‘United for Change’, an Anti-racism Fundraising Exhibition curated by Lee Sharrock on Artnet with Galstian Advisory LLC in Los Angeles

United for Change: An Anti-Racism Fundraising Exhibition featuring Andreas Stylianou, Catalina Guirado, Maxim x WLS, Misia-O’, Hayden Kays, Jermaine Francis, Jon Daniel, Juan Antonio Guirado and Todd Williamson.    

London / Los Angeles, 15 June 2020 – ‘United for Change’ is an anti-racism exhibition featuring artists who support equality and inclusivity in the contemporary art world. Curated by London-based Curator Lee Sharrock, this exhibition is being held online artnet by Galstian Advisory LLC, an art advisory based in Los Angeles.  

The exhibition ‘United for Change’ will raise funds for the Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust in the UK as well as the Underground Museum and For Freedoms in the USA. Lee Sharrock and Robert Galstian are collaborating with Catalina Guirado, the CEO of the Guirado Estate, who is organising a series of webinars related to the exhibition. The featured artists are; Andreas Stylianou, Catalina Guirado, Jermaine Francis, Jon Daniel, Maxim x WLS, Misia-O’, Hayden Kays, Juan Antonio Guirado and Todd Williamson.   

The exhibition was selected for Artnet Editor’s Picks and featured in Art Daily, Adforum and FAD Magazine..

View the online exhibition here: https://bit.ly/2AXOK3J

‘Diver’, 2020, Image copyright Misia’O

Prodigy Musician Maxim Donates New Artwork to ‘United for Change’ Anti-Racism fundraising Exhibition

Neneh Cherry Guest Curates heART & SOUL Exhibition with Lee Sharrock & Bakul Patki for Arms Around the Child Charity

Read more at: https://www.armsaroundthechild.org/art-around-the-child-2019/

Lee Sharrock curates 'Contemporary Vanitas' exhibition at Lights of Soho

Lights of Soho, London’s leading light art gallery, is hosting Contemporary Vanitas, an exhibition revolving around themes of mortality and vanity.

Curated by Lights of Soho founder and curator Hamish Jenkinson and Lee Sharrock, the show revives the vanitas genre – a genre that flourished in the Netherlands in the late 16th, early 17th century as a metaphor for the meaninglessness of earthly life and transient nature of earthly goods and pursuits – through the work of sixteen contemporary artists. Featuring memento mori, celebrity portraits and neon art, Contemporary Vanitas serves as a commentary on the vainglory and self-admiration running rampant in our society.

Lee Sharrock has kindly agreed to answer a few of our questions.

Hello Lee, I would like to ask you a few questions about Contemporary Vanitas. How did the exhibition come to be?

I have been a fan of Lights of Soho Gallery since it opened, and had talked with one of its founders, Hamish Jenkinson, about the possibility of curating an exhibition there. I came up with the theme of Contemporary Vanitas and proposed it to Hamish and his gallery Manager Louis Brown. After working on the theme and proposing a selection of artists whose work I thought would fit, they greenlit the exhibition and I was thrilled to be given the space for a month!

As the title suggests, the show revolves around themes of vanity and mortality; where does your interest in the vanitas genre stem from?

I studied Art History at UCL and the University of Bologna, and before that did a foundation course in fine art. As a student I wasn’t really interested in contemporary art. I was more interested in 16thCentury Spanish art and Renaissance chapels, and I loved the vanitas paintings of the 16th and 17thcentury, and Dutch still life paintings. So with this exhibition at Lights of Soho my concept was to invite contemporary artists to exhibit their own interpretations of the vanitas theme. Vanitas paintings were full of memento mori motifs such as skulls, flowers, butterflies and candles, which were artistic reminders of mortality, and other symbols of life and death. My Contemporary Vanitas exhibition features contemporary versions of memento mori symbols.

Speaking of vanitas, how vain and narcissistic is our today’s society, in your view?

The Latin noun vanitas means “emptiness”, and our society now is undoubtedly narcissistic and celebrity-obsessed. Especially with the rise of social media, the selfie and our constant need to post images of ourselves and the minutiae of our lives.

