» Artists

Karl de Vroomen: New Monotypes

03/02/12 at 12:02:50 pm

Karl de Vroomen’s artworks explore the significance and meaning that can be found within the apparently innocuous or trivial. In much of de Vroomen’s work important events seem poised to occur and an atmosphere of disquiet or suspense pervades.

In 2010 Karl de Vroomen was selected for inclusion in the Saatchi Online exhibition, Northern Stars, at the A Foundation in Liverpool. He has been shortlisted for the Sainsbury’s Scholarship in Painting and Sculpture at the British School of Rome, and has been included in art fairs and exhibitions in London, New York, Manchester and Newcastle upon Tyne.

We have a collection of beautiful new monotypes available by de Vroomen including Bison I, Hares I, Horse III (pictured) and Falling Dog which are priced from £667.

We also have three new oil paintings by Karl de Vroomen including Horse, Bull I, and Bull II which are priced from £1250.

UK collectors can buy these artworks using our interest-free credit facility; contact us for more information.

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Taken by Storm: The Album Cover Art of Storm Thorgerson

01/02/12 at 12:02:37 pm

We are pleased to announce that all the artworks for Storm Thorgerson’s solo exhibition, 6 Feb – 16 Mar, are now available to view and buy online!

This exciting new exhibition called Taken by Storm: The Album Cover Art of Storm Thorgerson will feature a collection of album covers, including iconic images from Pink Floyd, Ian Dury and the Blockheads and The Cranberries albums.

Storm Thorgerson has been designing album cover art for over 35 years. Storm Thorgerson was a key member of the British graphic art group Hipgnosis, and designed many of their most famous single and album covers. Perhaps Thorgerson’s most famous designs are those for Pink Floyd as his design for The Dark Side of the Moon has been called one of the greatest album covers of all time.

Works by Thorgerson include Mr Lovepants, Tear Drop and Back 2 Back priced from £295 (inc VAT).

Many of Storm Thorgerson’s designs are notable for their surreal elements as he often places objects out of their traditional contexts, especially with vast spaces around them, to give them an awkward appearance while highlighting their beauty. Storm Thorgerson’s surrealist work raised the bar for album cover designs, changing the way the world looked at the music of everyone from Peter Gabriel to Black Sabbath.

Born in Dartford, Kent in 1944, Storm Thorgerson went to school with Roger Waters and Syd Barrett. He studied English and Philosophy at university before going on to complete an MA in Film and Television at the Royal College of Art. His career as an artist began accidentally; around the time of his graduation from the Royal College Pink Floyd were completing their second album A Saucerful of Secrets, when a friend turned down the job of creating its sleeve. With no background in art or graphic design Storm Thorgerson volunteered to step into the fold.

Along with his friend Aubrey Powell he set up the British graphic art group Hipgnosis in 1968, they specialised in creative photography for album covers. Many of Storm Thorgerson’s album covers were designed before the advent of advanced computer design software, and were created through the use of photography, paint and sculpture.

Storm Thorgerson has worked with many bands over the years including 10cc, Anthrax, Catherine Wheel, Biffy Clyro, The Cranberries, Bruce Dickinson, Dream Theater, Ian Dury and The Blockheads, Europe, Genesis, David Gilmour, Led Zeppelin, Steve Miller Band, Muse, Offspring, Alan Parsons, Pendulum,  Pink Floyd, The Mars Volta, Yes and Paul Young. There are several publications based on the work of Storm Thorgerson including 100 Best Album Covers and Taken By Storm, The Album Art of Storm Thorgerson.

We offer a number of interest-free payment options, contact us for more information.

View available works by Storm Thorgerson >

Focus On Kim Baker

31/01/12 at 07:01:37 am

Our successful Memento Mori solo exhibition by Kim Baker at our Newcastle gallery has now closed. This exhibition has been well received by both local and international collectors.

Kim Baker’s recent body of work is drawn from the classical theme of Memento Mori; and uses motifs such as flowers, birds and insects, which, historically, are said to remind the viewer of their own mortality of the vanity of earthly glory and pleasure.

