the street is our gallery

October 01, 2024 to October 26, 2024

A new chapter in the work of Chloe Early. Taking some grand new steps ISLANDS marks a new chapter in the work of Chloe Early.

Chloe Early is one of the pioneers who contributed to shaping the ‘Urban Art Culture’. A culture that arose in the late 00s in England, where ‘Fine Arts’ increasingly found its way into the urban art scene. Together with artists such as Conor Harrington and Ian Francis, who were inspired by the urban scene without being bound by it, they contributed to building a bridge between “Fine Arts” and the new urban movements.

Born in Cork, Ireland in 1980 Chloe Early is a London-based contemporary artist, known for her figurative paintings with street art influences. She graduated from the National College of Art and Design in Dublin in 2003, where she studied printed textiles. She has been painting ever since, accruing a list of solo and group shows in Dublin, London, Los Angeles, Miami, Cork and New York.

Working in oils on aluminium panel, Early’s colour-saturated mini-narratives combine the splendour of Renaissance and Romantic painting with the rawness of contemporary life, a splendid example of ‘the iron fist in a velvet glove’ strategy, examining the sensitive and personal aspects of conflict, ambition and entropy in an opulent, cinematic style. At the same time, feelings of redemption and hope can be seen in the contradictory works.

She is inspired by contrasts and contradictions, both in motif and in her choice of material. The contrast is further emphasized by the interplay between the hard and raw metal in the aluminum with the soft, sensitive motifs.

‘ISLANDS’
About the new direction and current show Chloe Early tells the following:

“I’m interested in the boat as a symbol of the transitory nature of life. An intensely temporary space where there is an element of danger, and an air of exploration. These paintings are about journeys; both physical and emotional. The most famous maritime paintings are predominantly 19th century depictions painted against the background of colonization, trade, wars and a typically masculine narrative of exploration. I wanted my boats to engage with the sublime but in a more subtle and personal way, to be local, feminine and to contrast the idea of external journeying with an internal domesticity.
The figures depicted are females engaged in tasks related to their vessel. It’s unclear whether she is setting sail, arriving home, rescuing someone or rescuing herself or others. There are ideas of home, migration, adventure and a duality on how we experience the ocean – reflected in the inclusion of both leisure float rings and lifesaving buoyancy aids, both items serving the same physical purpose – to stay afloat – but one related to lifesaving and the other to leisure.”

The show runs through the end of the month. (26 October).