Blond Contemporary and Guerin Projects are proud to present “And All Shall be Memorialised”, a solo exhibition of paintings by Timothy Gatenby. Timothy Gatenby has produced a completely new series of work exclusively for Blond Contemporary for his first major UK solo exhibition, curated by Guerin Projects founder MC Llamas. Renaissance meets Pop Art in Gatenby’s hyper-real paintings referencing iconic cultural moments from Michelangelo’s David to Warhol’s Coca-Cola Bottle.
Blond Contemporary launches its 2025 Exhibition Programme with the Timothy Gatenby solo exhibition. Timothy Gatenby ‘And All Shall be Memorialised’ runs from 14th March until 9th April, 2025.
Timothy Gatenby’s solo exhibition is the inaugural show in Blond Contemporary’s 2025 exhibition programme. Blond Contemporary will be celebrating their new permanent location at 7 Piccadilly Arcade in the heart of St James’s, Mayfair, with the unveiling of Gatenby’s new series of paintings and celebrating the new space with an invitation only VIP Private View on 13th March.
Blond Contemporary is a new gallery opened in the heart of London’s art district in Piccadilly Arcade in St James. It specialises in Contemporary Art with a focus on breakthrough artists coupled with specialisations in Modern British Art and its leading figures. Blond Contemporary has an extensive inventory of works by artists the gallery’s director, Phillip Blond, deeply admires and believes in for the future. The gallery is increasingly becoming a primary platform for rising contemporary voices and now represents a growing roster of new and emerging artists whose work aligns with the gallery’s commitment to innovation and expression.
The Timothy Gatenby solo exhibition will be followed by a James Vaulkhard solo show, both artists selected by Blond Contemporary director Philip Blond in keeping with the gallery’s ethos of spotlighting the best emerging talent on the contemporary art scene. Phillip Blond is a noted contemporary Philosopher and holds a European Chair in Political Philosophy. This academic background and philosophical training made him interested in the political and social impacts of aesthetic practices and the role of art in giving an account of the good and the true.
Blond Contemporary is collaborating with Guerin Projects founder MC Llamas on the Gatenby and Vaulkhard exhibitions. Llamas is a rising star curator on the contemporary art scene whose recent curatorial projects include sellout exhibitions at the British Art Fair and Photo London. This choice of curator fits perfectly with Blond Contemporary’s mission to work with the best emerging talent on the contemporary art scene.
Timothy Gatenby ‘l’Eternal Printemps’, 2025, Acrylic on Canvas.
Timothy Gatenby’s paintings explore consumerism, classicism and culture. Gatenby’s new body of work represents Classical and Pop culture icons, describing acclaimed objects of contemporary consumerist culture, alongside revered sculptures from the Classical age to the Modernist era. They create a visual link between the totems of then and now, triggering our subconscious belief system: is the Coca-Cola bottle as much of a cultural symbol as Michelangelo’s David? The theoretical lines are blurred. Gatenby’s pieces pay homage to a classical painting technique honed during 10 years of study at the Charles Cecil Studios in Florence. Gatenby’s works are extremely skilled and draw influence from John Singer Sargent’s sight size method. His practice merges reality and fiction, resulting in a form of fantastical realism.
Gatenby’s paintings reference the Pop and Dada alienation of the object as a consumerist fetish; The work of art as object, notably found in the work of Richard Hamilton, Tom Wesselmann and Marcel Duchamp amongst many others. In Gatenby’s pieces, the subjects are alienated and put on a pedestal, asking the viewer to think about them as totemic symbols, either of classical or of consumerist culture.
Blond Contemporary Director Phillip Blond says: “Timothy Gatenby’s work accesses and archives the sculptural iconography of the past and parallels it with the present subjecting all elements to a contemporary aesthetic rendering. He refigures the monuments of the past for our present and archives the monoliths of the present in an archaic past.”
Timothy Gatenby explains the inspiration behind this new series of artworks: “This series of works draws inspiration from mundane everyday items and classical antiquity to ask questions of iconography in the modern world. I have curated my favourite sculptures–many of which influenced me during my time studying in Florence–and painted them blurred out as a visual way of exploring the digital age that we find ourselves now living in. For me, there is as much nostalgia attached to pieces such as the ‘Laocoon’ or Michelangelo’s ‘David’ as there is to an old Evian bottle. Objects featured in the works are blurred out to evoke the fading of memories and passing of time.”
Curator and Guerin Projects Founder Marie-Claudine Llamas adds: “I highly respect Tim’s focus, and the way in which he has acquired this incredible painting technique, which is so Classical and made it his own. These paintings will stand the test of time, for their astonishing skill, humour and strong Art Historical relevance.”
Timothy Gatenby’s training is both in classical atelier and contemporary filmography. Gatenby first started studying filmography at Queen Mary University of London, where he specialised in the work of Tarkovsky and Werner Herzog. Gatenby then went on to spend over 5 years studying at the Charles Cecil Studios in Florence, learning about the sight size technique, which uses light as a way of modelling form. This technique is still very prevalent in his work now. Through his studies at the Charles Cecil Studios in Florence, Gatenby developed an acute sense of characterisation through portraiture. The study of sight size technique teaches and trains the eye to capture the slightest moves in the sitter’s faces and mannerisms. Gatenby’s ability to see and transcribe the emotions and movements of characters is a big part of his work now.
Gatenby’s style is characterised by the combination of figuration, and conceptual realism, his characters are imbedded with human characteristics, which are described with an acute awareness of human mimics and behaviour. The characters which Gatenby depicts are painted in a fashion which reminisce of early renaissance works. The figures erupt from dimly painted hues and backgrounds, they take centre stage in the paintings, and objects of memento mori are allegorically replaced by contemporary technological objects. It is that collage of the old masterly technique and use of contemporary characters which make Gatenby’s paintings so appealing. Timothy Gatenby: “I liked how you could use imagery that everybody knows and then put the characters in everyday situations.”
Gatenby’s use of oil paint and airbrush enables him to create elements of depth, the paintings are layered in a way that is reminiscent of the glazing of Italian Renaissance paintings. His compositions are built and erupt from the picture plane, through a subtle process of layering and glazing and airbrush painting. When talking about his works, and the use of Disney characters set in everyday life settings, Tim explains that it is about “merging reality and fiction, and a form of fantastical realism”.
Timothy Gatenby was a finalist in the BP portrait award in 2012. His work is represented by galleries in New York, Seoul and part of major collections.
Timothy Gatenby ‘And All Shall be Memorialised’ is at Blond Contemporary from 14th March until 9th April, 2025.