We also showed a selection of Kim Baker’s paintings at the London Art Fair where they received a huge amount of interest.

She has also recently been commissioned to create eight paintings for the restaurant area of the new Four Seasons Hotel in St. Petersburg. These paintings are heavily varnished and feature flowers with dark backgrounds.

We have a selection of works by Kim Baker still available, including White Rose II and Bird Painting 7 which are priced from £500.

The black and purple roses as seen in Memento Mori 4 (pictured below) are representative of life and death and feature heavily in the artist’s latest paintings. They show the darker side of nature in that the roses are beautiful, yet like all living things will one day die.

Baker’s paintings are based on a Romantic attitude, drawing elements from traditional painterly values whilst communicating a unique expressive quality with an intuitive and spontaneous approach to her work.

Memento Mori 4 measures 48 x 60 inches and is priced from £2000.

The background of Memento Mori 1 (pictured below) represents Kim Baker’s interest in developing dark forests in her work. They help to create an organic and natural landscape in which birds represent freedom. Kim Baker wants people to read their own interpretation of her work and the birds add another dimension to the depth of her paintings.

Kim Baker often works over a previous painting, adding then rubbing back layers of paint so that the underpainting can be seen in part, which gives a sense of history to the works.

Memento Mori 1 measures a large 60 x 70 inches and is priced from £3000.

Kim Baker graduated with a BA (Hons) Fine Art degree from Birmingham University. She has exhibited widely, including group and solo exhibitions and art fairs in London, Newcastle, Reykjavik and New York.

In 2009 she completed a residency at the Signy and Olaf Willums Art Foundation in France.

Private and public collectors of Kim Baker’s paintings include Birmingham University, Whitbread Group plc, Bow Arts Trust and Midland Arts Centre

Her work has been featured in Art Monthly, Time Out and S Magazine.

Untitled 28 (pictured) measures 8 x 10 inches, and is priced from £500.

See all available works by Kim Baker >

Colin McMaster: Exclusive New Prints

27/01/12 at 07:01:30 am

Colin McMaster paints stereotypes rather than individuals, meshing references from the photographic storyboards of romantic comics and their heightened sense of melodrama, with the more sinister undertones of American film noir and pulp crime novels.

Colin McMaster is a Central St. Martins graduate and has exhibited widely including in London, New York, Miami, Dublin, Belfast, Glasgow, Manchester and at the Royal Ulster Academy, Ulster Museum where he was the Winner of the Royal Ulster Academy 1999 Student Prize.

We have a collection of new prints by McMaster now available exclusively with Opus Art. These limited edition giclee prints are from signed editions of only 30.

Motel Chronicles 12 and Motel Chronicles 5 by McMaster both measure 12 x 16.5 inches and are priced from £230. Other prints such as Silhouette 1 and Silhouette 2 both measure a larger 23 x 33 inches and are priced from £330.

The subjects Colin McMaster creates are superficially attractive but there is an underlying sense of their narcissism and perhaps even their engagement in acts which the viewer is compelled to interpret as illicit. As a result, the viewer is cast as a voyeur, the perception of what’s taking place in the paintings suspended in a double take, in an ambivalence between observation and accusation.

Stylistically, the work owes much to the Pop Art movement. The smoothness of the picture surface and the mannequin-like quality of the figures heightens the feeling of artifice and blurs our sense of looking at a painted image.

We offer a number of interest-free payment options including the Own Art scheme*, where you can spread the cost of your order over 10 months, or defer payment for up to 12 months. Contact us for more information.

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Hush: Siren II

26/01/12 at 06:01:07 am

Hush merges various street art approaches with traditional art practices to create complex and original work. The artist presents contemporary depictions of traditional portrait and figurative imagery through an inventive mix of seemingly incompatible themes and aesthetics.

