The Naked and The Nude exhibition at The Warehouse Gallery – 14 Feb 2014 opening review

Spray-can art by Req. Also at the show was some of Req’s new art made with cosmetics

A frank exhibition of paintings, photography and sculpture opened tonight at Brighton’s Warehouse Gallery. Art on show included work by George Keetley, Stan Keetley, Jamie McCartney, Req, Ruhan van Vuuren, Soultrader and Ant Fox.

Sussex Artbeat posted this brief peep into the show ahead of a fuller review next week.

The core of the exhibition was a retrospective showing of a large body of work by George Keetley, a professional soldier who also painted and photographed nudes in his spare time in the 1960s. George hired top models of the day and they posed for photos in a coy pinup style of the era.Later, in the 1990s, George painted nudes in watercolour and oils, in bolder poses His son, Stan, arranged this retrospective after George’s death. His son continues to photograph nudes with his fathers old Roliecord camera, and the resulting collection of images is tender and poignant.

MacCartney’s pieces in the show included a frame of the Wall of Vagina, another frame of plaster casts of phalli, and two large prints of his latest art form which is made by scanning figures in sections and re-assembling the scans.This sounds like something we’re all done on the office photocopier, but the careful arrangement of symbolism, form and colour yields compelling imagery.

Reqs giant nudes are instantly recognizable because the fluid handling of tone and colour in spray paint. One I particularly liked graced the back of the Iambic theatre for years. I talked to Req about his legendary speed and accuracy in painting such large pieces. He said he worked from photos for his large pieces. He stands back, holds the photo in front of the surface he is working on, and then moves this slightly to one side so he can relate the photo to surface landmarks in the painting surface, then moves forward to paint that spot. Then he steps back, and views the photo again. It’s a bit like projecting the image onto the wall, he said. Req works without stencils or masks. If he wants a dense, hard edge, he uses the spray can close to the wall. If a lighter, softer edge is needed, the spray can moves back. Req has recently finished working on the new Albert pub mural with Sinna One. Intriguingly, Req’s latest work is made using cosmetic makeup, and yields soft, pastel-like images of women’s faces and bodies. Some of these works were at the show in the print racks.