The Locals At Work
Tuesday, August 10, 2010 - 12:24
Did you know Deptford was home to more artists than East London? IDOL didn’t either. The Goldsmith’s university is within 15 minutes walking distance, meaning artists have dispersed into the surroundingneighborhood for some time and stayed there to produce a hub of creativity. And this wasn’t the only discovery made when we embarked upon the journey to the other side of the River.
The ARCH gallery plays host to several of the local Deptford artists. The gallery’s summer offering entitled ‘I know what you did last summer’ opened last week. With the aim of creating a dark alternative to the more colourful seasonal shows, gallery owner Paul Marks wanted the conflicting idea of a dark summer performance. With the ‘post apoplectic’ piece from Andrew Hladky’s and Jo Wilmot’s Ferrari crashes, the theme hits you instantly. Similarly Wayne Lucas draws your attention as you walk through the door, a mixed media piece with antlers and a protruding fury head will have you talking.
Marks wanted a controversial exhibition, which is why he chose to showcase two of his sado-masochism pieces. Taken from a website, the images are exploded on Photoshop and subsequently painted in squares of colour. A segment of the picture is only revealed when looked through either a phone or digital camera; giving you a taster of what the full image entails.
Charlie Pi is another photographer turned artist, exhibiting work at the ARCH. A Deptford resident for over 35 years, his pieces play on male stereotypes. Jokingly saying that mythology is the “only way to paint male nudes,” Pi has moved on to the archetypes of man. He does use the male nude in all his pictures and in particular the black male nude to really highlight his messages. Tales from the crypt/drop the pineapple is a play on a John Singer Sargent painting of a white woman in a dress sitting with a fan in one hand. Pi has used this and contrasted with a nude black man, interestingly covering himself with a pineapple.
The gallery is intimate with the exhibition containing only 22 pieces; yet there is a huge sense of community. Whether it is the owner of the local hardware shop popping down or the friends from the art committee, the feedback from the show was: “Yeah, I love it.” It is definitely a return to the original paint on canvas, but sometimes it feels good to hark back. It is interesting to see what can be achieved and portrayed with such simple tools.
There is a piece for everyone, and don’t be put off by the thought of taking a Southeastern train out of central London, but instead travel comfortably with the new East London Line to New Cross and enjoy a stroll through the area from there. Deptford will be hosting Deptford X, a 10 day celebration of contemporary visual art, commencing on the 24 September to draw in all you fine young things. It is a chance to see the locals at work, a chance that should be taken.
Marie McManamon
Why White Folks Love Black Culture
We examine why black culture is so attractive for many white people
Written by Hazelann Williams
08/05/2012 10:32 AM
STYLE ICON: David Beckham
IN THE short space of time I have worked for The Voice, one thing that has grown to fascinate me is the love some white people have for black culture – especially, some white men’s love for black men.
No, that is not a typing error. I have met some wonderful white men who either write about, paint or emulate the black men that they love, and frankly, I can’t blame them, because I love black men too!
I first encountered the work of British artist Charlie Pi during one of my frequent visits to The Crypt Gallery in Euston, London. The art on display was bold and vivid with colour, and more specifically, each canvas featured a captivating image of the black male form.
Walking around and appreciating the various images, I admired the person who could produce a whole installation of work by painting only black men. By the end of the exhibition, I wanted to find the artist responsible for the brilliant work. Standing by one of his paintings was a middle-aged white man, quietly talking about the way light bounces off the body of a black man better than his white counterpart.
I will admit I was a little surprised; I nearly raised an eyebrow, as if to say ‘You painted these?’ I later found out that Pi had immersed himself in black culture since the age of 18, when he came to London from Coventry. Since then, he has spent his artistic career glorifying the image of black men and trying to get it in mainstream galleries.
When I later interviewed the artist for an article, he revealed that he once longed to be black.
“We were so into dance and we wanted to dance the same as black boys,” he recalled of his youth.
