Guy Denning and Frank Rannou - 'We Are All Prostitutes'
Private View: 26th January 6 - 9pm
Opens 27th January - 18th February
Guy Denning and Frank Rannou are two painters who met in France sometime ago and instantly fell in love with each other's work. Both are fluent and individual figurative painters, with a distinct penchant for the atmospheric portrait.
Anne by Frank Rannou, oil on canvas
It was Guy's great wish to introduce Frank's work to UK audiences. Already well established in his native land, with shows in Paris and across France, Rannou had also received much media attention when he was to commissioned to paint the French Rugby Team in 2007, followed by the Football team in 2010.A well-known figure in the UK art scene now, Guy Denning has shown across the Europe and the US. Recent solo shows in New York and Italy featured the first two parts of a trilogy of shows he has been planning for some time, based on Dante's Inferno. The third part of the trilogy 'Paradiso' will be shown at Signal in the autumn this year. Guy's intense and powerful style has a universal appeal, due to its emotional depth, sincerity and the rarefied beauty of many of his images.
In their show together entitled 'We Are All Prostitutes', the two artists have not just chosen to focus on the obvious subject of the exploitation of women through the sex industry, but also the broader concept of how we often compromise our integrity on the altar of want and greed.
They will give us a new name by Guy Denning, oil on canvas
The title for the show comes from the Bristol post-punk band, The Pop Group. For Denning, the discovery of this band in the 1980's was an important moment in his creative development, reinforcing his belief in the possibility that art can have a politically valid role. This belief has been a huge inspiration for him throughout his creative life. For Rannou, whose artistic approach is less fired by intellectual or political concerns, the issues of exploitation and temptation resonates through a distinctly seductive depiction of sadness and pain.
Where
Signal Gallery, 32 Paul Street, London, EC2A 4LB
www.signalgallery.com
Tel: 07766 057 212
