Thursday night was the opening of Herakut’s new London show “Dirty Laundry“.
In short, this is one of the best shows of the year. Adam Neate has plenty of work to blow people away, and group shows like White Noise (last night at Black Rat) have some great variety, but all of these shows have a piece or two that just aren’t that great. The general consensus Thursday though was that people would be happy to have any of the pieces. There wasn’t a single piece that people looked at and said, “well, maybe that’s not for me.” Even the weaker pieces for this show would be highlights at almost any group show.
Unfortunately/fortunately, Dirty Laundry is different from most art gallery exhibitions in that there wasn’t anything for sale. All of the works were commissions that have already been sold. Dirty Laundry was just a chance for the work to be displayed before going into people’s homes. It was a completely different atmosphere from typical shows. People already knew which pieces were theirs, and so everybody was a bit calmer and just there to appreciate the work.
Herakut have gone darker with this show, and it’s been working really well for them.
In what I hope is becoming a trend in street art, Dirty Laundry features not just the finished product but also the sketches that their paintings are based off of. Hera’s sketches are really beautiful pieces of art on their own, and seeing the transformation from sketch to finished product helps give some insight into the process. Ad Hoc Art is doing something similar for their upcoming Brooklyn Block Party show. In addition to the prints at the show, the artist’s original wood blocks will be on display. Also POW and MuTATE Britain are having live printmaking demos soon. I’d love to see more of this sort of thing in the future.
This show is a must-see for Londoners. It’s one of the show that contemporary art collectors should go to because it will show them just how diverse street art can be. The most unlikely duo in street art do some of the best work in the genre, and it’s certainly different from a lot of other street art that you’re likely to see at any other gallery in London.
Dirty Laundry is on until December 7th at 22 Wellington Street in Covent Garden.
All photos by RJ. Find the rest of my set here, but WallKandy‘s and Romanywg‘s are probably bettter quality.