“We wanted to look in the mirror and see our reflections as the same as them. So us little white boys would go trotting over to Lavender Hill [in south London] just to get our heads shaved. I was heavily into ska and used to go to the Ram Jam club in Brixton on a Sunday to learn all the new dances.”I couldn’t help but be struck by the way the painter spoke of the young white boys who were fascinated with a different culture, and who would do whatever they could to be a part of black British society in the 1960s.
I was similarly intrigued when I received a book called Faggamuffin. As I read the press release, I learned that the book was about a black, gay Jamaican man, and saw a photograph of the author – a white man called John R Gordon.
BOOK: Author John R Gordon
A man who began to examine life through the lens of black culture when he was at university, Gordon describes himself as a writer of ‘afro centric’ issues.
“All of my writing is concerned with the lives of black people, particularly young, black gay men,” he told me when I interviewed him earlier this year. “It’s just what interests me the most; I like to put black people on the centre stage.”
Both Grodon and Pi are gay and have a love of black men that has the potential to rival the love black men receive from many black woman. But for other white men, it’s not black men but black culture as a whole that spawns the attraction.
The 2003 documentary Black like Beckham argued – albeit in a light-hearted fashion –that the footballer was ‘Britain’s most famous black man.’ And whilst I certainly don’t agree with the presenter’s statement that Beckham is ‘accepted by black people as a hero,’ he is a man that loves black culture. A big fan of R’n’B singer Tyrese; a man who named his dogs Puffy and Snoop after the famous US rappers; and a man who once hit the headlines when he had his hair canerowed, Beckham has no issue with immersing himself in elements of black culture.
'HONORARY' BLACK PEOPLE: Reggae DJ David Rodigan
There are many white men who, for one reason or another, love to be around, write about or document black society.
Veteran reggae DJ David Rodigan has made a career out of his love of reggae music. The famous selector has clashed with the best soundsystems such as Stone Love and Bass Odyssey, and was awarded an MBE this year for his services to broadcasting.
While the Kiss DJ was grateful for all the messages of support that he received, Rodigan admitted that the support he received from Jamaica was particularly touching.
“I’ve had a tremendous response from Jamaica,” he told The Voice. “Journalists in Jamaica have been incredibly responsive and I’ve been blown away by it. Jamaicans are very proud of their culture and their response to this [MBE] is indicative of the pride they have for their country and their music. I’m very grateful for the love they’ve given me.”
When it comes to white men who love and emulate black music and culture, who could forget Tim Westwood? The Radio 1 DJ and son of an Anglican bishop, has been berated for ‘sounding’ and ‘acting black’. But there is no denial that the hip-hop hero loves rap music and black culture – and as they say, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
RESPECTED: Rapper Jay-Z with hip-hop DJ Time Westwood
To me, the reason why white people, particularly white men, love black culture is because we allow them to. In my opinion, black people are the most inclusive and accepting of all races. Let’s be honest, it doesn’t take much for us to take a white person and appoint them an ‘honorary black person.’
In the cases of Rodigan and Westwood in particular, many black people have gladly accepted them as representatives of black culture. As Rodigan also explained, he saw his MBE as “recognition for the music that we all love… an honour for our music.” And by the response he said he received from Jamaican reggae fans – music-lovers who are notorious for expressing their disapproval for acts they don’t like – it’s clear that Rodigan is firmly embraced by black audiences not only in the UK, but beyond.
To me, there is no other culture that welcomes people of other races with open arms as much as we do – which some people may say is to the detriment of our own advancement. But I’m glad that the black community’s attitude of acceptance has allowed others to feel free to showcase their love and respect for our culture, which openly accepts them as they are.
* Is it a good thing that black people are so accepting of other cultures? Email your thoughts to: [email protected]
Posted on: 08/05/2012 10:32 AM
Tonny A.
