A Pengiun Special - Limited Edition Collection
By Epi
At the heart of Epi's work, which draws its inspiration from street art, Surrealism, Pop Art, and mid-century posters, lies a deep desire to satirize the state of the contemporary art world and question the art establishment in today’s culture.
"I don't paint Penguin Books. I satirize the artistic trope of painting Penguin Books through the judicious appropriation of leitmotifs drawn from the lexicon of contemporary British art to induce in the viewer a disconcerting yet curiously beguiling sense of surreal nostalgia, whilst simultaneously ridiculing the capriciousness and venality of the blue-chip art market."
Hailing from Bristol, Epi began working in Paris during the early 2000s. He was influenced by the city’s street art scene and its history of political protest art, he initially made works consisting of stencilled quotations referencing French literary masterpieces. In 2014, Epi returned to the United Kingdom, where he moved away from the street and toward the canvas.
Epi’s debut collection, The Penguin Special satirises those contemporary artists who have reduced the image of the Penguin Book, (once a bastion of literary sophistication, quaint anachronism, and erudite free expression), to “a laughably feeble, mindless and banal artistic dustbin for trite motivational rubbish and faux-intellectual, half-hearted (abortive) attempts at lowest-common-denominator humour.” Through his work, Epi endeavours to depict a fantastical narrative that runs parallel to the pedestrian and mundane, akin to a secondary reality where the conventional and bizarre co-exist.
Epi's original paintings have recently realised record prices at auction, and we anticipate that his debut editions will be highly sought-after, collectors’ items.
