in co-operation with RUN gallery, London
Galerie Lorenz is pleased to present 'Guernsey Punk II' an exhibition of new work by London based artist Lucy Coggle. The exhibition coincides with 'Guernsey Punk I' that opened at RUN in London in January 2008.
For the exhibition at Galerie Lorenz, Lucy Coggle has taken the language of traditional figure drawing, or portraiture, (i.e., a very contained, studio-hemmed activity) and used it to create something odder, which highlights the uncomfortable hierarchies behind such practices. There is an imposing sombreness to the work, a kind of unsettling mute menace, which is played off against pointedly jaunty colours, or the absurd presentation of an overblown child's game. In this series, the work moves across the wall like a modular, Ikea installation. The artist's choice is replaced by the inconsequential sequencing of a domino game with portraits of 'The Greats' competing with blank-eyed children's masks for authority.
In another piece, the silhouettes of glamorous pin-ups of the 1950s become the stiff outlines of Bratz dolls. Their skewed disproportionate bodies bring us back into the modern age of plastic surgery, while the defunct colours of the suffragettes make up the backgrounds. Instead of being called 'Meygan,' 'Sharidan,' or 'Cloe,' they take on the imperative nomenclature of abstract nouns that have traditionally been given to women: 'Faith', 'Hope', 'Charity', 'Chastity' 'Prudence' and 'Grace.'
These new pieces for Galerie Lorenz essentially make up one half of a whole body of work. The other half exhibited at RUN. Guernsey, having been both German and English during its recent history becomes a fitting title for these two exhibitions. Perhaps more significantly however, the title 'Guernsey Punk' may be viewed in reference to an angry yet defunct argument. This perhaps speaks more of the intellectual territory of the work, an idea of an outdated rebellion, or at least a deflation of the idea of rebellion.
Lucy Coggle graduated with a BA from Chelsea College of Art and Design in 2007, was included in Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2007 and in the same year awarded a place at The Prince's Drawing School, London.
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"Coggle’s power lies in her capacity to annex unbridled skill, hedonistic delight, and palpable vulnerability to equally unchecked fury. [...] But as I have yet to see the new, conceptually intertwined series of drawings – the “knots” and “stars” that accompany her domino heads and suggest a project whose ambition lies somewhere between Blake and the Brontes – I must leave further reflection to the future, and to you lucky viewers who happen to be on site." Linda Norden, January, 2008
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Lucy Coggle · 'Guernsey Punk II'
