A STRANGER IN YOUR LAND
Early Figures
Sean Gabriel Ellul will open his second solo show 'A Stranger In Your Land' at So Galerie. The exhibition will include large works on paper and canvas painted in Vancouver and Malta. The theme of the work revolves around the intimacy of the human figure and the solitude-like nature of Being. The human body, contorted and at peace, is used as a lightning rod to reflect and also question our emotional and physical needs and wants. Focus is placed on the beauty of the nude using warm colours and soft brushstrokes to emphasize the spiritual dimension rather than just the sexual.
BIO - SEAN GABRIEL ELLUL
Born Malta 1971. Brought up and studied in Canada until age 24. Has since lived in various parts of North America and Europe, and is now based in Malta and Rome. Visual artist working in acrylic paint on canvas and paper. Work has been focused on the human face and body utilising various streams of media and iconography, such as street art, video stills, fashion photography and classical sculpture to portray a whole gamut of human emotions or their deficiency. Main influences have been key Late Medieval/Renaissance artists, such as Duccio, Cimabue, Botticelli and Michelangelo, from which the vivid use and juxtaposition of colour, mannered poses, as well as natural iconography have been adopted or renegaded to endow attributes to or to reinterpret the human condition. Other important artists have been drawn on for their sense of pathos, tragedy, or raw angst, such as Velasquez and Bacon, whose pictures resonate with haunting visuals that have become landmarks in our cultural vocabulary. References have also been made to a wide range of photographers and photojournalists in an invitation to dialogue and in an attempt at recasting the visual landscape. Amongst many these include: Joel-Peter Witkin, David LaChapelle, Terry Richardson, Gregory Crewdson, Steven Klein and Marco Vernaschi. Photographic extracts from news-oriented material, such as Financial Times, National Geographic and Vogue, have highlighted more relevant and candid themes ranging from socio-political turmoil, or human or natural disasters, to the superficial world of fashion, often as a counter-veil to the media-dominated and virtual world we form part of.
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From 15 September, 2011, until 28 October, 2011