French Londoner Tonny A is a performance artist, choreographer, theatre director & current member of the Restock, Rethink, Reflect Two artists’ advisory group. Blending movement and spoken words with multimedia, his work focuses on the themes of cultural, sexual and physical identity, often aiming to challenge the sexual & cultural stereotypes associated to his physical disability & ethnicity. Born and raised in the mid 70's in the West Suburbs of Paris, Tonny studied History & Politics at La Sorbonne University. After a few years travelling around Central & Eastern Europe, Tonny relocated to London to pursue a career in broadcasting. Since then his artistic personae have varied from being a performance poet, the creative producer of Sweet & Sour – an alternative Cabaret night of performance poetry, theatrics, live music and visual art – to directing multimedia theatre & dance productions, which included In The Shadows of Senghor (2006) & Generation Next (2008), performing in Romeo Castellucci's Inferno as part of SPILL Festival (2009), being a featured artist at the Queer art Festival GFEST 08, 09, 10 and recently one of painter Charlie Pi's subjects for his latest exhibition The Skin I'm In at The Crypt Gallery (2010).
www.sweetsorsour.wordpress.com
http://www.youtube.com/DirTonnyA
www.vimeo.com/sweetsorsour
Charlie Pi at Adonis Art ·
Using everyday objects as painting surfaces and depicting iconic male images in rich oils, the exhibition by Charlie Pi at Adonis Art brings to the forefront the repressive erotic nature of his childhood spent playing truant from school in the woods. A cult performance artist from the 70s and 80s, Charlie pi has now returned to his first love of painting.
His baroque style is more standard is paintings depicting religious iconography, but here Charlie Pi creates homoerotic images that stand as recipes for masculine beauty, painted appropritately enough on kitchen equipment.
Childishly innocent and yet adultly aware, the work of Charlie Pi at Adonis Art is transformed from the everyday mundane into the richly meaningful.
The exhibition by Charlie Pi at Adonis Art is on display until the 1st June.
LATEST NEWS:
Brixton youths 'draw weapons' on singer Trey Songz
-Any Category- Olympics 2012 - Athletics - Paralympics - Spotlight - Basketball - Birmingham - Boxing - Community - Cycling - News - Swimming - Video - Paralympics - Soccer - Olympic Memories - Gallery - Latest News - Exclusive - In other news... - Special Reports - The Weekly Gleaner UK - Feature - Gossip - Latest - Real life - Showbiz - UK News - Community - World News - Crime - Multimedia Sport - Athletics - Championship Matchday Report - International - League One Matchday Report - League Two Matchday Report - Premier League Matchday Report - Premier League Preview - Basketball - Boxing - Cricket - Exclusive - Golf - Interview - One to watch - Opinion - Tennis - F1 - Rugby - Football Opinion - Letters - Telling It As It Is - The Big Debate - Your View Entertainment - Arts - Culture - Gossip - Music - Preview - Review - Theatre - TV - Books - Film - Jasmines Juice Lifestyle - Culture - Your Tale - Fashion - Health & Beauty - Style - Food - Fostering and Adoption - Female - Travel - Relationships - Competitions Faith - Exclusive - Interview - News - Profile - Real Life Story - The Big Issue - Your Church History - Articles - Back In The Day - Feature - Forgotten History - Revealed - Black History Month - 100 Black Britons - African Legacy - Black History Business - News & Features - Advice - Money
'Black Is Beautiful...' Says White Artist
English artist Charlie Pi reveals why his art is inspired by the image of the black man
23/09/2011 10:26 AM
SPIRITUAL: A faith-inspired work
NESTLED AWAY in the heart of St Pancras church, is one of the best-kept secrets in London.
A completely unique place to have ever housed art, it is almost 200 years old and was designed for coffin burials.
The Crypt Gallery, opened it doors to art in 2002 and has been the backdrop for many amazing exhibitions ever since. The inimitable architecture and damp smell help create an immensely intoxicating space in which artists have displayed some brilliant work.
Luckily, for all people who appreciate good art, the current exhibit, 21st Century Baroque, is on display until September 29.
A retrospective exposition featuring fabulously extravagant paintings on wood and canvas, 21st Century Baroque has one constant theme; the iconic image of the black male figure.
SKILLS: Charlie Pi
Artist Charlie Pi has brought together a vast collection of works that explore the image of black men in an emotive and tender way. He explains why black men make the perfect portrait.
“I’m interested in the male figure, which is a lot more interesting to paint,” says the 63-year-old artist. “They have more surface structure. Women have a lovely padding all over them and are interesting to draw, but the actual structure of the male body is a lot more superficial, so the definition is much clearer, and even more so in the black male body.
