MAGMA gallery is glad to announce the exhibition “Surreal Irreverence”, from 15 September to 3 November, with Okuda (Spain), Hell’O (Belgium), Zebu (Germany).
For the first time the works of these important names of international urban art will be exhibited in Italy.
MAGMA gallery is pleased to present to the public the most recent works by these great artists, already part of public collections and museums’ exhibitions, such as Hell’O at BAM - Musée des Beaux-Arts of Mons and, in the case of Okuda, the Centre del Carme of Valencia, which this year featured a very attended and monumental retrospective.
Even if they’re clearly defined by different origins and paths, these artists share natural impulse to surreal compositions, geometrical and organic at the same time. Okuda’s vibrant use of colors goes with the Hell’O’s sense of mystery and discipline and with Zebu’s compositions, balanced between elegance and fun.
Okuda’s artworks can be seen in streets and galleries all over the world: U.S.A, Japan, India, Mali, Mozambique, Chile, Brazil, Peru, South Africa, Mexico and Europe. In 2016 the ARCO fair in Madrid commissioned to him a public art project, while in 2015, amongst other events, he realized « Heads Juice » for Milano’s Expo. In 2014 he’s one of the artists of the exhibition organized by Benetton Foundation at CAC of Malaga.
In his work, multicolor and geometrical achitectures blend into organic shapes, bodies with no identity, headless animals, symbols that encourage reflection, between serious and facetious: a unique iconographic language. The pop-surrealism that distinguishes this artist is rooted in travels, cinema and music (he made several collaborations with big names of rap and soul music such as Alicia Keys and Kanye West), in fashion and also in everyday life.
The surreal and colorful world described by Hell’O (Jerôme Meynen and Antoine Detaille), is characterised by a rigorous execution, populated by weird figures and mysterious symbols. A universe sometimes grotesque but always poetic, where philosophical issues get together with non-sens questions, leaving to the public the freedom to follow and explore his favourite path. A joyful and macabre carnival, quiet and loud at the same time, from which arises their great compositive and chromatic control. Very important, among other exhibitions, not only the recent solo-show at BAM of Mons of this year, but also the exhibitions at Musée d'Ixelles and at Palais des Beaux-Arts Bozar, both in Bruxelles.
The works of German duo Zebu take a cue by nature and everyday life, trying to reach the essence of what they’re meanted to represent, getting figures rid of details and bringing out the structure and the compositive rhythm, arriving to a strong vitality and expressive energy. The two artists, grown up in Berlin, created Zebu in 2015: their origins root in the graffiti’s world and street art, that brought them together in 2007. In additions to wallpaintings, realised throughout important public commissions, their work focuses on canvas and illustration area. Among other, it should be noted importants exhibitions made in galleries of New York, Santiago of Chile, Tokyo and Berlin.
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