WHOOOP: Playground of the Gods @ Vinyl on Vinyl Gallery (Feb 20 launch)
'PLAYGROUND OF THE GODS' launches February 20th @ Vinyl on Vinyl Gallery, and is a one man show featuring the art of The Philippines-based WHOOOP - of which a series of artwork are being previewed here. From the imagery above-right, you might remember his Mr Brain Freeze-figure? Check out the images posted here, alongside event-press for the show:
PRESS: 'Belief and its subsequent betrayals are at the center of a storm, at the swirling core of street artist Whooop’s 3rd solo exhibit, Playground of The Gods. Both Demon and Deity are kindling in its wake, as shaken faith and answered prayer are filtered through brushstroke and unto canvas. In a year marked by personal turmoil and redemption, this is Whooops most powerful—and personal—showing yet.'
PRESS: 'Once again, the myriad pastels and prancing familiars that define his art arouse a serene, almost playful sensibility. It is inviting, even friendly. As if peering into a rabbit’s hole. But the depth of that space and the themes gnashing and thundering at its very bottom show his growth as an artist. The very same growth that he sees as an intrusion; he resists all the same. The veneer of whimsy then gives away, crackling and bending, its frayed edges peeling under the might of stories and experiences we only share in hushed whispers to each other.'
PRESS: 'Every piece in Whooop’s gallery has a beginning and a lasting finish... an imprint. It is in these fertile playgrounds that faith, morality, consequence, and the Lords and Inamoratas who inhabit them wage war upon each other.
The sprawling tales spun on canvas are many, lancing back between 2D and 3D planes: In one piece, strife can oftentimes spill to the floor, unto a chessboard where divine beings plot and scheme to have no other gods before them.
In another, an atomic cloud might freeze to bear life giving fruit.
Or you may find the Mona Lisa disruptively biting her lower lip...because she knows something you do not.'
PRESS: 'The art before you is haunting and intimate, in the same way distant playground chatter might draw you towards it. But you are not there. You are in Whooop’s realm. Colours painted in snowflake and magma come into focus, and begin to take shape. And you realize--with equal parts dread and delight--that gods frolic around you.'
