PRESS RELEASE

ASHA ZERO: numberrs – FIRST LONDON SOLO EXHIBITION

2 - 23 October 2012: Pertwee Anderson & Gold, Soho London
(11 - 22 September: Preview in Cape Town)

"The extraordinary detail in these astonishing works fool the eye and it is hard to believe that everything is hand painted."

Zero’s work is as deceptive as it is honest, at first glance bearing the appearance of paper collage, but on closer inspection revealing careful and considered surface juxtapositions entirely executed in acrylic paint!

By transitioning from the prosaic to the uncanny using anything from hijacked typographical topologies to dirty grunge-inspired textures, Zero puts a new spin on things. When viewed from a distance each painting appears to be hyper-realistic visions pieced together from found media blips. When each blip is appreciated for its individual, segmented surface qualities they display abstract expressionist tendencies, marking a seminal tabula rasa in the context of Modern painting, also evinced by Zero’s contemporaries, including Gajin Fujita, Takashi Murakami and Barry McGee.

Zero’s work is a blend of Pop art parody, Dada conceptualism, and pictorial illusionism. Zero effectively renders the heterogeneity of post-industrial urban life, fettered by the omnipresence of mass media, which Zero readily borrows from to construct detailed trompe l'oeil compositions. Zero’s stance suggests that ideologies are rendering agents for consumer society; presenting the bricolage as it stands, inspired by newspaper headlines, street art, posters, album covers, fashion spreads, and print ads.

Since the first solo exhibition in 2008 Asha Zero’s work has caused uproar amongst international art collectors. Zero’s paintings are laboriously produced and time consuming to make, hence the reason why there are so few of them, snapped-up by observant collectors. All previous Zero exhibitions have sold-out, and those collectors who did not manage to purchase paintings have turned to the secondary market where auction prices have soared. A previous London exhibition (2009) with Black Rat Gallery was postponed because all works were sold at the preview in Cape Town.

numberrs is Asha Zero’s first London solo exhibition at the Pertwee Anderson & Gold, comprising fifteen new and painstakingly executed paintings. The exhibition opens on 2 October and concludes 23 October 2012.

An exclusive preview of numberrs will be held at 34FineArt in Cape Town on 11 September until 22 September. An extensive Exhibition catalogue will accompany the exhibition.

This body of work is fresh, exceptionally contemporary and relevant in the current urban / digital landscape. Seeing these unbelievable works during the Frieze Art Week is not to be missed.

"These images are paintings, paintings made to resemble collages. Printed, pixelated, highly mediated, mass media images are translated into the medium of acrylic paint. I reckon I enjoy the “building blocks” nature of collage. It’s sort of like Dadaist lego." - Asha Zero

PERTWEE ANDERSON & GOLD
15 Bateman Street
Soho, London, W1D 3AQ
pertweeandersongold.com
Contact : + 44 (0) 20 7734 9283
Gallery Hours:
Monday to Friday 11am-6pm & Saturday 12-5pm

A comprehensive printed catalogue accompanies the exhibition:
DOWNLOAD (2.9Meg)

For more information contact info@34fineart.com