Pictorum Gallery is proud to present "I Want to Be an Insect," a multidisciplinary exhibition featuring the works of four international artists, Becky Tucker, Tito Stanley, Megan Rea and Aniela Preston. Each artist has drawn inspiration from art historical sources spanning the surreal to the renaissance. The exhibition's title, borrowed from a sculpture by the legendary Leonora Carrington, serves as a thematic anchor, reflecting the exhibiting artists' shared interests in metamorphosis, materiality, and the surreal
Becky Tucker, a ceramic artist based in Glasgow, merges historical and futuristic elements to craft sculptures that transcend time. Inspired by film, architecture, costume, and ancient artifacts, Tucker's works blur the boundaries between animate and inanimate, often referencing the human or animal body. Themes of opposition, doubling, and mimicry permeate her pieces, adding familiarity to their surreal and timeless nature. Central to Tucker's vision is the mutable nature of symbols, allowing her sculptures to transcend linear interpretations and invite viewers into a world where past and future converge in intriguing harmony.
Tito Stanley S J, born in Abu Dhabi in 1994 and currently pursuing an MVA in painting from Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, portrays themes of isolation and the experience of being an 'outsider' through his paintings. His sardonic, allegorical, and observational gaze adds a unique perspective to contemporary painting in Kerala and India, revealing the absurdity of doctrine and politics.
Aniela Preston, born in Coventry, UK, in 1998, graduated from the University of Leeds with a Fine Art BA in 2021 after completing her Foundation Diploma at Central Saint Martins. Preston's hyper-realistic paintings blend the contemporary with the classical, offering quiet glimpses into intimate moments while gesturing towards wider societal, political, and environmental issues.
Megan Rea, a painter living and working in East London, celebrates fictitious cityscapes in Italian frescoes by reimagining them as architectural fragments in their freshly painted state. Her preparatory technique involves blending newspaper with water, draining it, and rolling the pulp onto a smooth flat surface to dry, reflecting the arduous preparation of frescoes. Rea's paintings capture the romanticism of 14th-century frescoes, enhancing the strength and vigor of the original buildings with bright dancing stars and flowing ribbons.
"I Want to Be an Insect" pays homage to art historical muses and motifs throughout time through explorations of metamorphosis, symbolism, mythology, and the natural world. The exhibition runs from the 28th March until the 26th of April 2024.