“Even the least image-conscious black man probably has a better looking body than a similar white man; the light reflecting off the curves makes them more obvious.”
He continues: “Black skin reflects the light and colours in the light. White skin tends to absorb colour, but black skin bounces it back, so you get the wonderful affects of light and the colours of light, that is fascinating for me.
Plus, I just think black men are beautiful; they are stunning to paint.”
Creating a varied and innovative series of art , Pi depicts hard working and noble black men on his canvasses in a way that enables audiences to almost feel the raw energy and passion oozing from his paintings.
“In my earlier works, I was using photographs, but later on I started using my own models. In one, I have used an American GI who calls his body ‘a work in progress’, so I called the set of paintings Work In Progress. He is a great big muscular man but he also plays the French horn in a band.”
Iconic poses feature heavily in the collection, which the artist puts down to being born in the Catholic faith.
“Almost every day of the year at primary school, we would be given a picture of a saint. So I have images in my head of saintly figures standing with their arms out, with a cross or halo behind them.”
Originally from Coventry, Pi came to London when he was a fresh faced 18-year-old and absorbed black culture.
“I was a skinhead when it was respectable,” he says. “We were so into dance and we wanted to dance the same as black boys; we wanted to look in the mirror and see our reflections as the same as them.
“Back then, the only place you could get your head shaved was in a black barbers. White barbers wouldn’t shave your head; they would give you a crew cut, but not an all over shave. So us little white boys would go trotting over to Lavender Hill just to get our heads shaved. I was heavily into ska and used to go to the Ram Jam club in Brixton on a Sunday afternoon to learn all the new dances.”
Nowadays, Pi finds that people often mistake him for being black when they see his paintings. The responses he gets from black people when they find out he is white range from humorous to embarrassing.
“I had an exhibition in Willesden and there were two black guys admiring my paintings. One of them said ‘I wanna shake the had of the artist.’ I said, ‘here you go’ and put my hand out. He walked past me and said, ‘no I really want to shake the hand if the artist’. So I walked over to him again and said ‘well, I’m right here!’ He looked at me in amazement. It was so funny, he couldn’t believe it.”
The painter gave up a long career in community work to pursue his love of art and has only been painting professionally for a decade.
“Ten years ago, I re-trained as a therapeutic counsellor and in the course of that I had to have lots of therapy myself. I decided I wanted to go back into painting and what I wanted to paint was these beautiful black men, because there aren’t enough pictures of them on gallery walls.
“You go to some of the major galleries and the only black images you’re going to see are slaves or servants. So I want to present a different view; the pictures I want to see.”
21st Century Baroque is at The Crypt at St Pancras Church, Euston Road, Lon
It's reigning men for painter Charlie Pi (From News Shopper) Get involved: Send pictures, video, news and views - text NEWS SHOPPER to 8036
It's reigning men for painter Charlie Pi 3:56pm Tuesday 8th April 2008 in NewsBy Kerry Ann Eustice
It's reigning men for painter Charlie Pi
Charlie Pi paints beautiful black men in a romantic and evocative style. Ahead of his first exhibition in the capital, at St Pancras Church Crypt, the Deptford-based artist talks about the paintings which will make up the collection and what has influenced them.
It is fantastic, such an opportunity for me. I've shown a lot of work in south London at Lewisham Arthouse, which is a beautiful space but it is just a white box.
The crypt at St Pancras is, well, a crypt. It's like a maze with tunnels and little alcoves. There's no ambient light, because it's underground, and it's just spot-lit, so you discover the artworks, they just glow ominously in these little dark corners.
My work tends to be very baroque and ornamental, with opulent colours which are very rich. They also have a spiritual nature, especially because of the baroque themes and they tend to come across as quite spiritual.
I think some inspiration for my work goes back to a Catholic childhood. Catholic children are given little cards on saints' days, with pictures of the saint to put in your prayer book. A bit like Pokemon cards, I suppose.
They were always very intense and beautiful with halos and gold bits. Some would show martyrdom, like Saint Sebastian for example. They were very dramatic. I think that's where a lot of my work comes from, taking that opulence and then adding an adult sexuality to it.
