Shadows of their former selves

Fans of sexy, sassy 1980s comics such as Love and Rockets by the Hernandez brothers and Tank Girl by Jamie Hewlett and Alan Martin might feel a sense of nostalgia seeing the work of Gregory Gilbert-Lodge. The unlikely-sounding Swiss illustrator’s large-scale pieces owe much to those comic book artists (though he admits a preference for Charles Burns, Gary Panter and Raymond Pettibon), while also bringing a contemporary and very individual sensibility into the frame. It’s a frame that goes beyond the figurative content – the modern-day iconic images or ‘eikons’ of the exhibition’s title – to bring elements of the image-making process into play as both an integral part of that icon and an inventive comment on the nature of celebrity and its representation. So a portrait of Yves Saint Laurent might, through in-camera or post-camera manipulation, be a very different proposition to the shot that shaped it, offering a ‘portrait’ of the designer that is both representative and fictitious. And an image that is as slyly witty as Jaime Hernandez or Andy Warhol (who Gilbert-Lodge cites as ‘an artist I always come back to’), at their best.Eikon by Gregory Gilbert-Lodge is at Kemistry Gallery, 43 Charlotte Road, London EC2 until 30 July. www.kemistrygallery.co.uk

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