ROADZ @ Curious Duke and The Hoxton Hotel

The East London affordable art chaps Curious Duke Gallery are launching Roadz, a new exhibition by artist Andrea Tyrimos from Thursday 5th to Saturday 28th June. Roadz is a glowing tale of cities, from the crumbling decay of decadent buildings to the sparks of light that hang over the landscape after sunset. In the week running up to the show, Tyrimos will be painting live on to the walls of The Hoxton Hotel as its artist in residence, and the canvases will then be transported to Curious Duke and exhibited in Roadz.

Tyrimos’ first solo show is a fiesta of colour and metropolitan melodrama exclusive to Curious Duke Gallery. Andrea Tyrimos graduated in Fine Art from Central St Martins in 2009, and has exhibited extensively since. Her paintings have grown in detail and fascination of urban lifestyles, with an emphasis on the emission of colour through light, most notable in her paintings of London and New York at night.

Her keen eye for the beauty of a cityscape has brought about three separate bodies of work; Notting Hill Carnival, City Lights and Brick. After taking inspiration from Charles Baudelaire’s call for painters to focus on ‘depicting the fast-changing landscapes of life’, and described such an artist as ‘The Painter of Modern Life’, Tyrimos had found her niche. This oil painter does not stop at the eerie progress of a night bus though London’s lamp lit streets, but sees the waiting people outside a late night off license on Brick Lane as secrets revealed by lights from shop windows; the city becomes a beacon of life no matter the time of day.

Tyrimos’ latest series of works are more vibrant than ever, and her ‘Brick’ project especially has been building a huge amount of interest. The Brick project has spawned a series of live painting events, most recently at the Barbican and WXSP, with three events coming up in the realms of Shoreditch and Old Street, allowing the wealth of regeneration that butts against moss covered red brick to take on interdependent stories. The very walls that we live in, work in and walk past daily may lay dormant, but look closer and you’ll find tiny details of lovers initials scratched in, and moss creeping over graffiti. Tyrimos will select three locations that she will then build a photo-realistic oil painting onto canvas that will blend into its brick surroundings. One of these events will continue into Curious Duke Gallery with a brick wall being built in the gallery space for Tyrimos to paint throughout the exhibition in June.

Curious Duke Gallery presents Andrea Tyrimos : Roadz

5th – 28th June

173 Whitecross Street

London, EC1Y 8JT

Nearest Tube: Old Street (exit 6 – 2 min walk) Barbican (5mins)