art is best described by the esteemed art critic Estelle Lovatt: ‘America has Lichtenstein, we have Azzopardi!’ Lovatt goes on to comment: “Sometimes you just want to curl up under a blanket. With a good book. A piece of chocolate. A man. This is what Deborah Azzopardi’s pictures make me feel like doing. They are me. They remind me of the time I had a red convertible sports car. I had two, actually. And yes, they are you, too. You immediately, automatically, engage with the narrative of Azzopardi’s conversational visual humour. Laughter is the best aphrodisiac, as you know. ... There’s plenty of art historical references from... Manet’s suggestive ‘Olympia’; Boucher’s thought-provoking... ‘Louise O’Murphy’ and Fragonard’s frivolous, knickerless, ‘The Swing’.... Unique in approach, you easily recognise an Azzopardi picture. ... Working simple graphics and toned shading (for depth), the Pop Art line that Azzopardi sketches is different to Lichtenstein’s. Hers is more curvaceous. Feminine.”

The world is familiar with Azzopardi’s artworks, as many of them have been published internationally. Her original paintings, such as the Habitat ‘Dating’ series (2004/08), the iconic ...One Lump Or Two? (2014) and Love Is The Answer(2016), created by the artist at the request of Mitch and Janis Winehouse as a tribute to their daughter, are in great demand.

Deborah Azzopardi was awarded the Young Masters Focus On The Female Art Created During Lockdown Award 2021 for her work ‘Unabashed’.

Deborah Azzopardi is represented internationally by Cynthia Corbett Gallery.

KLARI REIS

b.USA

Klari Reis has invented her own medium, using epoxy polymer (a form of liquid plastic) with many added ingredients including pure pigment, acrylic and secrets. Reis’s design is almost otherworldly, her colours unique and her patterns inventive. Her artwork is both object and fine art and she is at the forefront of innovative use of art resources.

Klari Reis’ new works are imaginative recreations and curious playful inquiries into our place in the world. The artist proposes new ways
of seeing and understanding our natural environment through painting and sculpture, testing the boundaries of logical systems. By considering the contradictory implications of the word natural and exploring the relationships between the human and non-human, Klari embraces possibility through work that is joyful and hopeful.

Klari Reis is an American artist with a Master of Fine Arts (2004) and an Associate Research Fellowship (2005) from the City and Guilds of London Art School. She lives and works in San Francisco and is represented internationally by Cynthia Corbett Gallery.

Klari Reis is represented internationally by Cynthia Corbett Gallery.

ALASTAIR GORDON

b.1979, Scotland, UK

Begun in the landscape yet completed in the studio, these new works by Alastair Gordon mark a fresh trajectory for the artist. Gordon is best known for highly illusionistic paintings (rooted in the quodlibet tradition) but here he combines his heightened sense of realism with historical notions of intuitive wildness and British wilderness painting. Gordon makes paintings about paintings; works that oscillate between artifact and artifice. We are presented with landscapes as still lives and sketches as completed works. Certain questions emerge about authenticity, the painting process and how we consider notions of landscape today. The veracity of the object is constantly in doubt yet the wild is ever calling.

In making these new works Gordon travelled to the outer reaches of the British Isles, undertaking a painting pilgrimage from the heights of the Lake District, depths of Caithness peat flows and furthest reaches of the Outer Hebrides. Sitting atop mountain peaks and sinking into peat bogs each work begins in the landscape. As Gordon states, ‘I don’t seek a view but a sense of place’. From here the paintings are developed in the studio to appear as drawing boards and sketchbook work. Oscillating between hyperrealism and intuitive gesture, they both tame and subsume to the wilderness itself.

2020 Young Masters Guest Artist Alastair Gordon is a London based artist and tutor and a course leader for the Graduate Residency Scheme at Leith School of Art, Edinburgh. Last year, Alastair was artist in residency for City and Guilds of London Art School followed by a parallel residency with PADA Studios in Lisbon. He has had recent solo exhibitions at Aleph Contemporary, London (2020) and Ahmanson Gallery, Los Angeles (2017). Works feature in various international collections and public museums. He was the inaugural winner of the Shoesmiths painting prize and recently co-recipient of the Dentons Art Prize. His third book, Why Art Matters was published by Inter Varsity Press last year.

Alastair Gordon is represented internationally by Cynthia Corbett Gallery

MATT SMITH

b. UK

A 31 Note Lovesong

Matt Smith developed this series while artist in residence at the Victoria and Albert Museum, A 31 Note Lovesong uses molds from the former Spode ceramics factory in Stoke on Trent and casts from objects in the V&A’s archives. Cast in black parian clay, the works create a portrait of the workers who made the molds, and comment on the silence in the former factory. The juxtaposition of composite objects within the work reflects the arbitrary grouping that occur within museum stores. The work was selected for the British Ceramics Biennial and has been shown at London Design Festival and Gustavsberg Konsthall Stockholm.

