UVNT ART FAIR 2024
with Billy Vanilli, Andrés Lozano, Maite y Manuel, Nina Bachmann,
Polina Palk, Naomi Boiko - Stapleton, Murray Clarke
07.03.24 - 10.04.24
For this new edition of UVNT, we present the most recent work of Billy Vanilli (AUS, 1995), Polina Pak (UK, 1997), Andrés Lozano (ES, 1992), Nina Bachmann (DE, 1990), Naomi Boyko--Stapleton (UK, 2000), Maite y Manuel (UY, 1996, 1991) and Murray Clarke (UK, 1995). Find us at stand A5. We look forward to seeing you at Matadero Madrid!
con la colaboración de
BILLY VANILLI (AUS)
Billy Vanilli (b. 1995) is a Melbourne-based artist with a distinctive flair for incandescent realism. His paintings focus on the potency and meaning within seemingly insignificant moments.
Beginning with written prompts, Vanilli recalls everyday observations, dreams and memories. Through painting, he explores how these moments transform, distort or become embellished with each revisit. The resulting imagery is luscious, complex and shimmers with a familiar sentimentality.
ANDRÉS LOZANO (ES)
Andrés Lozano (b. 1992, Madrid) is an artist who lives and works in Madrid. He holds a BA in Design from Complutense University of Madrid and a MA in Illustration and Visual Communication from Camberwell University of the Arts, London.
His recent practice looks at exploring the link between art, making and improvisation through a series of semi biographical paintings that materialize a world of apathetic and lonely characters surrounded by nature and interiors. Despite being strongly rooted in design and composition, as most of the ideas for his works come from ad-lib drawings, his paintings prioritize the process over the final result.
MAITE Y MANUEL (UY)
Maite Garcia Argul (1996) and Manuel Puig (1991) are a duo of painters born in Uruguay currently living in Mallorca. Maite had graphic design studies and Manuel studied multimedia design, together they created Gabinete Exquisito in Barcelona in 2019, a design and illustration studio.
Their pictoric work oscillates between figuration and abstract expressionism and is defined by its authors as “an aggressive but innocent fight”.Their previous experiences as cartoonists and mascot designers before devoting their time completely to painting is reflected in the imagery of their work, which is characterized by the appearance of creatures, characters, figures and imaginary friends that invade the austere spaces of their daily life such as tables, carts and messy rooms.
NINA BACHMANN (GE)
Nina Bachmann, born 1990 in Munich, is an artist who lives and works in Munich, Germany.
Nina’s works blur the contours of conventional identity while playfully mocking what she calls “the absurdities of high society.” The subjects in Nina’s works are euphoric, intoxicated, and jubilant. They are kinky and in a state of arousal. They are even genderless. But their anxious grimaces betray their insecurities and the lingering awareness that all this excess cannot last. And it is this duality that Nina aims to convey to her viewers, who, perhaps seeing themselves reflected on the canvas, are meant to receive a “tenuous pleasure” from her works. Using bright and garish colors, Nina gives her viewers a visual feast upon which to gorge as they reflect on their own place in the scenes they see before them.
POLINA PAK (UK)
Polina Pak (b.1997 Khabarovsk, Russia) lives and works in London after receiving a BA in Fine Art (Painting) from City and Gilds of London Art School.
Polina’s practice is firmly rooted in her longing to achieve a sense of familiarity and understanding of her past, present and future. Dreams, family stories, superstitious beliefs and her own experiences are a continual focus in her work. Her characters, be it the protective, yet frightening tigers, the fragile and pensive birds, the small and quiet insects, or the gentle and caring hands are all symbolic depictions of her surroundings, anxieties and joys.
MURRRAY CLARKE (UK)
Murray Clarke lives and works in London, England. Clarke graduated from Kingston School of Art in 2019 with an MA in Fine Art. His work explores the dichotomy of emotions surrounding the mass marketing and consumption of fabrics and garments. Through her work, Clarke dissects and questions our attitudes and feelings towards such luxury goods by creating paintings that are at once warm and welcoming, yet deceptively cold and superficial.
By duplicating images multiple times in his works, he winks at the mass-produced images characteristic of industries such as advertising. In this way, his work opposes the traditional view of painting as a single subject, incapable of being reproduced, as he presents us with the same image painted over and over again, moving further and further away from its figurative nature. Painted in a realistic style, the paintings lack the artist's presence, so that an almost mechanical coldness usurps the initial warmth and leads us to question our own desires.
NAOMI BOIKO-STAPLETON (UK)
Naomi Boiko-Stapleton completed her BA in fine art painting at Brighton university in 2022 and has exhibited in group exhibitions in the UK and internationally. Her work resides in private collections across the UK and abroad in Holland and the USA.
Naomi portrays a fragmented mythology using recurring symbols as an aid to unveil previously forgotten memories. Her intimate iconography reconciles her experience of loss, inviting ever-evolving reinterpretations of a personal mythology.
