- Venue
- One Marylebone
- Location
- London
HUS Gallery have taken over the magnificent venue of One Marylebone with the work of Mark Evans during Frieze.
Whenever I have passed One Marylebone there always seemed to be a wedding going on, so I had assumed it was still a working church. However, it is a hireable venue, and so on the way to Frieze, I took the chance to see inside the building as there happened to be an exhibition on.
Wow, the venue. It is awesome and beautiful, a Grade I listed building by John Soane, with intact stained glass windows. There is a sense of lavishness in the fixtures and fittings, and it is all available and free to enter, with many bright staff ready to catch your eye. There is upstairs too. What scale. What vision. What a treat to wander around such a space. Surely the work must be equally impressive, raised as it is around all the walls and upon the altar.
The pieces are large, series of works which repeat their message over and over. There are videos of the artist in action, accompanied by hip music, and a display of his tools and materials – he paints and scrapes his works on leather hides.
And the prices. Wow. Awsome. £300,000, £120,000. What an investment the gallery has made. What a calculated decision to catch the Frieze market while promoting this one artist. Other visitors also raised their eyebrows at the price tags, and caught each other’s eye with a wry smile. It reminded me of when I used to visit a particular boutique with a friend just to laugh at the prices – hundreds of pounds for a cardigan.
And the art. Furious Affection is a heart-shaped open shark’s jaw, rendered in various colours in the artist’s chosen medium. Each Furious is a different piece – Furious Calm, Furious Excess, Furious Night and so on. Other works etch a duality into the meaning of money and commercialism, the Death of the Dollar series featuring skulls rather than presidents, indicating a corruption which can only be read as ironic considering the presentation.
The works are expertly rendered. They may be in leather but they wish to be read as paintings. I find myself commenting much more on the gallery presentation than upon them, as the gallery is doing everything it can to impress, and to create shock and awe.
This is marketing of the highest order, and in this case, the medium is the message.