Trouble With History

This body of work by Matt Smith is created from a found, vintage, needlepoint which is unpicked and restitched by the artist. Based on paintings by known male artists, the needlepoints were originally produced for amateur, anonymous sewers to stitch. Idealised figures are presented in bucolic settings, their faces replaced by the artist with neutral repeating patterns which disturb the working of the image. By interrupting without substituting a definitive alternative narrative, the work leaves the reinterpretation open for the viewer, questioning the heterosexual constraints of such imagery and prompting a re-consideration of the sitters' skin colour and identity and questioning the viewer’s complacent acceptance of such imagery. Works from the series are held by the V&A, the Crafts Council, Brighton Museum and the National Museum of Northern Ireland.

Matt Smith is a multi award-winning artist based in Ireland and England. Acclaimed solo exhibitions include Losing Venus at the Pitt Rivers Museum, Flux: Parian Unpacked at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Who Owns History at Hove Museum and Queering the Museum at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery. In 2015/16 he was artist in residence at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. He holds a PhD from the University of Brighton and was Professor at Konstfack University, Stockholm.

In 2020 he was awarded the Brookfield Prize at Collect and the Contemporary Art Society acquired a body of his work for Brighton Museum and Art Gallery. His work is also held in the collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Walker Art Gallery, Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, National Museum of Scotland, National Museum of Northern Ireland and the Crafts Council collection.

Matt Smith is represented internationally by Cynthia Corbett Gallery and was the winner of the Young Masters Maylis Grand Ceramics Prize in 2014.

ISABELLE VAN ZEIJL

b.1980, Netherlands

In a contemporary art world that condemns beauty as camouflage for conceptual shallowness, championing high aesthetics is nothing short of rebellion. Dutch photographer Isabelle Van Zeijl takes female beauty ideals from the past, and sabotages them in the context of today. As a women she experiences prejudices against women; misogyny in numerous ways including sex discrimination, belittling/violence against women and sexual objectification. Van Zeijl aestheticises these prejudices in her work to visually discuss this troubling dichotomy, presenting a new way of seeing female beauty. An oppressive idealisation of beauty is tackled in her work through unique female character and emotion.

Van Zeijl is invested in her images. By using subjects that intrigue and evoke emotion, she reinvents herself over and over and has created a body of work to illustrate these autobiographical narratives. Her work takes from all she experiences in life - she is both model, creator, object and subject. Going beyond the realm of individual expression, so common in the genre of self-portraiture, she strives to be both universal and timeless.

Isabelle Van Zeijl, born and based in the Netherlands is an internationally acclaimed Fine Art Photographer. She was nominated for the Prix De La Photographie Paris, The Fine Art Photography Awards and was one of the winners of The Young Masters 2017 Emerging Woman Art Prize, London. Her work is held in prominent private & public collections in the USA, Europe, UK, Australia and Asia.

Isabelle Van Zeijl is represented internationally by Cynthia Corbett Gallery and was the winner of the Young Masters Emerging Woman Art Prize in 2017.

CRISTINA SCHEK

b. Transylvania

Esteemed art critic Estelle Lovatt, FRSA, notes the departure from traditional representations in Cristina Schek's work: “Away from the worn-out out-of-date academic portrait of the female muse, Cristina Schek’s attention-grabbing images are inspired by literature and history. I marvel at her unique quirky portraits of modern life, in interiors brimming with warm comfy chintz and cosy furniture. But the real clout and muscle comes from the lone woman masked, in her flowing gown, inspiring powerful messages of caution for women today. Different to a man’s representation of the female, Schek inspires us to be the victor not the victim. As a woman, though the lens of her eye, she created a new, unique, visual language influencing and motivating us to be as progressive and visionary as we are. To be assertive, bold, self-assured powerful, and confident. To develop and enlarge our value(s). To think, feminist weight solid enough, in images not just of her, but of you and me, in Schek’s sumptuous, surrealistic, delightful imaginings.”

Cristina Schek is the photosensitive kind. She thinks in pictures; her imagination is always in focus. Unconventional in her approach, she sees the camera as a mere tool, allowing her imagination to take centre stage. She enjoys the freedom of layering and manipulating her photographs into creative montages, trusting her instinct for matching the raw material with subconscious musings. Often whimsical and a touch romantic, her photographs are given subtle alterations, resulting in carefully constructed compositions, which reveal the influence of the great Surrealists and Old Masters.

