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With a personal history as colourful as her paintings
Stella Vine has been catapulted to the forefront of the public's art
consciousness in recent years. Due in part to her involvement with Charles
Saatchi's New Blood Exhibition 2004, and also the controversy much of
her work is mired
in.
Vine occupies something of a perilous pedestal, hailed by
some as the future of British painting, but strongly reproached by others. For
example David Lee, editor of The Jackdaw Magazine , Lee claimed of
Vine's work. Everything about it stinks. Numerous articles claim that critics
are divided as to whether or not Vine can actually paint. This doesn't seem to
have dampened public opinion, quite the opposite. The apparent naivety of her
broad brushstrokes drips and splashes have captivated the contemporary art
market.
The slogan adorning one piece, Goltzschtalbrucke
part 2 (2003), exhibited at Modern Art Oxford in the summer of 2007, read,
we are unhappy with this life and seek another one. It's this sentiment that
saturates much of the artist's work. The phenomena of striving for a better lot
in life, low-rent celebrity, a growing army of celebrated public figures with
very little in the way of discernable talent are favourite subjects of the
artist.
More callous commentators might even go so far as to
suggest that Vine herself fulfills all the criteria she seeks in her subjects.
>From September 9th to 24th September visitors to the Sartorial
Contemporary Art Gallery will have the chance to gauge Vine's much talked about
works for themselves, in this never-before-exhibited
collection.
Gretta Sarfaty, artist and founder of the Sartorial
Contemporary Art Gallery has enjoyed something of a patchy relationship with
Vine. In It for the Money (2005), Vine's tip-of-the-hat (or should that
be rude hand gesture?) to Tracey Emin's I've Got It All (2000), was
painted following a clash of principals between Sarfaty and Vine. Despite not
always seeing eye to eye, Sarfaty has amassed an impressive collection of Vine's
works. And has decided now is the time to unleash these virtually unseen
examples of Vine's uniquely visceral perspective on the general
public.
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2009
Sartorial Contemporary Art