Tuesday, August 10, 2010 - 12:24
Did you know Deptford was home to more artists than East London? IDOL didn’t either. The Goldsmith’s university is within 15 minutes walking distance, meaning artists have dispersed into the surroundingneighborhood for some time and stayed there to produce a hub of creativity. And this wasn’t the only discovery made when we embarked upon the journey to the other side of the River.
The ARCH gallery plays host to several of the local Deptford artists. The gallery’s summer offering entitled ‘I know what you did last summer’ opened last week. With the aim of creating a dark alternative to the more colourful seasonal shows, gallery owner Paul Marks wanted the conflicting idea of a dark summer performance. With the ‘post apoplectic’ piece from Andrew Hladky’s and Jo Wilmot’s Ferrari crashes, the theme hits you instantly. Similarly Wayne Lucas draws your attention as you walk through the door, a mixed media piece with antlers and a protruding fury head will have you talking.
Marks wanted a controversial exhibition, which is why he chose to showcase two of his sado-masochism pieces. Taken from a website, the images are exploded on Photoshop and subsequently painted in squares of colour. A segment of the picture is only revealed when looked through either a phone or digital camera; giving you a taster of what the full image entails.
Charlie Pi is another photographer turned artist, exhibiting work at the ARCH. A Deptford resident for over 35 years, his pieces play on male stereotypes. Jokingly saying that mythology is the “only way to paint male nudes,” Pi has moved on to the archetypes of man. He does use the male nude in all his pictures and in particular the black male nude to really highlight his messages. Tales from the crypt/drop the pineapple is a play on a John Singer Sargent painting of a white woman in a dress sitting with a fan in one hand. Pi has used this and contrasted with a nude black man, interestingly covering himself with a pineapple.
The gallery is intimate with the exhibition containing only 22 pieces; yet there is a huge sense of community. Whether it is the owner of the local hardware shop popping down or the friends from the art committee, the feedback from the show was: “Yeah, I love it.” It is definitely a return to the original paint on canvas, but sometimes it feels good to hark back. It is interesting to see what can be achieved and portrayed with such simple tools.
There is a piece for everyone, and don’t be put off by the thought of taking a Southeastern train out of central London, but instead travel comfortably with the new East London Line to New Cross and enjoy a stroll through the area from there. Deptford will be hosting Deptford X, a 10 day celebration of contemporary visual art, commencing on the 24 September to draw in all you fine young things. It is a chance to see the locals at work, a chance that should be taken.
Marie McManamon
Why White Folks Love Black Culture
We examine why black culture is so attractive for many white people
Written by Hazelann Williams
08/05/2012 10:32 AM
STYLE ICON: David Beckham
IN THE short space of time I have worked for The Voice, one thing that has grown to fascinate me is the love some white people have for black culture – especially, some white men’s love for black men.
No, that is not a typing error. I have met some wonderful white men who either write about, paint or emulate the black men that they love, and frankly, I can’t blame them, because I love black men too!
I first encountered the work of British artist Charlie Pi during one of my frequent visits to The Crypt Gallery in Euston, London. The art on display was bold and vivid with colour, and more specifically, each canvas featured a captivating image of the black male form.
Walking around and appreciating the various images, I admired the person who could produce a whole installation of work by painting only black men. By the end of the exhibition, I wanted to find the artist responsible for the brilliant work. Standing by one of his paintings was a middle-aged white man, quietly talking about the way light bounces off the body of a black man better than his white counterpart.
I will admit I was a little surprised; I nearly raised an eyebrow, as if to say ‘You painted these?’ I later found out that Pi had immersed himself in black culture since the age of 18, when he came to London from Coventry. Since then, he has spent his artistic career glorifying the image of black men and trying to get it in mainstream galleries.
When I later interviewed the artist for an article, he revealed that he once longed to be black.
“We were so into dance and we wanted to dance the same as black boys,” he recalled of his youth.