'Diving Upwards':
"Everything real begins with the fiction of what could be. Imagination is therefore the most potent force in the Universe. Imagination is 'Diving Upwards'! And you can get better at it. It's the one skill in life that benefits from ignoring what everyone else knows. Over the long term, the future is decided by optimists. To be an optimist you don’t have to ignore the multitude of problems that arise, you just have to 'Dive Upwards' and imagine how much your ability to solve problems improves." Cristina Schek

Press: 'Fern Girl' featured in Widewalls Magazine. | Cristina Schek Winner of W4th Plinth Unveiled by Dame Siân Phillips

Cristina Schek was awarded the Young Masters Focus On The Female Art Award Created During Lockdown 2021 for her work 'Florence Lightingale'.

Cristina Schek is represented internationally by Cynthia Corbett Gallery.

ELAINE WOO MACGREGOR

b.1981, UK.

‘’I am an expressive cross-cultural painter trained in the Glasgow School of Art 1999 - 2003. Rhythmic calligraphic brushstrokes, exacting moments of drawing, suggestive mark-making that bridges between figuration and abstraction, eclectic colour palette and painterly techniques of surface play all features strongly in my work. My painted stories and memories are of people based on my personal experiences and experiences of others found in books, films, fashion and photography. Painting for me is a voyage of discovery and a sensation felt. I want my viewers to peer through layers of paint, dapples of colour and a smudge of a mark to enter an alternative reality.’ – Elaine Woo MacGregor

MacGregor’s artistry offers a unique perspective, encompassing a fusion of cultures. Through her eclectic use of mark making and imagery, she weaves together atmospheric and theatrical narratives. While her painted stories may often be fictitious, they are rooted in real people, places, and objects.

Elaine Woo MacGregor is a Scottish-born Chinese artist trained in the Glasgow School of Art. She graduated with a bachelor’s degree with honours, acquired a studio and began working as a full-time artist.

MacGregor’s first solo exhibition was 'Portraits' in Glasgow. Recent exhibitions include her solo exhibition ‘Maman et Muses’, Patriothall Gallery, Edinburgh (2023), ‘Art on a Postcard’, Fitzrovia Gallery, London (2023), Women in Art Fair, Mall Galleries, London (2023), ING Discerning Eye, Mall Galleries, London (2023), Art Miami, USA (2023), Expo Chicago, USA (2023) Young Masters Autumn Exhibition, London (2022) and The British Art Fair, Saatchi Gallery, London (2022 & 2023). Notably, MacGregor was selected for Platform 2023 at the London Art Fair in 'Reframing the Muse', an exhibition curated by Ruth Millington, showing with The Cynthia Corbett Gallery.

MacGregor's work has been critically recognised by virtue of the Dewar Arts Award, James Torrance Memorial Award, Hope Scott Trust Award and the Cross Trust Fund. In 2022, she was a finalist in the Jackson's Painting Prize, received the Art Paisley Prize for outstanding work, and Velvet Easel Award. In 2023, she was awarded the RSA Blackadder Houston Mid-Career Travel Award. She will be travelling to Hong Kong and Shanghai for art research in 2024.

Artist Residencies include Visiting Artist and Lecturer in Guizhou Art Academy, China in 2008, and Artist in Residence with Partial Fellowship Award in Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, USA in 2009.

Woo MacGregor’s work is in British and international museum collections including Atkinson Art Gallery and Museum, UK, Art Gallery of South Australia, Pallant House Gallery, UK and 21C Museum and Hotel, USA and Didrichsen Art Museum, Finland.

Elaine Woo MacGregor Showcases Her Dramatic Figurative Paintings at Los Angeles Art Show 2024

Artmag Feature: From the Shadow of the Wind to the Windy City: Elaine Woo Macgregor at Chicago Art Fair 2023

Elaine Woo MacGregor is represented internationally by Cynthia Corbett Gallery.

NICOLE ETIENNE

Los Angeles, USA

US-born Nicole Etienne’s masterfully painted mixed media compositions fly across the canvas, exploding with vibrancy and sensuality. With a background in painting and photography, Etienne travels extensively, shooting the many elaborate and romantic settings that inspire her. She then manipulates her photography, tweaking each image to create a mystical entry point from which to continue her process. Once an image is printed, on either glitter or natural canvas, the real transformation begins. With thickly applied paint and other materials including gold leaf, glitter, even Swarovski crystals, Etienne adds powerful movement and extreme opulence to her base image, creating an intimate, unexpected moment in an extraordinary environment where anything is possible and the only limit is the imagination. Captivating us with dizzying skill and beauty, Etienne grants her audience full permission to dwell, delight and enjoy the fruits, flora and fauna of her exquisite labor.