Hush has participated in exhibitions worldwide including galleries in Los Angeles, New York City, Miami, London, Basel and Berlin. Hush had a successful solo installation of work open last Saturday in San Francisco at 941 Geary.

His work has been featured in a series of publications including The Independent newspaper, where he was recognised in their list of the ‘Top 20 Up and Coming Artists’.

We have one new work available by Hush called Siren II (pictured). This original work in acrylic paint, spray paint and screenprint on linen is priced from £6250.

We offer a number of interest-free payment options, contact us for more information.

London Art Fair

20/01/12 at 10:01:26 am

Opus Art is proud to be showing for the first time at the London Art Fair in the Business Design Centre, Islington. This art fair will run until Sunday 22 January.

The London Art Fair presents over 100 galleries featuring the great names of 20th Century British art and exceptional contemporary work from leading figures and emerging talent. Visit us at stand G35 in the main fair where we are showcasing original works from emerging artists including Vasilis Avramidis, Kim Baker, Tanja Boukal, Rachel Louise Brown, Michele Fletcher, Hector de Gregorio, Carne Griffiths, Hush, Ali Miller and Karl de Vroomen.

Here are some images from our impressive stand at the London Art Fair!

Please contact enquiries@opus-art.com for further information.

D*Face: Dog Save The Queen

13/01/12 at 10:01:02 am

D*Face is a multimedia graffiti street artist who uses spray paint, stickers, posters, and stencils. D*Face is one of the most prolific contemporary urban artists of his generation. Working with a variety of mediums and techniques, he uses a family of dysfunctional characters to satirise and hold to ransom all that falls into their grasp.

D*Face has exhibited internationally including solo and group exhibitions in London, Stockholm, Barcelona, New York, Hamburg, Paris, San Francisco and Los Angeles.

We have four unique works by D*Face available from his Dog Save The Queen series (11/32 pictured). These works are spraypaint and screenprint on paper, priced from £2000.

D*Face’s aim is to encourage the public not just to ’see’, but to look at what surrounds them and their lives, reflecting our increasingly bizarre fascination for with celebrity, fame, consumerism and materialism, re-thinking, reworking and subverting imagery drawn from a refuge of decades of materialistic consumption, imagery appropriated from currency, advertising, comic books, these now iconic motifs, cultural figures and genres are subverted to comment upon our conspicuous society.

One of D*Face’s most celebrated icons is D-Dog, a bomb like figure with two tiny wings on the sides. Recent examples of D*Face’s satirical and dark humour include his chosen ‘collaboration’ with H.R.H Queen Elizabeth II on a series of bank notes and the portrait of Pope Benedict XVI to commemorate his instatement. D*Face also designed the cover of Automatic’s debut album Not Accepted Anywhere and in 2010 he collaborated with Christina Aguilera on her album cover of Bionic. He was also one of fifty artists commissioned to create a 50th anniversary Penguin book cover and is the only urban artist to date to be featured on the front cover of the fine art publication Art Review.

D*Face describes his artistic method as, ‘Like a snail leaving it’s sticky trail, I leave my artwork; Stickers, Posters, Marker Drawings on empty advertising space and discarded objects, always on the lookout for that ultimate spot.’

Alternatively UK collectors can buy these artworks using our interest-free credit facility; contact us for more information.

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Hush: Rare Prints and Originals

12/01/12 at 10:01:42 am

Hush merges various street art approaches with traditional art practices to create complex and original work. Hush presents contemporary depictions of traditional portrait and figurative imagery through an inventive mix of seemingly incompatible themes and aesthetics.

We have added a large collection of rare, sought after and long sold out prints and original works by Hush to our website.

Prints now available include Graf Geisha – Triptych, Rhythm, Graf, Glimmer 1, Butterfly Girl Desire, Tits and Terror and Graf Geisha – Blue all priced at £750.

Original works by Hush now available include Cover Girls, Fantasies for Naughty Boys III, S for ______ and Love/Hate priced from £1500.

