Simultaneous Exhibition : Olivia Pendergast- Intimacy of Things
Geoff Weedon Exhibition
One Off is pleased to present
Geoff Weedon
Africa Re-Imagined
A Six Year Exploration
Opening Saturday, 28 May - 10am to 4.30pm
Ends 19 June 2022
Geoff Weedon
Africa Re-Imagined
A Six Year Exploration
Opening Saturday, 28 May - 10am to 4.30pm
Ends 19 June 2022
About the exhibition
The Power of the Image
Perhaps because of his training as a graphic designer and his career as an advertising creative, Geoff Weedon’s paintings are designed for impact. They will stop you in your tracks, draw you into their world and for a moment fully immerse you.
Some will pose questions, others amuse, but at the heart of each painting will be an idea that resonates. It is these visual concepts that sets this skilful figurative artist apart.
Weedon first visited Africa six years ago and the impact of the wildlife and peoples is clear because he has painted little else since, returning again and again for inspiration and reference. This show is a reflection of six years playful exploration which has expressed itself in different styles and formed distinct series, two of which are displayed here:
Daughters of Eve
His original inspiration were the tribespeople of the Omo River Valley, where Ethiopia slips into Kenya in the Great Rift Valley, who create extraordinary fashion from the limited vegetation and and natural materials around them. Not wishing to copy photographs, the artist has created imaginary portraits employing a modern aesthetic for skin tones that references the peeling surface of ancient wall paintings. A creative dissonance ensues with the inclusion of keenly observed birds and creatures that decorate the stylised figures.
Totem
An interest in tribal belief systems inspired a series of more realistic paintings depicting tribespeople and their spirit animals which are presented as if posing in a photographer’s studio or the pristine environment of an art gallery. A kind of magic realism emerges displaying the subjects oneness with nature.
Larger canvases further observe the interplay between the peoples and creatures of Africa, Images part dreamt and part remembered, that perpetuate on canvas a world fast disappearing.
About the artist
Born in 1944, Geoff Weedon obtained a first class honours degree in Graphic Design at what is now the University of the Arts, London, before embarking on a career as an art director and later a creative director at major international ad agencies like Ogilvy & Mather and J Walter Thompson, before setting up his own advertising agency in Soho.
Its sale allowed him to retire early and move to Devon in England’s west country to re-invent himself as an artist, studying Contemporary Art briefly at Plymouth University.
Much of his early work is either faux autobiographical or employs social commentary, but in 2016 a visit to Kenya and a series of safaris changed the course of his art.
Weedon’s work is in private collections across the world. He exhibits in the UK and in Africa where he has been represented by One Off Contemporary Art Gallery since 2017.
This is his first solo show in Africa.
Perhaps because of his training as a graphic designer and his career as an advertising creative, Geoff Weedon’s paintings are designed for impact. They will stop you in your tracks, draw you into their world and for a moment fully immerse you.
Some will pose questions, others amuse, but at the heart of each painting will be an idea that resonates. It is these visual concepts that sets this skilful figurative artist apart.
Weedon first visited Africa six years ago and the impact of the wildlife and peoples is clear because he has painted little else since, returning again and again for inspiration and reference. This show is a reflection of six years playful exploration which has expressed itself in different styles and formed distinct series, two of which are displayed here:
Daughters of Eve
His original inspiration were the tribespeople of the Omo River Valley, where Ethiopia slips into Kenya in the Great Rift Valley, who create extraordinary fashion from the limited vegetation and and natural materials around them. Not wishing to copy photographs, the artist has created imaginary portraits employing a modern aesthetic for skin tones that references the peeling surface of ancient wall paintings. A creative dissonance ensues with the inclusion of keenly observed birds and creatures that decorate the stylised figures.
Totem
An interest in tribal belief systems inspired a series of more realistic paintings depicting tribespeople and their spirit animals which are presented as if posing in a photographer’s studio or the pristine environment of an art gallery. A kind of magic realism emerges displaying the subjects oneness with nature.
Larger canvases further observe the interplay between the peoples and creatures of Africa, Images part dreamt and part remembered, that perpetuate on canvas a world fast disappearing.
About the artist
Born in 1944, Geoff Weedon obtained a first class honours degree in Graphic Design at what is now the University of the Arts, London, before embarking on a career as an art director and later a creative director at major international ad agencies like Ogilvy & Mather and J Walter Thompson, before setting up his own advertising agency in Soho.
Its sale allowed him to retire early and move to Devon in England’s west country to re-invent himself as an artist, studying Contemporary Art briefly at Plymouth University.
Much of his early work is either faux autobiographical or employs social commentary, but in 2016 a visit to Kenya and a series of safaris changed the course of his art.
Weedon’s work is in private collections across the world. He exhibits in the UK and in Africa where he has been represented by One Off Contemporary Art Gallery since 2017.
This is his first solo show in Africa.
Preview of Works
Click thumbnail to enlarge and scroll through all images
Exhibition openings are usually on the last Saturday of every month, excluding December.
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