GRILLO DEMO Beauty, Virtu and falling Jasmin
14 November - 1 December 2008
Beauty, Virtu and falling Jasmin features new creations by Argentinean artist Grillo Demo which couple both painting and adornment of pre-existing images. The results are surreal, delicate, graceful and capture the artist's desire to make all things beautiful.
Born in a small village in Argentina, Demo has travelled the world, but since 1978 he has resided in the Balearic idyll of Ibiza. It is there that Demo creates his original art, and most famously his falling jasmin paintings. Demo cultivates the beautiful jasmin flowers in his garden and then depicts them from life. They cascade over images of the Madonna, the Christ child and crucifixes. It is not just on religious iconography that Demo depicts his jasmin flowers - he has used his signature flower on many portraits. Most recently he created a portrait of French Vogue Editor in Chief, Carine Roitfeld, as a gift from fashion photographer Mario Testino.
Demo also employs vintage images in his work, for example a Spanish dancer from the 1940s he found in a Hollywood magazine. Demo never obscures the found image, he delicately adorns it with new levels of beauty, allowing the original to coexist with his creative additions. The effect is both nostalgic in tone and dreamlike. Many of Demo's work are colourful with a sensitive colour palette and all display the artist's great creative freedom.
Grillo Demo's paintings are venerated in international art collections and in the homes of living icons such as Madonna, Kate Moss and Elle Macpherson.
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