Harry Adams: The Rereading Of Historic Art In Milan

Harry Adams

Harry Adams is not actually a real person. He is however a real artist. The name of Harry Adams is a pseudonym for the artistic partnership between Steven Lowe and Adam Wood. Although the two artists have collaborated since 1988, they only assimilated the character Harry Adams around six years ago.

The two artists, who met at art school in London, have worked on several different projects, ranging from music to cinema to photography, and now painting. They references William Blake who is frequently in their poetics. It is no coincidence that the title of the show comes from a 19th-century text written and illustrated by Blake in which the romantic spirit of painting emerges, not limited to reproducing reality, but rising towards a visionary sphere of man and nature.

The pair have a new show at Galleria Paolo Curti/Annamaria Gambuzzi & Co in Milan. Ten recent paintings will juxtapose present and past in a reinterpretation of images and a re-reading of certain works by great masters like Giotto, Constable and Bosch, but also Paolo Uccello and Leonardo da Vinci. Harry Adams has created a tribute to the masterpiece of the Italian Renaissance in Milan: The Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci. The large triptych (183 x 366 cm), painted with dense brushstrokes alternating with drawn and “unfinished” zones, interprets a dialogue between belief and disbelief, creation and apocalypse, in which the artists assign art a spiritual function.

Landscapes play an important role among the subjects frequently addressed by the duo. The romantic atmosphere of rural scenes as in “Ornamental Tree in Flood” form a contrast with the arid landscape depicted in the work “Global Seed Vault, Svalbard,” a building located off the Norwegian coast safeguard the genetic heritage of seeds from all over the planet. A remarkable collection assembled to protect botanical diversity in case of natural disasters, cataloguing and conserving everything that has grown on the Earth until today. In the painting, the entrance to this construction is shown as a monolithic work of architecture, a static presence, a symbol of power and, at the same time, a metaphor of overwhelmed, threatened nature.

The works shown in the exhibition have been made with the ancient technique of encaustic painting. Traditionally used on walls, in this case it is deployed on canvas with a mixture of wax and paint, in which the brushstroke and the graphic sign are freely materialized.

Adam Wood was born in 1965 in East London – Steve Lowe was born in 1966 in Slough (Berkshire). They live and work in London and Hastings.

Galleria Paolo Curti/Annamaria Gambuzzi & Co. presents the first solo show in Italy by Harry Adams, opening on Tuesday 20 May at 18.30, at Via Pontaccio 19, Milan.

Buy This Original Signed Numbered Print By Harry Adams for £27 On Artlyst. We have Four Others In Stock but all are selling fast:  Buy Here

Harry Adams - Our Last Supper (after Leonardo da Vinci) - Mortal and Perishing Substances

Our Last Supper (after Leonardo da Vinci) – Mortal and Perishing Substances

Medium: Limited Edition Print

ABOUT THE PRINT

Harry Adams juxtapose present and past in a reinterpretation of images and a re-reading of certain works by great masters like Giotto, Constable and Bosch, but also Paolo Uccello and Leonardo da Vinci.

This print is a tribute to the masterpiece of the Italian Renaissance in Milan: The Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci. The piece interprets a dialogue between belief and disbelief, creation and apocalypse, in which the artists assign art a spiritual function.

ABOUT HARRY ADAMS

Adam Wood was born in 1965 in East London – Steve Lowe was born in 1966 in Slough (Berkshire). They live and work in London and Hastings (UK). Harry Adams is the name of the duo formed in 2008 by Steve Lowe and Adam Wood.

The two artists, who met while attending art school in London, immediately began to collaborate on different projects, ranging from music to cinema to photography, and then arriving at painting. Buy Here

 

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