DEC 19 to DEC 20 2008 and JAN 13 to
FEB 4 2009
PRIVATE VIEW THURSDAY DEC 18 6.30 to 11pm
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Undertakers
“Young, rising and collectable
art star Sweet Toof comes from a position in the art world which blurs
the boundaries between street art and graffiti and has some very important
things to say through his work. Royal Academy Schools furnished Sweet
Toof with the fine art skills which suffuse the current studio work
whilst a career as a street artist has imbued his output with a sense
of freedom and irreverence common to the illegal, politicised and
anti-authoritian street art graffiti genre. Sweet Toof pays homage
to the persona and tools of the graffiti movement in out of context
settings such as art establishment museums.
Sweet Toof has worked through a broad range of media from street wall
and sculpture to modelling and painting, and in this show his sought
after fine art skills as a painter are deployed to probably their
finest effect to date. Sweet Toof with renowned street artists Cyclops,
who has an established career as painter and auction house favourite,
and TEK33, an intuitive old skool graffiti artist and painter, and
collectively they may be responsible for some of the most endearing
street art pieces visible in the bohemian quarters of many cities
throughout the World.
Together with Cyclops and TEK33, Sweet Toof’s energetic urban
art wowed critics and buyers alike in our recent Burning Candy show.
Sweet Toof maintains an almost unique position within the two worlds
of graffiti and street art being lauded and liked within both realms.
Returning to the studio after the graffiti based ethic of the Burning
Candy show, Sweet Toof has reverted a finer oil on canvas form. The
familiar lurid gums with their comic grins impart a manic deranged
relish to the otherwise mundane. Through those caricature gums, Sweet
Toof exploits and stretches the symbolism inherent in skulls, decaying
upper-crust dandies raffish crooks and villains, painted with a cartoonist
glee.”
- David Stuart