MADE IN BED'S ILARIA BEVAN FEATURES STUDIO WEST'S EXHIBITION, 'BRYNLEY ODU DAVIES: ARTIST PORTRAITS'.
"Photographers have continuously flirted with the subject of an artist in their studio for the last seventy years. From Mary Homes’ portraits of a crouched Jackson Pollock, with a cigarette dangling from the mouth, dripping paint onto canvases stretched out on the floor, to Henri Cartier-Bresson’s intimate views into Henri Matisse’s final years, to Bruce Bernard’s pictures of Francis Bacon, Lucian Freud, Michael Andrews and Frank Auerbach, it seems as if all the greats have at one point or another stepped in front of the camera.
As a consumer of these images, it is thrilling to get a glimpse into an artist’s working world. After all, a studio is a physical manifestation of an artist’s mind. It is here where brilliant ideas often come to fruition, and their creativity is truly visible. Yet, this photographic glimpse into greatness should not be reserved only for those with a reputation afforded to them by art history on their side. In today’s current art climate of actively highlighting emerging and underknown artists, it would be incorrect to do so.
Enter Brynley Odu Davies - the young Peckham-based photographer whose new series of artist studio portraits at STUDIO WEST are shaking up this tradition."
As a consumer of these images, it is thrilling to get a glimpse into an artist’s working world. After all, a studio is a physical manifestation of an artist’s mind. It is here where brilliant ideas often come to fruition, and their creativity is truly visible. Yet, this photographic glimpse into greatness should not be reserved only for those with a reputation afforded to them by art history on their side. In today’s current art climate of actively highlighting emerging and underknown artists, it would be incorrect to do so.
Enter Brynley Odu Davies - the young Peckham-based photographer whose new series of artist studio portraits at STUDIO WEST are shaking up this tradition."
