In the weeks from the 13th of September to the 6th of October the Gallery Daniel Blau will be exhibiting works by Neal Fox, a young artist from London and recent introduction to the art world.
Fox’s artistic roots lie with illustration as with the experiences and tales he gathered from a complex web of characters ranging from the beat poets Allen Ginsberg and Gregory Corso to Francis Bacon, Andy Warhol, Grace Jones and the occulist Aleister Crowley.
The same pubs and haunts in Soho that became the gathering points for London’s artistic, bohemian and alcoholic culture, of which Fox’s grandfather was a part, are now frequented by Neal Fox and a new generation of eccentric minds. The remarkable life of his grandfather, John Watson, inspired Mr. Fox as a teenager to explore the myths of a life as a WWII bomber pilot in Germany, a writer of several novels and some “trashy paperbacks about cowboys and gangsters,” a chat show host, publisher and drinker in Soho.
Fox’s earliest illustrations were based on his grandfather’s books, and Watson still appears in most of his ink drawings, always dressed in a dark trenchcoat holding a drink and looking on as mastiffs attack a bear in an Elizabethan arena or flying a helicopter filled with playmates, as a a naked Oliver Reed and a peg-legged Keith Moon engage in a vicious swordfight.
The large inks on paper by the twenty-six year old artist show scenes of apomorphium hallucinations, trainrides through Europe, and surreal depictions of Andy Warhol, Basquiat and Truman Capote at the infamous Studio 54. The viewers’ glances are seemingly returned by some of the subjects in the drawings, and one is thus introduced as a photographic voyeur to the distorted perspectives of Neal Fox’s fantastical illustrated trips.
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