Hughes + Olsen present four exceptional wall hangings by Congolese INGÉNIEUR VANCY separated by one major portrait scroll by Serbian VOJISLAV JAKIĆ. The imagery and medium shared by these two profoundly different artists creates a provocative chasm of figuration providing for a confined and confronting visual experience.
In addiditon, we present UN/RELATED, a 'family' of faces by Czech KAREL HAVLÍČEK and American CHRIS PYLE.
INGÉNIEUR VANCY
Vancy is a self taught artist whose inner-vision is, as is often the case amongst such creative people, described as a “gift of god”. These, his ‘lost drawings’ hitherto unseen until now, demonstrate an unselfconscious line and near automatic vigour from which curious worlds emergege, cities, fantastic machinery; an internal universe of worlds of wild energy and fantastical skyscrapers built firmly upon the a substrate of Congolese culture.
VOJISLAV JAKIĆ
Growing up in the midst of the turbulent post-war Balkans, the constant awareness of pain and suffering, whether physical, psychological, or existential, defines the work of Vojislav Jakic. He was a prolific artist, creating many thousands of drawings united by a distraught and often bitter sensibility challenging both the artist and his viewers. Fittingly, one of his works bears the inscription: “This is neither a drawing nor a painting but the sedimentary deposit of suffering.”
KAREL HAVLÍČEK
Havlíček began drawing as a way of exorcising his emotional and spiritual conflicts. Working only at night, he followed a ritual reminiscent of automatic practices, working spontaneously without premeditation, as if overtaken by a spiritual force.
CHRIS PYLE
Like mug shots or passport photos, Pyle’s ‘faces’ are a mass of knotted and woven strands, inlaid with small, slit-like eyes. ... not exactly beautiful, but they have the kind of fascinating ugliness we associate with that much-abused category – the Grotesque. There are nods in the direction of Arcimboldo, Picasso, the Surrealists and the Chicago Imagists, but each drawing has its own personality..."
John McDonald, Sydney Morning Herald, August 24, 2013