ANDREW SALGADO: STRANGE WEATHER

BEERS London is thrilled to announce the return of Canadian-British artist Andrew Salgado for his fourth solo exhibition at the gallery. Entitled Strange Weather, it is his first full-solo with the gallery since 2016. 

Salgado’s paintings have evolved greatly since the large-scale, painterly portraits he became known for almost a decade ago, and though they have become less autobiographical and increasingly stylized, it can be maintained that ultimately, his paintings are about the ‘human condition’. Unfurling over almost 20 pieces, the exuberant body of work continues his development of fantastical narratives, mythology-building, and contemplation of the individual. All of this is exhibited through skillful handling of colour, a knack for powerful (if admittedly ‘off-kilter’) compositions, a laboured surface texture, as well as a wry sense of humour.

Strange Weather leads the viewer through a trail like chapters in a magic-realist novel, allowing them a peek at Salgado’s strange world of allusions, appropriations, nods to art-history, various inspirations, and a host of subtle literary references. Salgado, an avid reader, creates a continuity between paintings, each with its relevant characters and settings, like an act in a greater Quixotic story.

A self-proclaimed ‘maximalist’, leans into his ‘Salgado-esque‘ tendencies with a healthy dose of kitsch: orb-like oranges roll from painting to painting; heavy, low-hanging moons adorn almost every piece; serpentine cat-tails weave through the compositions; curlicues of smoke obscure figures; and Benday-dot style stars float in the night sky. Never one to shy from excess, the artist manages these motifs with effortlessness and energy – resulting in works that while reverberating and chaotic, also at times seem calm, dreamlike, or serene.

Salgado states that occurrences in both his personal life and the world at large have allowed him to become more at ease when creating this body of work.

I have been polemic, subversive, political, and outspoken in the past but I tired of that; I wanted to be Romantic. Playful…But these works also evoke sensations of seduction, mystery, warmth. Given the uncertainty and confusion this year, I just allowed myself to float into something fantastical – a land of make-believe. There’s something reassuring but also disquieting about the works. Esoteric. Codified. Something ‘just a little bit off’. In that sense, they retain mystery for me as well.

We warmly welcome you to lose yourself in Salgado’s wonderfully strange world.

The artist and BEERS London would like to thank the following for their support and efforts in bringing this show and its many parts to life:

The Tidal Rum
Something & Nothing Company
Opus 11 Events
SE1 Framing
Damian Griffiths Photography
Adam Fletcher Filmography
Leo Babsky, Curator
Patrick Watson Band

Kindly sponsored by:

ANDREW SALGADO (b. 1982, Regina, Canada) lives and works in London, England. He graduated with an MA in Fine Art from Chelsea College of Art and Design in 2009, and has since had 13 sold-out solo exhibitions held all over the world, and is widely regarded as one of the UK’s leading young figurative painters. In 2017, Salgado was the youngest artist to ever receive a survey-exhibition at The Canadian High Commission in London, accompanied by a 300-page monograph, both of which were entitled TEN. Previous solo exhibitions include: Blue Rainbow, Angell Gallery, Toronto, (October 2018); Nature Boy, BEERS London, (2018); Dirty Linen, Christopher Moller Gallery, Cape Town (2018); A Room with a View of the Ocean, Lauba Art House, Zagreb (2017); The Snake, BEERS London, (2016); The Fool Makes a Joke at Midnight, Thierry Goldberg, New York (2016). He has exhibited his work at various international art fairs including: Untitled Miami (2019); Zona Maco, Mexico City (2019); Pulse Miami (2016); and Volta Basel (2015). In 2015, Salgado curated The Fantasy of Representation, including work by Francis Bacon, Gary Hume, and Hurvin Anderson, with an impassioned manifesto on representational painting. In 2014 he was the subject of a documentary, Storytelling. He has received extensive press both online and in print, including GQ, The Evening Standard, The Independent, Artsy, METRO, Attitude Magazine, Globe and Mail (CAN) and Macleans (CAN). He frequently donates to charities including Pride London, Stonewall, and Diversity Role Models; his donations to the Terrence Higgins Trust are of particular note, having raised over £110,000 in 6 years; including £35,000 for a single piece in 2020. In March 2019, he successfully entered the secondary market with a piece in a Strauss & Co auction in South Africa. His works have been collected extensively in private and public collections worldwide. Salgado’s Strange Weather exhibition opened at BEERS London on 17 October 2020.