“We wanted to look in the mirror and see our reflections as the same as them. So us little white boys would go trotting over to Lavender Hill [in south London] just to get our heads shaved. I was heavily into ska and used to go to the Ram Jam club in Brixton on a Sunday to learn all the new dances.”I couldn’t help but be struck by the way the painter spoke of the young white boys who were fascinated with a different culture, and who would do whatever they could to be a part of black British society in the 1960s.
I was similarly intrigued when I received a book called Faggamuffin. As I read the press release, I learned that the book was about a black, gay Jamaican man, and saw a photograph of the author – a white man called John R Gordon.
BOOK: Author John R Gordon
A man who began to examine life through the lens of black culture when he was at university, Gordon describes himself as a writer of ‘afro centric’ issues.
“All of my writing is concerned with the lives of black people, particularly young, black gay men,” he told me when I interviewed him earlier this year. “It’s just what interests me the most; I like to put black people on the centre stage.”
Both Grodon and Pi are gay and have a love of black men that has the potential to rival the love black men receive from many black woman. But for other white men, it’s not black men but black culture as a whole that spawns the attraction.
The 2003 documentary Black like Beckham argued – albeit in a light-hearted fashion –that the footballer was ‘Britain’s most famous black man.’ And whilst I certainly don’t agree with the presenter’s statement that Beckham is ‘accepted by black people as a hero,’ he is a man that loves black culture. A big fan of R’n’B singer Tyrese; a man who named his dogs Puffy and Snoop after the famous US rappers; and a man who once hit the headlines when he had his hair canerowed, Beckham has no issue with immersing himself in elements of black culture.
'HONORARY' BLACK PEOPLE: Reggae DJ David Rodigan
There are many white men who, for one reason or another, love to be around, write about or document black society.
Veteran reggae DJ David Rodigan has made a career out of his love of reggae music. The famous selector has clashed with the best soundsystems such as Stone Love and Bass Odyssey, and was awarded an MBE this year for his services to broadcasting.
While the Kiss DJ was grateful for all the messages of support that he received, Rodigan admitted that the support he received from Jamaica was particularly touching.
“I’ve had a tremendous response from Jamaica,” he told The Voice. “Journalists in Jamaica have been incredibly responsive and I’ve been blown away by it. Jamaicans are very proud of their culture and their response to this [MBE] is indicative of the pride they have for their country and their music. I’m very grateful for the love they’ve given me.”
When it comes to white men who love and emulate black music and culture, who could forget Tim Westwood? The Radio 1 DJ and son of an Anglican bishop, has been berated for ‘sounding’ and ‘acting black’. But there is no denial that the hip-hop hero loves rap music and black culture – and as they say, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
RESPECTED: Rapper Jay-Z with hip-hop DJ Time Westwood
To me, the reason why white people, particularly white men, love black culture is because we allow them to. In my opinion, black people are the most inclusive and accepting of all races. Let’s be honest, it doesn’t take much for us to take a white person and appoint them an ‘honorary black person.’
In the cases of Rodigan and Westwood in particular, many black people have gladly accepted them as representatives of black culture. As Rodigan also explained, he saw his MBE as “recognition for the music that we all love… an honour for our music.” And by the response he said he received from Jamaican reggae fans – music-lovers who are notorious for expressing their disapproval for acts they don’t like – it’s clear that Rodigan is firmly embraced by black audiences not only in the UK, but beyond.
To me, there is no other culture that welcomes people of other races with open arms as much as we do – which some people may say is to the detriment of our own advancement. But I’m glad that the black community’s attitude of acceptance has allowed others to feel free to showcase their love and respect for our culture, which openly accepts them as they are.
* Is it a good thing that black people are so accepting of other cultures? Email your thoughts to: [email protected]
Posted on: 08/05/2012 10:32 AM
Tonny A.
