Nestling amongst the skyscrapers of the City and within the distance of a First Thursday Art Walk from the renowned Whitechapel Gallery, the Leyden Gallery is hosting a show by Nude for Thought, a group of artists specialising in the male form.
This year’s show “re: Defining beauty” features a thought-provoking and wide range of styles. Jon Armour’s striking pieces dominate the entrance floor, he represents the painted skin of a male body displayed both splayed flat as a pelt and explored on video while still three dimensional, which he terms the enjoyment of a Visio-haptic experience. It’s worthwhile trying to work out exactly what body parts are being explored!
Also striking, and featured on the publicity, are Richard Dickson’s detailed and finely-textured sculptures of the male body as mythical forms. He also shows some beautiful bowls that might have been Brunnhilde’s size F inserts.
Of the more representational pieces, I particularly liked Brian Dennis’ painting of a little devil, pushing the art male nude style from Greek god perfect-form-at-rest to include horns and a mischievous look. Tattoos have made their way on the skin of some of his other models, again pushing the genre.
Much else, work by Tim Healey and Rupert Record especially.
There’s a well-produced catalogue (contribution welcome) and the show continues until the 7th November 2015.