NOVEL - CAIN

10 - 31 March 2020

NOVEL, by the mixed media artist Cain opens for the duration of March at Gallery Different in London’s West End.  This major solo exhibition features new work, exploring a range of narratives with characters portrayed on classic novels in the context of our modern world; and pushing new frontiers of digital interaction inspired by a process pioneered by Andy Warhol.

Cain’s work has been attracting new collectors who are seduced by the aesthetic and enticed by the skilful interplay between text and image.  The portraits, painted by hand on antique book page from classic books such as Pride and Prejudice, take centre stage, the subjects positioned facing away from the viewer.  At first glance, the characters seem to engage with the narrative that is printed on the pages as if they are an outside observer, mirroring the viewer of the artwork.  Upon closer inspection however, the text shines through the superimposed characters and brings them alive as a reflection of the novel itself, transformed through the contemporary lens of the viewer.

The artist’s technique of using negative space, where different characters overlap, allows the paintings to reveal words of the underlying book pages. Intriguingly, the overall story is omnipresent and still magically elusive. The observer only gets a glimpse of the narrative at a single moment in time and becomes intertwined in the interpretation of the art through their own reflection and their memories of the classic novels themselves.

This theme also runs through Cain’s installation art.  At this exhibition, visitors are able to physically interact with the art by transforming into a character superimposed onto the book pages with the aid of a digital projection.   

This method of placing ‘real’ people into artwork, which mimics the style of Cain’s painted portraits, is reminiscent of Andy Warhol’s photobooth concept from the 1960s - Warhol accompanied his subjects to photobooths around Manhattan, where they added their own narrative in front of the camera. He used the resulting high contrast images as the template for his silkscreen prints resulting in many famous, and now valuable, images such as Marilyn Monroe.   In a similar vein, Cain’s installation uses real-time skeletal tracking to convert the observer’s clothes into ink like textures and their skin into negative space, mimicking Cain’s portrait style and enabling him to produce a new body of commissioned artwork.  Participants are able to select one of the images created which the artist will use as a reference to produce a hand painted work.

"By using interactive technology, the visitors to NOVEL are able to step into a painting alongside exhibited portraits, becoming part of the exhibition.  It allows the observer to take centre stage in this exhibition and allows them the opportunity to commission their ‘NOVEL’ portrait” Cain.

See a demonstration of this interractive art HERE