Anti-Social Realism | Curated by Juan Bolivar & John Stark | 2015

Anti-Social Realism Curated by Juan Bolivar & John Stark Juan Bolivar, Dan Coombs, Graham Crowley, Karen David, Nathan Eastwood, Geraint Evans, John Greenwood, Sigrid Holmwood, Kate Lyddon, Maharishi x Rebecca & Mike, John Salt, John Stark PRIVATE VIEW Thursday April 2nd 6.30-8.30pm EXHIBITION DATES Saturday April 4th – Saturday May 9th 2015 GALLERY HOURS Wednesday-Saturday 11am-6pm or by appointment People try to put us down(Talkin' 'bout my generation - The Who, 'My generation', (1965) (1)Gustave Courbet once stated that he was ‘not only a Socialist, but a Democrat and a Republican, as well: in a word, a supporter of the whole revolution, and above all a realist, that is to say a sincere lover of genuine truth.’ (2) In T.J. Clark’s book ‘Image of the People’ (1999), Courbet is said to have disguised himself behind the mask of the savage in order to remain in the centre of the Parisian art world without actually being absorbed by it. Acting as a rustic invader and outsider at La Brasserie Andler, which Courbet frequented in the 1840's, he sustained his practice by gaining access to this glimpse of bourgeoisie life. This enabled him to comment on the social conditions of the time through his paintings of rural life. In ‘Image of the People’Clark asks us to question: 'What is revolutionary art?' - such as Courbet's - and 'What were the effects of a particular Revolution upon pictorial practice?'.The term ‘Anti-Social Realism’ is not one that is commonly understood. This exhibition attempts to pose new pictorial possibilities through artworks that tackle notions of contemporary realism and offer us a distant echo of a political reality. The wry misnomer of the exhibition’s title slips between many interwoven threads, simultaneously conjuring up images of 'anti-social behaviour orders' (ASBO’s); anarchist riots; or the solitary artist locked away from the world in a studio attempting to connect on a higher level. In this light, the exhibiting artists are presented as ‘social mystics’ (3) and it could be said that their work operates by a means of turning inwards to create social radiation. The other worldliness of social media and the ever present threat to notions of reality of the digital age (where almost everything and anything seems possible) define our contemporary reality, and by that definition, what it means to pursue social and anti-social practices. The search for a means to connect with an audience is relevant today, just as it was in Courbet's times, and the desire to present the enigma of peasant politics with the confusions and dangers of class systems continues. These artists are banded together in their conviction that art must remain intrinsically social, whilst preserving a duty to question the binds of the social structures it exists within. Please contact the gallery for images and further information

Tom Butler | Inhabitants

336 Old Street, London EC1V 9DR , United Kingdom | +44 (0)20 7739 4055 | direct@charliesmithlondon.com | www.charliesmithlondon.com Wednesday–Saturday 11am–6pm or by appointment TOM BUTLER Inhabitants PRIVATE VIEW Thursday February 19th 6.30-8.30pm EXHIBITION DATES Friday February 20th – Saturday March 28th 2015 GALLERY HOURS Wednesday-Saturday 11am-6pm or by appointment CHARLIE SMITH LONDON is delighted to present Tom Butler with his second one person exhibition at the gallery. Earlier in the year a curator asked me if there was a limit to the number of my cabinet cards works. I said no, because it felt like I was growing a population of characters that continues to surprise and fascinate me. However, this was a new idea because I realised they were becoming a population or citizenship and more than just an ongoing series of characters. To let the population grow I started imagining an island (of sorts) where they could exist and I could continue to create them. It wasn’t until later in the year that I read H.G. Wells’ ‘Island of Dr Moreau’, where a shipwrecked man is rescued and brought to the shores of a mysterious island populated with beast-men who are created by Dr Moreau in scientific experiments. Wells’ island itself is unnamed, as is its strange population, only described in the book as: ‘the inhabitants’. In this exhibition Butler continues to evolve his ongoing series of appropriated Victorian cabinet cards. Painted with beautifully delicate gouache, each subject is laboriously transformed, being engaged by an inexplicable shape, pattern or species. The inherent character of the card, with its clear traces of the passing of time; and the appearance and positioning of the sitter, prompt Butler to instinctively decide how and where to alter the original object. This series introduces new motifs as well as new treatment of existing motifs, including geometric clouds, bisecting barriers, floral transformations and spiritual exhalations. Butler then pushes them in extremis, where the sitter might be entirely overtaken or conversely their features remain very much apparent. We are treated to a number of works where there is clear suggestion of interaction between the subject and a mysterious plane, force or aura, rendering the subject pre-occupied rather than overwhelmed. Butler has also introduced renditions of pairs, groups and families alongside his iconic single subjects. Using similar modes of modification, Butler toys with group dynamics, accentuating isolation or integration. At times sinister and always nostalgic, the notion of time past is even more evident here. The removal of identities implies death, and varied motifs within single pieces suggest the different direction that lives of individuals take. Once a group with shared interests, experiences and motivations, one is left to reflect on separation, loss, diversion and fulfilled or unfulfilled intentions. Please contact the gallery for images and further information