It’s September friends! Happy new month to you all. What’s coming up in the African art domain this September? Alexis Peskine is exhibiting at London’s October Gallery this September. For those who don’t know October Gallery, it’s one of the first art galleries in London to exclusively specialise in contemporary art from Africa.
So back to the exhibition – This happens to be Alexis Peskine’s first art exhibition with October Gallery. The art showcase focuses on a new presentation of the artist’s work. Titled Powerful Figures, the art exhibition explores the complexity of themes effecting people from the African diaspora.
His signature pieces are large-scale portraits rendered by the painstaking process of hammering nails of different lengths and diameters, with pin-point accuracy, into wood to create breathtaking composite image.
Born in Paris in 1979, Alexis Peskine holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Howard University, Washington, DC. Alexis also holds a Master of Arts in Digital Arts and a Master of Fine Arts from M.I.C.A., Baltimore, Maryland, USA. He has won a number of prizes including the prestigious Fulbright Scholarship.
Peskine’s work is thematically linked to the ‘Black Experience’. He has been featured in many publications from books, to prestigious newspaper such as the New York Times, Le Monde, O Correio da Bahia or Libération. His powerful portraits literally nailed into wooden planks pay tribute to the many individuals undertaking the dangerous boat journeys from North Africa to Europe. Using several sizes of nails, he uses the nail as brushstroke. He drives in the nails at different depths to create a sense of relief and to introduce a third dimension. The nail for Alexis represents transcendence. It expresses pain as well as the force of resistance.
So powerful. Catch how you can find this exhibition below, before it ends.
Plan Your Visit to October Gallery London:
Address: October Gallery, 24 Old Gloucester Street, Bloomsbury, London WC1N 3AL Tel: + 44 (0)20 7242 7367
Date: 13th September – 21st October, 2017
Admission: Free