Last Night a Drag-Queen Saved My Life | Aphrodite Papadatou / Sink the Pink

ARTinTRA is excited to present the new series of works by London-based Greek artist Aphrodite Papadatou ‘Last Night a Drag-Queen Saved My Life’. The work has been inspired by and documents the drag-queens of the vibrant club-night collective Sink the Pink. The dynamic body of paintings will be exhibited as part of a one day pop-up event that will take place on April, 25th 2015 at LimeWharf-Machines Room, one of London’s most innovative cultural hubs and artistic laboratories.

The exhibition will be followed by a series of performances by the collective’s Queens and an after-party at Savage, Metropolis night club, 23:00pm - 04:00am.

Papadatou’s expressionistic imagery is characterised by a prolific imagination, tantalising sensuality, and a remarkable ability to bring to life irreverent characters, whose physicality is a raw, yet poetic reminder of Egon Schiele’s genius and passion. Her punk energy, rooted in anarchic ancestors, linked directly to the vibe and values of Sink the Pink. Co-founder Glyn Fussell described their first meeting as ‘instant love’. Papadatou has magically connected two different worlds: Sink the Pink’s night clubbing, performance, transvestite world and her own, amazing raw, rocker art universe. Her highly empathic nature embraces and depicts the bodily feelings and nature of the collective’s queens, who freely posed for her during evenings spent together, holding nothing back. The intensity of the artist’s emotional connection with the collective produced mind-blowing results that capture the sensibility and very essence at the heart of this community: a strong sense of freedom based upon values of mutual respect, care and love, wild abandon, with a wink and a nudge and a heel deeply kicked into punk roots.

The show will include a guest object: Kaleidoscope. In the shape of a phallus Kaleidoscope, an edition of 45 conceived by London-based Nigerian artist Yinka Shonibare MBE for The Multiple Store, which playfully explores gender stereotypes and power relations, will add pleasure to our valued guests. Through the opening of the head a distorted image of Sandro Botticelli’s Birth of Venus can be seen, with the naked woman replaced by a photograph of a well-endowed naked man.

Founded in East London in 2008 as an antidote to expensive soulless mega-clubs, Sink the Pink is London's most exciting night, infamous for its colourful glittering party-goers whose positive vibes, vibrancy and aesthetics echo those of past revellers at iconic nights like BoomBox and Nag NagNag. Sink the Pink have been the late night main stage stars at Glastonbury, Lovebox, Latitude and Bestival providing unforgettable experiences for festival-goers.

Established in 2014, and renowned for the Out Of Our Heads project, ARTINTRA is a London based fine arts consultancy and curatorial team with international presence specialising in the curation & production of imaginative and sophisticated art projects in private, public and digital spaces. Having an interdisciplinary approach, ARTinTRA matches peoples’ visions with some of the most innovative thinking today to create unique experiences and inspirational for the future generations projects.