NeoBeast:
NEOPRIEST,
an exhibition at Headbones Gallery in March, 2009, was based
on an identified aesthetic that was expressed with an acronym to
more succinctly impart the essence of thirteen artist’s work. From
this original exhibition an over-riding identifiable subject has
revealed itself. And in order to pin it down through language and to
carry on the intellectual rigour, NeoBeast has been coined -
Beastly Explorations Aesthetically Stating Truisms.
Man’s separation from the order of species due to modernisation and
technology is a realised dilemma. That these artists chose ‘beast’
as the metaphor that encompasses feral, carnal and primitive as well
as cute, whimsical, elegant or stylised: depicts the struggle that
the contemporary atmosphere imposes upon our relationship to
animals.
Man and beast - the story line of countless artworks, operatic to
quietly penned - has occupied the attention of civilization since
the otherness of the beast was first scraped on a cave wall in a
Paleolithic attempt to depict the relationship. The works in
NeoBeast show that the subject, far from having been exhausted,
is still relevant today.
NOTE: Press images are available on request by contacting
info@headbonesgallery.com