“Underground Chic” Solo Exhibition
November 25 – December 18, 2023
Atelier Automotive Art, Westfield Shopping Centre, Car Park A, Level -2 Ariel Way, Shepherds Bush, London, W12 7SL
Site Specific Background
“Underground Chic” is an underground art exhibition much of which is about how we give too much energy to designer brands, which comes at a cost.
The exhibition Private View opening was on Black Friday, the busiest shopping day of the year for the fashion industry and their stores. The venue for the exhibition was held in a showroom in a car park 2 levels beneath the designer brands section of a major international shopping center, Westfields, Shepherd’s Bush, London.
I hope the intentional irony is not lost on you.
On Lux Bags
Most of the artwork produced for the solo show was a continuation and evolution of the OnLuxBags series.
This series is generally about drawing & painting over luxury gift bags as an expression of spiritual defiance. We too easily give in and associate feelings of lust and desire with luxury brands and their marketing efforts. There are also emotions like greed, insecurity, and jealousy that permeate as a by-product.
“Rise Above”, mixed media & collage on 3 combined Hermes shopping bags.
Mixed Processes & Mixed Media
There were time constraints in filling up the space with artwork for the exhibition opening deadline which meant there wasn’t enough time to do a dozen or so photo-realistic ballpoint pen drawings as might normally be done (this would take over a year to create but only 3 and half months to work with). So a handful of the artworks were a combination of hand painted/drawn over shopping bags and also print collages (with hand finishing) over bags. The prints were created from ballpoint drawings down previously and pasted over the bags, like the above example.
Drawing over 11 bags using acrylic paint pen
Drawing In Paint
In order to balance the need for large new artworks and the time constraint, a new way of producing hand drawn artworks was deployed.
Utilizing acrylic paint pens and trusty drawing techniques, 3 large unique artworks on shopping bags were created as well as the other collage ones inside of the time window. Using paint instead of ink also enabled the work to go over awkward shopping bag surfaces and non White colours.
Close up showing detail created using paint pen and mixture of drawing techniques
“Mia Classical”, acrylic paint over 8 combined Louis Vuitton shopping bags
Underground Chic Meaning
There were also other artworks than OnLuxBags pieces in the show, but all fall under the title “Underground Chic”. This overarching series or theme is about how even some darker expressions in sub culture can be beautiful. How non commercial (or underground), subversive, and rebellious can still be graceful and elegant. A recurring muse in this theme is Mia Wallace from Pulp Fiction. So it was only right she went on the car.
The Car
Being a car wrapping establishment located in a car park it was only right to have a car wrapped in artwork of James Mylne design. The team didn’t go in the direction of flash and fancy, shiny, new, and expensive cars. No, Atelier Auto Art (and Dripp-Factory) sourced a 1990s Mercedes from Japan.
The tamplate of the car model used to digitallly match the artwork created for it. This was used to accurately print the art wrap for Atelier Auto Art to wrap it correctly over the car
An HD video showing the process of the car being started and exposed is on YouTube here.
Left side of JRM ART, up-cycled Yakuza Mercedes. Also visible are worked over designer shopping bags hanging from the ceiling around the exhibition space above it.
Hand painting some design elements of the cars surface. Also shown is the bespoke wrap on the bonnet. This features artwork from a drawing of a Japanese Samurai offering a Katana. This is a nod to the link to the history of the vehicle. The same artwork was also in the exhibition
The Opening
The exhibition opened on Black Friday, busiest shopping day of the year, in a bust part of town. Luckily most of the guests found there down to the underground venue. About 150 people came through. There was a DJ, drinks, and also celebrity chef Colin Brown serving up a load of delicious canapés.
A small selection of photos from the opening evening below. To see the full album click here.
On one outside wall of the exhibition space was a enormous billboard poster for the exhibition
There was merchandise such as hoodies featuring OnLuxBag drawings on them available.
From the ceiling there were arrangements of bags hanging just above head height.
75 bags from various designer brands in total had each side of it worked over in mixed media. This obvioulsy was accentuating the context of the artwork as it relates to the shopping center above.
2 floors right above were stores such as Gucci and Prada etc. Leaflets were handed out to the staff working in these shops inviting them to the opening night.