Trained as a graphic designer at the Newcastle School of Art and Design, Hush’s art practice has taken him around the globe—throughout Asia, Europe and the United States. Hush’s immersion in such a diverse range of cultures and environments is evident in his work and his captivating portrayal of the undying beauty of the female form. Over the course of his travels, Hush developed a fascination with the mark-making, tagging and graffiti he encountered along the way.

Through his technique of layering divergent aesthetics, Hush’s contemporary paintings disclose the beauty produced by years of decayed tagging and the possibility of creating something new.

Hush has participated in both solo and group exhibitions and shows worldwide including galleries in Los Angeles, New York City, Miami, London, Basel, San Francisco and Berlin. His work has been featured in a series of publications including Street Knowledge (Harper Collins), The Street Art Stencil Book (Laurence King Publishing), Huck magazine, Art Monthly and The Independent newspaper, where he was recognised in their list of the ‘Top 20 Up and Coming Artists’.

In 2011 Hush launched his new installation program and exhibition space, onethirty3, in Newcastle, UK.

We offer a number of interest-free payment options, contact us for more information.

View all available works by Hush >

Sir Peter Blake: HOPE

11/01/12 at 12:01:12 pm

Sir Peter Blake is often referred to as the Godfather of British Pop Art, best known for his limited edition prints and the design of the sleeve for The Beatles’ album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.

HOPE (pictured) is signed limited edition silkscreen print with 14 colours, gold leaf, silver leaf, embossing and glazes by Sir Peter Blake. This print measures 35 x 17 inches and is priced at £1950.

Blake uses collaged letters taken from different sources to spell out one of the most important words in the English language: HOPE. This work reflects a sentiment and warmth that is inherent throughout the artist’s work. His use of mismatching letters from different sources is a classic motif in his oeuvre, reflecting his love of collage and collecting, as well as the influence of artists such as Jack Pierson. The use of ‘found letters’ or commercial lettering in his work is something that Blake adopted in the 1950s; allying himself with decorators, sign painters and commercial artists rather than the fine art establishment: declaring himself a ‘pop’ artist.

Whilst studying Art at Gravesend Technical College (1949-51) Blake was given a thorough grounding in a wide range of crafts including Roman lettering, hand lettering, typography and typesetting. This training has seeped into his work throughout his career with text often being an integral- or the only- element of a piece.

We have a huge collection of limited edition prints, unique Polaroids and books by Peter Blake all available on our website.

Alternatively UK collectors can buy these artworks using our interest-free credit facility; contact us for more information.

Click to buy >

Unique Artworks: £150 inc VAT and Framing!

04/01/12 at 12:01:20 pm

We would like to wish our collectors a Happy New Year from us all at Opus Art, and we hope to see some of you at the London Art Fair, 18 – 22 Jan.

Our Christmas exhibition consists entirely of unique postcard-sized works created by our artists with each work priced at £150 including VAT and framing!

We are excited to announce these unique artworks are available to view and buy online!

We have exciting postcards by emerging artists such as Kelly Jayne who has a collection of work available including Figure Phase One 10 (pictured) which are all acrylic and graphite on canvas paper.

Other artists taking part include Tanja Boukal, Richard Davidson, Dixon (Juan Carlos Noria), Linda Lencovic, Miranda Lopatkin, Rachel Louise Brown and Robin Clare.

James Choules, who adopts the alter-ego of SheOne, is a London based artist with a unique brand of abstract painting that is rooted deep in the new wave graffiti era of early eighties New York. However, his trademark strokes and bold expressive approach to image making put him firmly in the present. ReFill Magazine to refer to him as ‘a leading cultural artist’.

We have two unique works by SheOne available as part of our exhibition including Jilted (Studio/Object Series), pictured, and Rocker (Studio/Object Series) which are both digital prints, priced at £150 including VAT and framing.

Other artists taking part include Andrea Allan, Mik Artistik, Joseph Borzotta, Dean Cavanagh, Bonnie and Clyde , Tintin Cooper, April Jarocka, Joanna Hutton, Nathan James, Brian Jones , Hayden Kays, Simon Mackness, Alexandra McClain and Ali Miller.

