Exhibition: New-Jersey-based experimental artist Scott Covert presents C’est la vie

Studio Voltaire is presenting a major exhibition of works by New-Jersey-based artist Scott Covert called C’est la vie.

This will be his first solo presentation outside the US.

The project is an accumulation of all of his works which have manifested from decades of travelling across the USA and internationally in search of new subjects.

In the early days of his career, Covert experimented with monument paintings which transpired as rubbings of graveyards in chalk, oil stick or charcoal on canvas and paper.

After his career as an actor, he pivoted towards works of art that commemorated friends, public figures, artists and stars such as Frank Sinatra and Noel Coward.

These works include thematic ones such as Tragic Blondes which depicts Marilyn Monroe, Nancy Spungen and Wathol superstars Candy Darling and Edie Sedgwick.

His subjects can also be paired antagonistically, such as in Andrew Andrew which juxtaposes the conservative Andrew Breitbart with Gianni Versace’s murderer, Andrew Cunanan.

Each memento mori simultaneously serves to represent its subjects’ lifetime as well as the artists’ pilgrimage to uncover them.

His pieces simultaneously engage with 20th Century American abstraction, and also ideas of celebrity, legacy and infamy.

Visitors will have the chance to view the collection at the Clapham-based venue from until April 23.

Website: https://studiovoltaire.org/

Picture: Scott Covert, Lifetime drawing, Sharon Tate and Richard Polanski, undated. Picture: Scott Covert