Nicole Etienne’s work is in numerous public and private collections. She earned her MFA from the New York Academy of Art and her BFA from the University of California Santa Cruz. Solo exhibitions of her work have been mounted in New York, Aspen, London, Dublin, Tokyo and Saint Barthélemy and she has been included in group shows and art fairs worldwide. Nicole currently resides in Los Angeles, having recently returned to the states after several successful years working and exhibiting in the UK.

Nicole Etienne's work was selected for the Young Masters Focus On The Female Curation in 2021.

CHELSEA KINCH

Rhode Island, USA

“I make art to digest and make peace with the human experience. I use paint to explore profound emotions and my relationship to existing in a corporeal form. My work and process are inextricably linked to play and physicality – painting for me is like dancing and the more of my body that I can involve in the work, the more vital it feels. Nature, place, and environment are important influences on my work. I use my practice to fuse the internal and external landscapes that I feel torn between. They come together through color and gesture in a visual expression of the many facets of my experiences in this body, on this planet.” – Chelsea Kinch

Kinch’s paintings explore themes of disposability and ephemerality, especially as they relate to being a woman. For her, the process of painting is more than just that - it is an act of surrender, a catharsis, and a journey into herself. It is through painting that she lives.

Chelsea Kinch is an abstract painter based in Maui, Hawaii. She grew up in and out of Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) classrooms in her home state of Rhode Island after falling in love with oil painting at the age of ten. She did not pursue formal training in fine art, opting instead to study at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York.

Kinch is a catalyst for her local arts community on Maui for her work to support emerging contemporary artists who operate outside of the tourist gaze. She opened a gallery in 2021 for this purpose and is also currently engaged in completing a public mural commission for a local institution.

Her solo shows include ‘Clean Sweep’, (2020), ‘Graceful Anger’, (2021), and ‘Moving In’, (2022). Additionally, her work has been acquired for an upcoming Showtime TV series and most recently featured in the Australian publication Monster Children.

Her work was most recently selected for the group show ‘Artists of Hawai’I’ (2023), the state’s longest running juried exhibition.

Kinch was selected for a scholarship by the European Cultural Academy to study in Venice in the summer of 2022.

Chelsea Kinch is represented internationally by Cynthia Corbett Gallery.

JONATHAN CLAUDE (AKA HARRY CORBETT)

Jonathan Claude's (born UK) artistic journey is deeply rooted in his upbringing, characterised by a rich exposure to music genres like jazz, blues, and rock, as well as a penchant for indulging in classic films on television — a pastime that endures to this day. Moreover, his fondness for the art of letter writing, which he continues to cherish, has garnered acclaim for his impeccable handwriting over the years.

Driven by a profound desire to express gratitude to departed artists for the profound joy they've imparted, Jonathan embarked on a unique endeavour: writing letters of appreciation to these luminaries. For him, there existed no compelling reason not to undertake this heartfelt gesture. Hence, the letters you encounter within his body of work serve as a testament to this ongoing dialogue between artist and muse.

"Growing up in the Midlands of England in the 1960’s, before I was a teenager, I was conscious of a revolution in the arts and in particular music.
This was clear because on the radio my earliest memories were of a Liverpool Group (The Beatles) who had a hit with 'She Loves You', which was their second number one single in Great Britain and their third hit single. Everyone was talking about it, even me and I was only five years old. As the decade progressed and the swinging sixties arrived, it was clear that this movement was far away from the Midlands of Great Britain where I resided. The swinging sixties was really a rather small movement in parts of London such as Carnaby Street or The Kings Road, and in a few other parts of the world, such as California.

On the 15th December 1969 as I left my school before I started at another one, John Lennon was performing at the Lyceum in London and in his band he had, Klaus Voorman, George Harrison, Eric Clapton, Jim Gordon, Keith Moon and Billy Preston and others. It all seemed like another world. I was wondering how I might connect with it and although I played the recorder at school I figured that this would not be my passport to engage with these Titans of Music and Entertainment.

Also if you wished to be entertained on the screen you had Alfred Hitchcock and many others and a new television series had started in Britain in 1968 called 'Dads Army' which fifty six years later we are still celebrating. All of this left a deep impression in my mind.

As Britain rather was diminishing in so many ways this was not the case in the arts. To engage with these performers that have passed away but gave so much enjoyment to so many I decided that I wanted to take myself back to a point in time and write to them to celebrate their work at various moments in their lives. Not just British performers but performers from other parts of the world that are no longer with us but continue to provide absolute joy.

So you now know why I write these letters."

LA ART Show