Exhibition for artistic stars of the future

SALON GALLERY PRESENTS “UK’S FUTURE GREATS” EXHIBITION
Gallery presents the third annual exhibition showcasing the best of British talent opening 11th June – 11th July 2009

SaLon Gallery launches its annual “UK’s Future Greats” exhibition featuring its selection of the most talented and innovative graduate artists to emerge in the UK’s flourishing art scene. The show is a heady culmination of three years of talent spotting by curator Samir Ceric who is renowned for his sharp eye and ability to spot potential at an early stage. The eight artists in this group show are all discoveries of Ceric and their diverse mediums, themes and aesthetics will bombard you with much food for thought.

Samir Ceric, Curator, SaLon Gallery said: “”After three years of talent scouting across the country I am thrilled to be putting together such an exciting show that will showcase some of the most talented emerging artists from the UK’s top art schools. The exhibition will be a culmination of all the hard work and progression that the artists have made. I feel that each of them brings a uniqueness; whether it be style, technique or medium, further enhanced by their combination of cultural differences. I am very proud and privileged to have discovered and nurtured them and it gives me great pleasure to now introduce them to the international art scene.”

The show will be headlined by the female British Muslim artist Sarah Maple who has just returned from representing Europe at the opening of the Art Gallery of Ontario, Canada. The ‘UK’s Future Greats’ exhibition will be an opportunity for her to debut her long awaited new work before it is shown at her first major solo museum show at the Chelsea Art Museum, New York later this year. Maple is renowned for her struggle to live as a ‘good’ Muslim in a Western society; however, she is now especially concerned with femininity and how manipulating her sexuality can alter the world’s perception of her. Numerous self-portraits in provocative and amusing guises are to be expected…

Sarah Maple said: “Salon Gallery has been exceptional in scoping out great graduate talent and it is an honour to headline an exhibition of such talented artists.”

The exhibition will also debut the latest work of conceptual artist Steve Rosenthall. Rosenthall set up a Gaydar account in January 2007 which has currently received over 28,000 hits. The 33,500+ profile pictures of the 11,500+ visitors to his page are used as mosaic squares to “de-create” over 40 historical images from the homoerotic artistic canon – including works by Caravaggio and Leonardo da Vinci, through Cadmus, Tom of Finland, Quaintance and Bazille, to the likes of Warhol, Ray Johnson, Hockney and Pierre et Gilles (each work being constructed of approximately 20,000 images). Rosenthall has also produced two sister series – the first depicting the heads of state from countries where homosexual acts are currently punishable by death (i.e. His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan of Abu Dhabi), and a second series of film and pop music celebrities who have at some stage throughout their career led a closeted existence.

Other artists include the multi-media ‘Queen of Craft’ Sarah Gwyer who produces hand-stitched portraits and sculptures of cult British celebrities. Korean artist Dorothy Yoon will present her series ’13 Blondes’ which explores the idea of a fantasy world mixed with reality, where a combination of Western and Eastern traditional algorisms, symbolisms and metaphors can be found. She will then debut her new series which is inspired by the Brother’s Grimm Fairytales in October 2009 at Salon Gallery covering 8 of the principal stories and is multi-layered with symbols of her East/West culture crash. This will sit alongside portraits by Irish artist Brian Fitzgerald who confronts the unspoken crimes of Catholic priests in his homeland. Fitzgerald’s series of Priests, Christ figures and school boys are created out of Guinness beer mats and other paraphernalia. Jacky Tsai, who impressed Alexander McQueen so much with his silk-screen prints that he helped design a sell-out line of t-shirts, will exhibit his stunning prints to bring a calming quality to the show. Thai artist Pakpoom Silaphan will also be showcasing his series ‘It’s a Wonderland’ which he expresses his hopes of Utopia being a possibility that can be can be reached through society pulling together. Finally, the winner of SaLon’s ‘Best of the UK’ competition, Oliver Jones, will be showing his enormous confrontational portraits of Big Issue sellers who challenge the aesthetic tradition of beauty and question society’s obsession with avoiding the uncomfortable.