This winter, Saatchi Yates are pleased to present a solo exhibition of new paintings by artist Danny Fox. Fox was born in St Ives, Cornwall, a coastal county in South West England. His rhythmic canvases vividly display unlikely heroes of the 21st century. His subjects never shy from tragedy, promise, heat, violence and sex. Entangled amongst all these elements is a lyrical, yet fragmented vision.
This series of work is inspired by Fox’s return to Cornwall and the history of St Ives painters, such as Ben Nicholson and Alfred Wallis. His works incorporate local buildings, bars, inhabitants, and folklore, conjuring wild and wonderful scene’s of coastal Britain, in a lucid story telling fashion. The conscious influence and in depth knowledge of St Ives life is ever present.
The paintings show Fox’s fascination with the history of portraiture, not only of a town and its people, but also of self portraiture and the role of the artist as a figure of myth, legend and perhaps fallacy.
A Cult Leader, Lothario, Father and False Prophet make up some of Fox’s twisted figures in the series. Beneath their folksy charm, they reignite the debate about what makes contemporary figuration.
