Faking it

Although we’re probably more accustomed to hearing ‘fake it ‘til you make it’ from the likes of Trinny and Susannah or Gok Wan, it seems the art world has taken on the mantra and run with it – with stunning results.

Next month sees the opening of the first solo show by jewellery artist Maisie Broadhead at the Sarah Myerscough gallery, entitled The House of Fake.

The exhibition will show Broadhead’s photographic reinterpretations of iconic art images, which parody Old Masters paintings using highly detailed costumes and sets while showcasing her latest jewellery collection.

The photographs present a beguiling mixture of the contemporary and the historical, and their rich execution and textural staging is simply beautiful.

The House of Fake follows on from the artist’s 2009 exhibition, Masters in Jewellery, where Broadhead displayed her jewellery pieces as props within a re-modelled transcription of an Old Master painting.

Her work aims to explore the question of what is real and what is fake through the painstaking, theatrical recreation of the images.

The photographs are characterised by the sumptuousness of the fabrics and the use of light, such as in the adaptation of Simone Vouet’s 1635 painting, An Allegory of Wealth.

Broadhead, who graduated from the Royal College of Art in 2009, also subtly uses contemporary objects in the works in place of the original drapery or literature, such as her inclusion of a Spot the Dog book and a pampers nappy.

The House of Fake can be seen from 4-27 November at Sarah Myerscough Fine Art, 15-16 Brooks Mews, London, W1.