This Halloween neon popped down to see the aptly named Fatales art exhibition by Hush at The Outsiders gallery in Soho. Contrary to the artwork’s names – Vamp, Femme Fatale – there were more horrors outside than the soft feminine portraits than awaited inside.
Bright and particularly unvamp-like, Hush’s titles are evidently not derived from the same source as those on the street dressed up with fake fangs and dribbling blood in the spirit of the holiday. The only similarity was in the sun-deprived shade of skin that emanated from the geisha girls faces placed upon the walls and the slightly mysterious air they hold.
Fatales is Hush’s first solo show at the Lazarides’ tiny but beautiful and minimalistic gallery perched just off Soho Square. Continuing Hush’s trademark theme of Japanese characters, the exhibition shows twelve seductively exposed and alluring painted women on linen and paper framed by spray paint. The graffiti style that often figures in Hush’s work is a welcome paradox to the softness of the women, as he explained to The Outsiders in the build up to the show: “Street art can be seen as masculine, aggressive and disruptive, but add a female form and it can be beautiful.”
Trained at the Newcastle School of Art and Design, Hush has exhibited shows across the world, from Los Angeles to Melbourne. Featured in The Independent’s ‘Twenty up and coming artists’ for 2008, he has also created a snowboard range in collaboration with Burton.
Hush: Fatales is showing at The Outsiders gallery, 8 Greek Street, from 1st November until the 23rd November.