French Londoner Tonny A is a performance artist, choreographer, theatre director & current member of the Restock, Rethink, Reflect Two artists’ advisory group. Blending movement and spoken words with multimedia, his work focuses on the themes of cultural, sexual and physical identity, often aiming to challenge the sexual & cultural stereotypes associated to his physical disability & ethnicity. Born and raised in the mid 70's in the West Suburbs of Paris, Tonny studied History & Politics at La Sorbonne University. After a few years travelling around Central & Eastern Europe, Tonny relocated to London to pursue a career in broadcasting. Since then his artistic personae have varied from being a performance poet, the creative producer of Sweet & Sour – an alternative Cabaret night of performance poetry, theatrics, live music and visual art – to directing multimedia theatre & dance productions, which included In The Shadows of Senghor (2006) & Generation Next (2008), performing in Romeo Castellucci's Inferno as part of SPILL Festival (2009), being a featured artist at the Queer art Festival GFEST 08, 09, 10 and recently one of painter Charlie Pi's subjects for his latest exhibition The Skin I'm In at The Crypt Gallery (2010).
www.sweetsorsour.wordpress.com
http://www.youtube.com/DirTonnyA
www.vimeo.com/sweetsorsour
Charlie Pi at Adonis Art ·
Using everyday objects as painting surfaces and depicting iconic male images in rich oils, the exhibition by Charlie Pi at Adonis Art brings to the forefront the repressive erotic nature of his childhood spent playing truant from school in the woods. A cult performance artist from the 70s and 80s, Charlie pi has now returned to his first love of painting.
His baroque style is more standard is paintings depicting religious iconography, but here Charlie Pi creates homoerotic images that stand as recipes for masculine beauty, painted appropritately enough on kitchen equipment.
Childishly innocent and yet adultly aware, the work of Charlie Pi at Adonis Art is transformed from the everyday mundane into the richly meaningful.
The exhibition by Charlie Pi at Adonis Art is on display until the 1st June.
LATEST NEWS:
Brixton youths 'draw weapons' on singer Trey Songz
-Any Category- Olympics 2012 - Athletics - Paralympics - Spotlight - Basketball - Birmingham - Boxing - Community - Cycling - News - Swimming - Video - Paralympics - Soccer - Olympic Memories - Gallery - Latest News - Exclusive - In other news... - Special Reports - The Weekly Gleaner UK - Feature - Gossip - Latest - Real life - Showbiz - UK News - Community - World News - Crime - Multimedia Sport - Athletics - Championship Matchday Report - International - League One Matchday Report - League Two Matchday Report - Premier League Matchday Report - Premier League Preview - Basketball - Boxing - Cricket - Exclusive - Golf - Interview - One to watch - Opinion - Tennis - F1 - Rugby - Football Opinion - Letters - Telling It As It Is - The Big Debate - Your View Entertainment - Arts - Culture - Gossip - Music - Preview - Review - Theatre - TV - Books - Film - Jasmines Juice Lifestyle - Culture - Your Tale - Fashion - Health & Beauty - Style - Food - Fostering and Adoption - Female - Travel - Relationships - Competitions Faith - Exclusive - Interview - News - Profile - Real Life Story - The Big Issue - Your Church History - Articles - Back In The Day - Feature - Forgotten History - Revealed - Black History Month - 100 Black Britons - African Legacy - Black History Business - News & Features - Advice - Money
'Black Is Beautiful...' Says White Artist
English artist Charlie Pi reveals why his art is inspired by the image of the black man
23/09/2011 10:26 AM
SPIRITUAL: A faith-inspired work
NESTLED AWAY in the heart of St Pancras church, is one of the best-kept secrets in London.
A completely unique place to have ever housed art, it is almost 200 years old and was designed for coffin burials.
The Crypt Gallery, opened it doors to art in 2002 and has been the backdrop for many amazing exhibitions ever since. The inimitable architecture and damp smell help create an immensely intoxicating space in which artists have displayed some brilliant work.
Luckily, for all people who appreciate good art, the current exhibit, 21st Century Baroque, is on display until September 29.
A retrospective exposition featuring fabulously extravagant paintings on wood and canvas, 21st Century Baroque has one constant theme; the iconic image of the black male figure.
SKILLS: Charlie Pi
Artist Charlie Pi has brought together a vast collection of works that explore the image of black men in an emotive and tender way. He explains why black men make the perfect portrait.
“I’m interested in the male figure, which is a lot more interesting to paint,” says the 63-year-old artist. “They have more surface structure. Women have a lovely padding all over them and are interesting to draw, but the actual structure of the male body is a lot more superficial, so the definition is much clearer, and even more so in the black male body.
