Exhibitions and Events
Adam Neate Prints Exhibition
Works by Adam Neate
Vernissage: 18 June 2009,
6:30pm
- 8:30pm
Exhibition Continues: 19 June 2009 - 18 July 2009
Main Gallery, 21-31 Old Bailey Street, Central, Hong Kong
ADAM NEATE, THE MAN BEHIND THE CONCEPT OF “FREE ART”.
Adapta is thrilled to present renowned contemporary artist, Adam Neate for the first time in Hong Kong. The exhibition will feature a collection of limited edition prints by the artist, all of which are produced from his original works. Adam Neate’s original artwork consists of paintings made with recycled cardboard boxes that possess both two and three dimensional qualities. He often depicts tribal-looking stylised figurative images and portraits that seem to be desperately crying out its own story with a dark undertone, while making a powerful impact on its viewers. Adam Neate at a young age has already garnered international acclaim in recent years with his intense, raw and emotionally charged style.
Born in Suffolk, 1977, Adam Neate began his career as a graphic designer upon graduating from Suffolk College as a Design student. In fact, painting has always been what he wanted to do and during his free time he chose to paint on cardboard boxes collected from the streets, avoiding the use of canvas because of its cost. His works are composed by tearing up the cardboard material, then building them up in layers and stapling them together by hand. Adam Neate is celebrated for his mastery and technique over his medium, as well as for his complex layering and bold use of paint. Influenced by the concept of computer-aided design, Neate describes his creative process: “With cardboard it’s great because I can do a face and if its not right I can rip it in half and move it this way. It’s like a physical version of Photoshop where you’re literally moving layers, its more malleable and and has that distressed energy to it.”
Painting for his friends and himself, Neate began to build up an excess of paintings which his house can no longer hold. This is when he came up with the idea of leaving his art out on the streets for free. “I already had a house full of paintings, so I thought it would be funny to leave them hanging on nails, or leaning against lampposts in the streets, they looked really surreal.” , says the artist. After a few years, Adam Neate managed to make a name for himself, and his career as an artist began to flourish as he started to collaborate with a gallery in London. In 2007, his work titled Suicide Bomber has fetched £ 78,500 at Sotheby’s first auction dedicated to Urban Art, and in the same year, his solo exhibition Adam Neate – Painting Pots and Prints was sold out within hours of the opening.
Taking a tip from Andy Warhol’s Factory, in end of 2008, Adam Neate worked with a team to ‘mass produce’ a thousand pieces of his original work for his exhibition, The London Show, as a deliberate attempt to blur the boundary between painting, print and product. Based on the master image stencil created by Neate, each of the prints was stamped and stapled differently as a unique composition. These prints, with an estimated worth of £1 million, were then left all over the streets throughout London for the public to pick up for free. The artist comments: “The whole concept of the free art thing was challenging the notion of art as a commodity and its worth in society. Now I’m taking that to another level, testing the viability of separating art from commerce.”
Stylistically, Adam Neate’s art is a combination of several artistic styles, including Expressionism and Cubism, against a Francis Bacon-esque approach. “I love cocktail combinations of ‘isms’, I like to see whether it works if you put Expressionism and Futurism together or mix Cubism and Fauvism.”, Adam Neate explains. He also employs symbolic imagery to convey the little stories behind each piece. The clash of materials that is so characteristic of Neate’s work, such as gold leaf on cardboard or spray paint layered over oil paint, suggests that he is keen to emphasise themes of tactile connection versus disjunction and bonding versus breakdown. Technique, originality and delicate sensibility are crucial elements that have helped Adam Neate win the acknowledgement from major art institutions in the UK, including the Tate, National Portrait Gallery and The National Gallery.
Adam Neate’s fearlessness and openness to experiment with style and technique proves that he is an artist with a long way ahead, as he himself describes: “I love having that chameleon sense of being able to change depending on what I’m doing. And if I spend a month doing a piece like that, then I’ll do a few things for the street which are completely different. It’s a constant movement of style and feeling, otherwise I’d just stagnate into being a portrait painter or something. I don’t fear change, I enjoy it. I’m not afraid of the first idea.”
Schoeni Art Gallery would like to thank Elms Lesters Painting Rooms specially for supporting the exceptional artist, Adam Neate, and our endeavour in promoting the artist in Hong Kong and Asia.
About Adapta
Adapta is a satellite project of Schoeni Art Gallery in Hong Kong in collaboration with UK Adapta, based in London. Adapta aims to bridge the gap between the understanding of this Urban Art movement in the European and Asian art markets, creating a dialogue which, until now, has been relatively unobserved. We believe that the talent-pool that Urban Art offers is extraordinary and hand-picking each artist specifically for each show will demonstrate, educate and provide a wealth of inspiration for the youth of today.
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