ESL_Your Face Looks Geat News from the School of Art, Architecture and Design

The Cass Gallery is pleased to present the exhibition YOUR FACE LOOKS GREAT, grouping together new and existing works of artists Ed Fornieles, Jack Lavender, and Chris Succo.

ESL_YOUR FACE LOOKS GREAT (15 - 29 March 2012)

Curated by Vivi-Ann Lillefosse and Antonia Stausberg

The Cass Gallery is pleased to present the exhibition YOUR FACE LOOKS GREAT, grouping together new and existing works of artists Ed Fornieles, Jack Lavender, and Chris Succo. Coming from different artistic backgrounds, all three are linked to the Royal College of Art.

ESL_YOUR FACE LOOKS GREAT was curated by Antonia Stausberg and Vivi-Ann Lillefosse, students of the MA Course Curating the Contemporary, taught jointly by London Metropolitan University and the Whitechapel Gallery.

The exhibition, which explores the visual strength of their work, revolves around the themes of surface, abstraction, appearance, cultures, and systems of display. Lavender’s grouping of randomly found objects in his environment, together with the fine alignment of nostalgic and personal entities, his careful arrangement of both, lead to his series of boxes in which those different objects are to be found. The work addresses aspects of the ready-made, and Art Informel, a tendency focusing on the instinctive and irrational aspects of the artistic process.

Succo’s work, by contrast, focuses strongly on texture: working with a dye-jet printing method, involving a technique of hand-dyeing cloth, and covering large panels with a recurring Tartan pattern designed by the artist himself. This process is followed by staining, marking, and inscribing the textiles. The subtle markings, not detected at first glance explore gesture, and also refer back to the improvisational movement of Tachisme, based on repetition and difference.

Fornieles’s works explore the idea of youth culture, and comment on today's popular obsession with Internet portals - platforms such as Twitter or Facebook - which have become worldwide connecting stages for millions of people. He examines the surfeit of information shared, resulting in the lack of privacy, and an erosion of individuality. Fornieles looks at the preoccupation with projecting oneself, or even another ‘self’ onto these different platforms, resulting in alienation and conflict.

The artists' work has been exhibited in international solo and group exhibitions. Succo is being represented by Duve Gallery in Berlin; his works are held in various public collections , such as the Museum Kunstpalast , Düsseldorf and the collection of the city of Neuss. Ed Fornieles’s work is represented by Gallery Carlos/Ishikawa in London; Jack Lavender’s work was recently on display in a group show at The Approach Gallery , London.

ESL_YOUR FACE LOOKS GREAT was curated by Antonia Stausberg and Vivi-Ann Lillefosse, students of the MA Course Curating the Contemporary, taught jointly by London Metropolitan University and the Whitechapel Gallery.

PV Wednesday, 14 March, 6-8pm

15 - 29 March 2012
Open Mon- Fri 11am-5pm

CASS Gallery
Central House
59-63 Whitechapel High Street
London E1 7PF 

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