Ben Allen’s work is inspired by textures found in everyday life that surround us on the streets and buildings, the rusting metals and corroded weather-swept posters of the streets and billboards, the peeling and fading layers that create a new image, unplanned and unpredicted.

Ben Allen has worked with Levi’s, Virgin, Channel 5, The Hoxton Hotel and has exhibited his mixed content paintings in exclusive venues and galleries internationally as well as selling to celebrities such as Stephen Dorff, Jade Jagger and Richard Branson.

We have two unique works available by Ben Allen including Negative Skull (pictured) and Positive Skull. These unique works are both acrylic, ink and spray paint on Fabriano paper with paper cut and are priced at £150 inc VAT and framing.

The essence of Charlotte Stubbs’ work stems from her love of objects and collecting. These primarily include old, worn or unwanted objects which emanate a sense of history or feeling of nostalgia.

We have a collection of work by Charlotte Stubbs available including Vitrine no.3- Frozen World in my Shoe (preserved fragments), pictured, which is priced at £150 inc VAT and framing. This unique artwork includes glass tubes, cork, wax, wire, card, paper, sand, netting, plastic figure, swan feathers, plastic insect wings, pearl beads and borax crystals.

Other works by Charlotte Stubbs for this exhibition include Vitrine no.8- Winter Garden in my Pocket (preserved fragments), Vitrine no.27- Crystal Cave in my Teacup (preserved fragments), Frozen and Rocking Chair.

Jamie Paul uses a mixture of media such as oil and acrylic paint, charcoal, oil stick, spray paint and even household paint on canvas, mixing traditional values with modern techniques and imagery. Images overlap and intersperse to create a juxtaposition of varying styles, the outcome is a powerful fusion of contemporary society and tradition, a mix of East meets West.

Jamie Paul graduated from University College Northampton in 2002 with Bachelor of Arts (Hons) in Fine Art and has exhibited widely in Singapore, Austrailia and the UK. Media exposure of Jamie Paul’s work include the Singapore Art Gallery Guide, Straits Times, Arts Beat, I-S magazine, Juice, FARM and many others.

We have four  unique works by Jamie Paul available for our postcard exhibition including Astro Warrior, Double Happiness, When I Look into the Future and TV Demolition (pictured).

Edward Monovich’s drawings reinterpret idyllic scenes from popular stories, television, and advertising. In mainstream America, concepts such as joy, discovery and exhilaration are cooped by marketing strategies. Experience becomes imprisoned by products, stereotypes and labels.

Edward Monovich has exhibited widely in the USA in New York, Miami, Denver and Boston as well as internationally in Italy, Bogota, Columbia, Ghent, Belgium and Newcastle, England.

We have three unique mixed media pieces by Edward Monovich available including Fly Girl, Deluge and Pollinate (pictured), priced at £150 inc VAT and framing.

Other artists taking part include Sue Moffitt, Kuzana Ogg, Judy Ragagli, Gurpran Rau, Geraldine Swayne and Tracey Sweeney.

Tony Hull’s most recent work references sixteenth century Flemish paintings of children. In the originals the sitters wear formal attire appearing as ‘little adults’. In these paintings the use of anachronism, adding contemporary stuff like mobiles and cameras or Batman and Robin masks, takes away from this formality.

Tony Hull is based in London with paintings in numerous European and U.S. collections. After graduating with a BA at Chelsea School of Art, he went on to Post Graduate study at the Slade School of Fine Art. He has exhibited in Britain and Europe, taking part in numerous group and solo shows, most recently the Threadneedle Painting Prize.

We have three works by Tony Hull available for our postcard exhibition including Untitled Study I (friend of a friend), Untitled Study II (friend of a friend), pictured, and Untitled Study III (friend of a friend) . These three works are ink and collage on heritage paper and are priced at £150 inc VAT and framing.

For more details about other forthcoming events please see our exhibition pages >

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