Be A Man
Theatre Deli is announcing a new exhibition Be a Man which aims to explore and understand why suicide is the leading cause of death for men under 45 in the UK. The exhibition will be created in collaboration with Dark Yellow Dot, a visual arts company focused on supporting early career artists.
A group of ten artists chosen to take part in the first group exhibition at Theatre Deli Broadgate, with each artist endeavouring to continue the conversation about male mental health and what it really means to ‘be a man.’
The work chosen spans artistic mediums, with sculpture, paintings, drawings, and photography all highlighted. The various pieces present an opportunity for the public to engage and interact with the reality of how we as a society approach male mental health. In lieu of a commission, 15% of proceeds from works sold will go to Mind, the Mental Health Charity.
Alex Papachristou-Cox
As well as an artistic I also work in theatre and dance, I like this to reflect in the paintings I create, my work is usually in the moment, with quick expressive movement in the pieces I make. My work is mainly figurative and bold, I wish to capture a persons opinion quickly in my work. As with a lot of my work, the portraits I paint are in moments on rest and contemplation, often looking away from the spectator. The contemplative state is usually in juxtaposition with the energy and rhythms of the paining.
Luca Bosani is currently artist in residence and Lecturer at Kensington and Chelsea College, London. In 2017 he obtained a MA in Contemporary Art Practice at the RCA London. In May 2018 he presented his first UK solo show at Kensington and Chelsea College gallery exploring themes of identity, mental health and masculinity through painting, fashion design and performance art.
Kelly Frank is a young British painter whose sensitive portraits capture the layered personalities of her sitters. Kelly explores portraiture through the lens of a psychologist and investigator, and her portraits of friends focus on their vulnerabilities.
By using a wide range of mediums such as charcoal, oil pastel, acrylics and oil paint, her paintings show a meticulous hand. The focal points of her portraits are the eyes. ‘The eyes are the windows to the soul’, a phrase Kelly Frank takes more seriously than most. She believes ‘people are a process in which they simultaneously reveal and hide themselves’.
Russell Haines
I began painting after suffering a brain stem stroke at the age of 44 to help cope with the loss of my business , relationship and home. I have suffered with mental health issues ever since but have become a full time artist painting portraits of the people around me.
I have had several solo exhibitions locally and my last exhibition entitled ‘Faith’ (I have none)was exhibited in Cambridge and London after opening in Gloucester Cathedral .I am currently working on a project to be shown at the Tower of London in march next year and the 2nd part of the Faith exhibition entitled Hope, a positive view of immigration to be shown in July 2019
My practice incorporates ritual and collection as a process to create work, as well as an outcome; often my work is very time consuming and hands on. Playing upon historical tropes and stories, I create fictional narratives that seek to investigate mental health, isolation and issues around masculinity. James Sirrell is a London based artist primarily working with photography and found objects. He is co-founder and curator at Exchange, and he studied his MA at Chelsea College of Art. He has exhibited at The Courtauld and Battersea Arts Centre in London, as well as internationally in USA, Belgium and Germany.
I was born in Palermo in 1985. After my Master’s degree in Economics, I’ve worked as a professional, but I always search in art a solitude space in which to express myself. I see art as a synthetic narration of emotions, cultures, conditionings, words and music; with only one gaze you can taste its plot, its deepest meaning, its soul. Art regenerates people and reveals them life. This is why I live it as a mission.
Adam Hurst is a recent photography graduate from Falmouth University, currently established in the North West of England.
His recent project, ‘Overbearing Virtues’ is a personal investigation which confronts the pressures implemented on representations of the male physique. Enthused by his own struggle with body insecurities, Hurst has produced a series of self portraits, exploring his own relationship with traditional ideologies of masculinity, a gendered stereotype that has pervasively remained within western culture and the 21st century.
‘Male proportions’ is a series dedicated to the everyday man who is faced with unrealistic representations of the male body and appearance in the media and how it can affect their mental health. Throughout this series, you will see all types of men in different shapes and sizes. The ‘real’ men and you may ask why a pillowcase? Men feel like they can’t speak out, and although they are happy on the outside, how are they feeling on the inside? The pillowcase represents the barriers that men tend to put up to avoid discussing their feelings and insecurities.
I live and work in London, where most of my inspiration comes from my own life and my beautiful city.
Through my art I try and touch on the issues that are most present in my life. My views on gender inequality and the irreversible pollution on our planet heavily influence my work. I use visual art as a way to discuss the ‘taboos’, and get people to notice the topics we’re too often ignoring.
Robert Hickerson is an artist and photographer that creates work within his bedroom closet in Brooklyn, NY. Using a saturation of color, and a fascination with horror movies, he examines themes of violence, desire, privacy, and loss, forming relationships between symbols to make sense of relationships between people. Photography, with its immediacy and malleability, allows Hickerson a platform to examine masculinity, lack of intimacy within queer dating, isolation and depression, and how to relate to people and himself. By materializing inner turmoil into absurdist tableaus he is able to meet pain with humor and wit.