For the 2020 edition of Photo London, Kovet.Art is delighted to present a selection of works by Loreal Prystaj, Tom Faber, Candice Jewell and Giovanni Petrocchi - four rising emerging talents currently featured in our inaugural virtual exhibition, Delineating Dreams. We are excited to present exclusive, limited-edition photographs, many of which have not been previously exhibited.The selection for Photo London is grounded in dream-like explorations of the subconscious, presenting works which subtly manipulate the space between abstraction and figuration to question ideas about the body and the natural landscape.
Each artist uses transformative, multi-disciplinary ways of working to subvert what is known and familiar, allowing us to reconsider our surrounding environments and the emotional impact they possess.
We meticulously curate, incubate and uncover the world’s finest artistic talent graduating from prestigious universities, for art connoisseurs to champion and invest early in artists who are making their mark in the contemporary art world. By combining curatorial expertise and technological innovation, we aim to create dialogue on pressing issues while presenting thought-provoking online and pop up exhibitions, always sensitive to the zeitgeist.
The Kovet.Art selection for Photo London was curated in response to seismic shifts due to the pandemic. The show ultimately aims to inspire, inviting us to dream of possible new futures, allowing us to transcend the limitations of our current moment. As we reconsider our relationship to both connection and isolation, art remains a powerful medium of solace - where dreams become tools to re-shape our world.
In the prescient words of André Breton; “I believe in the future resolution of these two states, dream and reality, which are seemingly so contradictory, into a kind of absolute reality, a surreality, if one may so speak.”
Loreal Prystaj
The Royal College of Art, MA Photography, 2019
The Fashion Institute of Technology, BFA Photography,2013
“There is no such thing as compromising with nature; we simply abide by how it lives and exist as a part of it. Nature is relevant to each individual’s well-being, but is more than just part of us, we are a part of it.” - Loreal Prystaj
Reflecting on Nature was shot in 2016 in Hämeenkyrö, Finland. Often, mirrors are used to emphasize minute details, but rarely used to look at the larger picture. What if nature looked at itself? What would it see? What would we be? Would our identity stand out or would we be but a small, organic detail? By performing as or playing in specific narratives within her chosen landscapes, Prystaj transforms once familiar spaces into mise-en-scène that highlight the connection between the physical environment and internal states both past, present, and future. She continues to expresses these ideas in her practice through photography, collecting, installation, and sculptural interpretation.
Candice Jewell
Plymouth College of Art, BA (Hons) Photography 2019
"Gender reality is performative which means, quite simply, that it is real only to the extent that it is performed." —Judith Butler, 1988.
Sequester takes its inspiration from the feminist movement. In a bid to challenge gender constructions, the artist's body is abstracted and concealed. Both gender and identity are hidden, with only form and object providing interpretive clues. The use of crepe paper covering the subject with dynamic layers are representative of the alter egos and surface personalities one creates when in the spotlight. Meanwhile, the cloak of sponges absorbs the subject until there is nothing left, only what society demands. Through images that are gender ambiguous, which remove the ‘filter’ of the male and female gaze, Jewell wants the viewer to understand the desire of hiding oneself away, which then gives on to a growing confidence to free oneself.
Giovanna Petrocchi
Camberwell College of Arts, UAL, MA Visual Arts Printmaking, 2019
London College of Communication, UAL, BA (Hons) Photography, 2015
Zone of Proximity hints at a distant paradisiacal terrain. The imaginary landscapes, at once familiar and foreign, are inspired by surrealist paintings, virtual realities and ancient cultures. Through this collection of landscapes the artist investigates and defines our associations with place and experience, one that is both visual and instinctive. In subverting the lines between real and imagined, the artist aims to question the visibility of the landscape we inhabit and create an opening for new narratives to form. Combining found photography, magazines, and personal photographs, Petrocchi creates collages that encourage our imagination to roam outside the conventional idea of what a photograph is or should be. Converting the handmade collages into a photograph emphasizes the contrast between the three- dimensional nature of the collage and the smooth surface of the print.
Tom Faber
Chelsea College of Arts, UAL, Graduate Diploma Fine Art, 2018
University of Cambridge, BA (Hons) History of Art, 2015
Faber’s work examines the relationship between painting and digital media, and what it means to construct an image of the natural environment. Gathering scans of paint marks and organic materials – soil, leaves, animal marks – he then reformulates these digitally into ‘paintings’. By arranging these elements in a digital space – a fantasy space – the artist chops, builds, distorts and inflates, playfully experimenting with forms and narratives surrounding the representation of the natural world. Through this process, he examines the tendency of humans to distort and manipulate nature. His work references ideas of recycling and uses mythical worlds and surrealistic iconographies to explore this.
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