Face of London
Solo show
Opera Gallery, London
2019
On Sunday 14th April, Opera Gallery, Bond Street hosted an art brunch event, where the public had their selfies painted onto a vinyl sleeves by London portrait artist Nick Gentry.
In our selfie-obsessed and digitalised world, we all live in the present moment, forgetting the value of physical objects that once were integral part of our lives. Old technologies like vinyl records, floppy disks, film negatives, CDs and VHS have become obsolete, even though they have been for a long time the repository of our most precious memories.
Social Archaeology
Portrait artist Nick Gentry takes these used objects which contain a whole myriad of people’s hopes, dreams, and former lives, and he turns them into something beautiful, and in the process his art preserves an important historical moment – as a form of social archaeology.
Face of London
Mayfair’s Opera Gallery hosted a free brunch and exclusive pop-up exhibition of Nick’s stunning art on Sunday 14th April. Using old vinyl sleeves and selfies of the attendees, Nick made a series of portraits to create a multifaceted “Face of London”. Proceeds from the sale of the final artworks were donated to The National Autistic Society
British Artist Nicholas Gentry Turns Redundant Tech Into Works Of Art
Article by Anna Tobin for Forbes
Ever wondered what to do with now redundant and obsolete tech storage items, such as old vinyl records and floppy discs? British artist Nicholas Gentry turns them into remarkable works of art that are hanging in galleries, public settings, and homes across the world.
What is a floppy disc?
Gentry's most recent collection, which went on show in the London, England, branch of the Opera Gallery, April 14, 2019, features faces painted on to canvases tiled with old computer floppy discs. Hand-sized squares of data so familiar to anyone born in the last century, yet unrecognisable to today's millennium children.
In fact, one youngster at Sunday's opening party even asked what a floppy disc was and required a detailed explanation of how it was once used.
All the floppy discs that Gentry paints onto are used and collected from across the globe and most of their handwritten labels can still be deciphered on his canvases.
Data under the skin
These snippets of information leaves the audience to wonder, not only at the lifelikeness of the skilfully painted androgynous faces that have become the artist's signature style, but also at what data is contained under the paint skin and what stories they can tell about their previous owners – computer programs, spreadsheets of financial data and medical histories, Word docs of college essays and unfinished novels, and perhaps much-loved old-style computer games.
Gentry's modus operandi is to get the audience to ask questions about the relationship between humans and technology and his work definitely gets people thinking.
Remixed portraits
Gentry launched his next project at the London exhibition this week too, taking photos of visitors to the show, which will be used to create modern-day selfie-inspired portraits on the cases of the twentieth century's tech: vinyl record sleeves – another discarded piece of kit that he will transform into artistic data-rich time capsules of modern social history.