ART
Andrew Mania |
Written 30 January |
Saturday 16 May, 11:00Galerie chez Valentin, 75003 [map]Andrew Mania
A British artist, known for his portraits of young and glamorous personalities as well as for his family stories (his mother’s escape from Russia in World War II and her sighting of a yeti as she fled, and his German paratrooper father who rescued Mussolini from an alpine prison in an infamous mission), legends of which have become part of his art.
“I am like a collector of curiosities, or a cultural vagrant; sometimes recycling found images like old master drawings or photographs, then adding my own obsessions or dialogue. Such as Yeti's, UFO's, or birdlike swarm, that invade otherwise stable images. My work may be unsettling and odd, with an irreverent nostalgia for art history. The pictures seem to go through a state of mischief. They form clusters, spills, columns or concentrations on the wall or more likely off the wall. I am interested in how pictures can be seen as passive or active props in a given space. Within these arrangements of collections and fragments a narrative is set up.' Andrew Mania
