On 1the 4th of August, Lazarides Rathbone gallery officially opened a major solo exhibition by Lucas Price aka Cyclops entitled Dumb Poetry. Both artist and the gallery used his debut appearance at this space to put together an impressive, coherent show.
In his last show with Lazarides (covered), Price was mostly showing his portraiture work. This time however, he decided to present his version of still life works, a direction he hinted at last time. Both through sculptures, installation and oils, the new body of work features recurring images of fire extinguishers, basketballs, tires and plants overlaid with fragments of text. All being elements previously seen in his work, even in his early street art days, they’ve been lifted up to a new level with this show – technically, conceptually and aesthetically.
Mixing the photorealistic works with text, as one of his most recognizable “tricks,” the show is sort of a modern day version of old school Cyclops works. Juxtaposing visuals and text, classic oil painting with screen printing, canvases with sculptural installations, the exhibition is constantly balancing between realism and abstraction, with its clean-feel and unusual motif choices making it abstract. Stacks of car tires turned into plant pots are perfectly matched with the artificial plants on the canvases, while fire extinguishers scattered around the gallery mirror the ones painted on the canvases. The very sharp edged, industrial feel suggest his vision of modern day classic still life oils – from deflated basketballs in unusual colors, beautified car tires or macro shots of extinguishers, to “fake” plants with leaves clipped onto a metal stick instead of growing. The show will stay on view until 10th of September, so make sure to see it in person if you’re in the area.
Discuss Lucas Price here.