“Even the least image-conscious black man probably has a better looking body than a similar white man; the light reflecting off the curves makes them more obvious.”
He continues: “Black skin reflects the light and colours in the light. White skin tends to absorb colour, but black skin bounces it back, so you get the wonderful affects of light and the colours of light, that is fascinating for me.
Plus, I just think black men are beautiful; they are stunning to paint.”
Creating a varied and innovative series of art , Pi depicts hard working and noble black men on his canvasses in a way that enables audiences to almost feel the raw energy and passion oozing from his paintings.
“In my earlier works, I was using photographs, but later on I started using my own models. In one, I have used an American GI who calls his body ‘a work in progress’, so I called the set of paintings Work In Progress. He is a great big muscular man but he also plays the French horn in a band.”
Iconic poses feature heavily in the collection, which the artist puts down to being born in the Catholic faith.
“Almost every day of the year at primary school, we would be given a picture of a saint. So I have images in my head of saintly figures standing with their arms out, with a cross or halo behind them.”
Originally from Coventry, Pi came to London when he was a fresh faced 18-year-old and absorbed black culture.
“I was a skinhead when it was respectable,” he says. “We were so into dance and we wanted to dance the same as black boys; we wanted to look in the mirror and see our reflections as the same as them.
“Back then, the only place you could get your head shaved was in a black barbers. White barbers wouldn’t shave your head; they would give you a crew cut, but not an all over shave. So us little white boys would go trotting over to Lavender Hill just to get our heads shaved. I was heavily into ska and used to go to the Ram Jam club in Brixton on a Sunday afternoon to learn all the new dances.”
Nowadays, Pi finds that people often mistake him for being black when they see his paintings. The responses he gets from black people when they find out he is white range from humorous to embarrassing.
“I had an exhibition in Willesden and there were two black guys admiring my paintings. One of them said ‘I wanna shake the had of the artist.’ I said, ‘here you go’ and put my hand out. He walked past me and said, ‘no I really want to shake the hand if the artist’. So I walked over to him again and said ‘well, I’m right here!’ He looked at me in amazement. It was so funny, he couldn’t believe it.”
The painter gave up a long career in community work to pursue his love of art and has only been painting professionally for a decade.
“Ten years ago, I re-trained as a therapeutic counsellor and in the course of that I had to have lots of therapy myself. I decided I wanted to go back into painting and what I wanted to paint was these beautiful black men, because there aren’t enough pictures of them on gallery walls.
“You go to some of the major galleries and the only black images you’re going to see are slaves or servants. So I want to present a different view; the pictures I want to see.”
21st Century Baroque is at The Crypt at St Pancras Church, Euston Road, Lon
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It's reigning men for painter Charlie Pi 3:56pm Tuesday 8th April 2008 in NewsBy Kerry Ann Eustice
It's reigning men for painter Charlie Pi
Charlie Pi paints beautiful black men in a romantic and evocative style. Ahead of his first exhibition in the capital, at St Pancras Church Crypt, the Deptford-based artist talks about the paintings which will make up the collection and what has influenced them.
It is fantastic, such an opportunity for me. I've shown a lot of work in south London at Lewisham Arthouse, which is a beautiful space but it is just a white box.
The crypt at St Pancras is, well, a crypt. It's like a maze with tunnels and little alcoves. There's no ambient light, because it's underground, and it's just spot-lit, so you discover the artworks, they just glow ominously in these little dark corners.
My work tends to be very baroque and ornamental, with opulent colours which are very rich. They also have a spiritual nature, especially because of the baroque themes and they tend to come across as quite spiritual.
I think some inspiration for my work goes back to a Catholic childhood. Catholic children are given little cards on saints' days, with pictures of the saint to put in your prayer book. A bit like Pokemon cards, I suppose.
They were always very intense and beautiful with halos and gold bits. Some would show martyrdom, like Saint Sebastian for example. They were very dramatic. I think that's where a lot of my work comes from, taking that opulence and then adding an adult sexuality to it.