Art Show

Weef, an established artist/printmaker and Max, a young photographer are exhibiting at the Montage Gallery in Forest Hill from Monday 9th until Sunday 22nd. Weef has never forgotten how green he was as a young artist arriving in London and how without a helping hand he may have had to scurry back to Leeds and a life as a bus conductor. A veteran of organizing his own art shows, Weef feels it is time to pay back some of that luck and support Max in his ambitions, guiding him with this first showing of his work.

Using traditional photographic techniques, 19 year old, Max develops and prints his work in his bedroom; he works part time in a supermarket to support his darkroom habit. He often lugs gallons of developing chemicals home on the tube and has been known to sleep on the landing as his bed is covered in drying prints.
His large scale images explore the graphic qualities of the London landscape, questioning what lies in the urban shadows of the city and how we might reflect on the green spaces that create the patchwork that is London. His portraits are more intimate studies of the characters that inhabit this hotchpotch setting.

Weef has worked as a newspaper designer for many a Fleet Street title; he left the North 30 odd years ago to find the streets of London paved with print. His illustrations have appeared in most newspapers, including The Times and The Telegraph, and can currently be seen weekly in the Evening Standard.

He creates works using whatever is at hand, be it a pencil or a mouse. Weef will be showing a collection of paintings which draw on changes in his recent lifestyle; finding himself with two stepdaughters who love to shop he has created these new pieces on discarded carrier bags. He is also exhibiting The Madrid Suite prints, a series of bold screenprints that caricature the passion of flamenco, previously unseen in a gallery setting.

Both artists are showing works that reflect strong personal experiences and have graphic qualities uniting Max’s intense Black and White images with Weef’s vibrant use of colour.