Mead Carney Fine Art presents 'Lost Angels', an exhibition of carefully curated silver gelatin photographs from the series the Iconic Sixties taken by legendary Hollywood actor and photographer Dennis Hopper alongside a series of new works by California based artist Russell Young. This collaborative series of work will be presented in a special exhibition at Mead Carney Gallery, Mayfair, London, from July 24th until September 20th, 2014.
The first artist permitted access to The Hopper Art Trust’s visual archive since Hopper’s death in 2010; Young has selected a series of Hopper’s photographs that capture the renowned Californian motorcycle club the Hells Angels. These images resonate with both Young and Hopper’s continual fascination with the ethos of the ‘American dream’ and its often dark side; this is the most prominent thematic link between the two artists. However, their foundation in photography and bold pop sensibility that is present in their practices also creates a strong artistic connection.
Young invites us to engage with these figures of American counter-culture, the so-called ‘renegades of the road’, in a playful yet historically charged manner. His juxtaposition of colour and composition creates a montage of movement and energy during a time when America began to actively demand and celebrate the freedom of expression and individuality. The subjects are the physical manifestations of the angst and rebellion being explored then in its various amalgamations; now freer, but a little lost as to what to do with the liberation they were activating.
Young himself met Hopper while on a film set many years ago, where they spent an afternoon musing on modern American society, photography and filmography, and their life philosophies. This chance meeting further solidifies the connection and adds significantly to the narrative between Young and Hopper. It laid the groundwork for a concrete layering of their histories and initiated the literal and artistic dialogue for Young’s personal interpretations of Hopper’s works.
Mead Carney Gallery is privileged to have on loan from The Andy Warhol Museum the Dennis Hopper related piece Screen Tests, 1964 -66 in it’s window frontage for the duration of the exhibition. This public display not only engages the cityscape and its viewers but also contextualises the exhibition from the origin of pop art and the original 1960s artists whose focus was not only on creating their own work but on collaborating with each other in multiple mediums including translation of each other’s concepts and participation in each other’s projects. This particular work, filmed by Andy Warhol, features a young Dennis Hopper, sitting silent, often still but sometimes moving, in front of the camera.