Contemporary Vanitas features sixteen artists; can you give us an insight into the artworks on display?

Many of the artists have created new work especially for the exhibition, which is really exciting. Jimmy Galvin has used the vanitas symbol of the skull and juxtaposed it with a Disco Ball in Death Disco; Paul Broomfield has created an antique looking mirrored cabinet with a human skull and taxidermy parrot, translating the feeling of 16th and 17th century vanitas paintings into 3D; Toni Gallagher is exhibiting a beautiful x-ray print resembling a crucifix; Kalliopi Lemos’s Uplit sculpture features Ravens and crows – symbols of death; Alt-Ego has created a skull with light-reflecting diamond dust; and there are 4 pieces by Nancy Fouts including a witty neon Jesus Exit sign, and an ethereal portrait illuminated by a candle.

I’m excited to be exhibiting 3 new portraits by Pure Evil wearing Neon Halos, titled ’Angels Never Die’ and featuring Marlene Dietrich, Audrey Hepburn and Sharon Tate. 

Lauren Baker is exhibiting a circular neon piece and a new skull neon titled ’Transcendence’, and there are 2 beautiful neon pieces by Rebecca Mason - one text based and one skull illuminated with red neon. Dutch Artist Jeroen Gordijn is exhibiting 2 pieces including a neon butterfly in a bell jar. I discovered his work on Instagram and am thrilled that he is coming from Holland to install his work. Soozy Lipsey, an artist whose work I came across at the other art fair a couple of years ago, is showing a surreal bell jar titled ’The Feast’ complete with miniature chandelier and cutlery. I also love the taxidermy fox with neon piece by young artist Hannah Matthews and Alexander James’s haunting veiled skull. We’re mixing in a pop aesthetic with the more traditional Vanitas symbols in the form of Sara Pope’s luscious neon lips, and neon flower sculptures by Tom Lewis.

Forgive my curiosity, do you have a favourite work from the exhibition?

There is a wide variety of styles and talent in the exhibition, and I can’t pick out only one favourite. There are different interpretations of light art in the form of neons, sculpture, lenticular, taxidermy with neon, mirrors and light reflecting diamond dust. I love the variety and the varied interpretations of the theme.

Is this the first time you have worked with Hamish Jenkinson from Lights of Soho? How was the experience?

Hamish is a good friend who I met when he was curating the Old Vic Tunnels and put on some incredible exhibitions there, and I went to some amazing artist evenings he arranged at the Old Vic. We co-hosted a party at Lights of Soho last year, for some artists and friends, and we thought it would be a great idea to collaborate on an exhibition.

What’s next for you? Do you have new collaborations or projects in the pipeline?

I’m working on some exciting projects at Saatchi & Saatchi where I’m director of Global Creative PR, including the upcoming New Directors’ Showcase at Cannes Lions Festival. And I’m thinking of a theme for my next exhibition.

Contemporary Vanitas will be running until 18th June at Lights of Soho, 35 Brewer Street, London, W1F 0RX

www.lightsofsoho.com

There's a Good Girl, a Viva Women exhibition at Saatchi & Saatchi

Lee Sharrock co-curated the group exhibition "There's a Good Girl" at Saatchi & Saatchi in November 2014.  After a private view at Saatchi & Saatchi on Nov 27th 2014, the exhibition moved to The Assembly Rooms where it was open to the public until the end of January 2015.  The exhibition was covered extensively in the press including this article in The Independent: http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/theres-a-good-girl-exhibition-how-female-creatives-are-changing-the-way-women-are-portrayed-in-9885742.html

20 ground-breaking women creatives and artists exhibited in ‘There’s a Good Girl’ (TAGG), which showcased unique sculpture, photography, film, illustration, painting and digital art; Alison Carmichael, Alison Jackson, Arvida Bystrom, Cassandra Yap, Hattie Stewart, Jessica May Underwood, Jillian Lochner, Kathryn Ferguson, Malika Favre, Mary Nighy, Michela Picchi, Miss Cakehead, Nancy Fouts, Natasha Law, Pam Glew, Rhea Thierstein, Sara Pope, Soozy Lipsey, Toni Gallagher and Veronique Rolland.