Unit London Gallery owner Jonny Burt
Close of the highly anticipated inauguration exhibition “RAW” by Chinese contemporary artist Zhuang Hong Yi, in Unit London – a brand new clean-cut and spacious art gallery on Wardour Street offers a welcoming contrast to the over-flood of media houses, restaurants and bars in Soho.
The independent contemporary art gallery Unit London follows its pursuit from grassroots as a pop-up gallery space in first launched in Chiswick, to showcase the most cutting-edge contemporary art from across the globe.
And NIL by renowned Britol-based street artist, Duncan Jago aka Mr. Jago is no exception.
Artefact was invited to the opening private view where a stole a moment with co-gallery owner Jonny Burt, a UAL Art Foundation alumni and artist himself.
“Tonight we are hosting Mr. Jago’s debut solo exhibition NIL. It’s his first landmark exhibition for 3 years. He’s had great success in the States doing both commercial projects, sell out gallery shows.
Ijen – Acrylic, spray apint and oil on canvas
“The success of tonight has been great. We’ve had a full house, a lot of pre-sales from catalogue, and we’ve been selling all night. The reason we wanted to work with Mr. Jago, he’s probably the only street artist we represent, we’ve always been fans of his work for a long time,” Burt told us.
“It’s a very unique way that he applies the street art medium. He used spray paint in a very unique way. If you look at the face (paintings) they look very expressionist almost as if it hasn’t been done with oil (paints). He is an urban street artist and has a very unique application of the medium to creative this stunning, very intoxicating, vibrant, electric paintings.
“The theme (NIL) is essentially a battle between the actual world and the urban world and how progress can be an amazing thing for humanity but it can also be on the cusp of something potentially post-apocalyptic,” Burt explained.
“NIL essentially means to us and to the artist, we can be at the start of something amazing but also be on the cusp of something quite scary – as I said post-apocalyptic.”
And the gallery are looking forward to more shows like this: “With the advent of the internet and social media, we’re questioning where all this progress is going. What it’s all for. On the face of it, it’s a stunning show, the reaction to the pieces has been amazing and we’re very excited to see what Mr Jago has in store next,” Burt said.
Prices range from £2,800 to £12,000. Find out more at UNIT London
All images by Kai Lutterodt