This new exhibition at Halcyon Features Andy Warhol, David LaChapelle, Dominic Harris, Graceland London, Mitch Griffiths, Pedro Paricio, Robert Montgomery, and Santiago Montoya, exploring how artists reimagine religious iconography and deeply rooted art historical themes to address contemporary phenomena juxtaposing the past with the present.
For many centuries, art served primarily religious purposes, with paintings and sculptures acting as focal points for devotion or as educational tools about morality. The art in Sacred & Profane draws from this tradition and its rich iconography, inviting the viewer to reflect on the role of spirituality in today’s world. By reimagining ancient symbols and narratives, the art challenges perceptions of faith, culture, and society.
At the focal point of the show is a purpose-built classical altar on which hangs oil painter Mitch Griffiths’ harrowing portrait Shrine. The portrait captures a woman with a drone on her head that she wears like a crown. She appears like a contemporary Madonna, alluding to modern-day warfare carried out by unmanned machines.
Griffiths is a prominent feature in Sacred and Profane, with his hyper-realistic canvases, which recall the style of 17th-century Italian artist Caravaggio, on view.
Born in Nuneaton in 1971, the artist developed a passion for drawing early on. His technique has since grown to be reminiscent of the Old Masters, imbued with references to the complexities of modern society. Despite adopting a Baroque aesthetic traditionally reserved for art of a religious nature, Griffiths instead uses it to address contemporary issues such as the dangers of social media, the threat of global warming, and the power of commercial brands.
As art historian Philip Wright explains, ‘His pictorial language is not so much old-fashioned as reborn from the vivid and, at times, almost pornographic quality of much of contemporary visual culture.’
Griffiths’ first major success came in 1994 when he painted a portrait of boxer Chris Eubank and sent a photograph to his agent – Eubank commissioned a series of paintings and became Griffiths’ patron for the next three years, setting up a studio for him in Hove.
Through Eubank, Griffiths met entrepreneur Terry Johnson, who owned a luxury retreat called Hustyns in Cornwall, where boxers trained. Griffiths became artist-in-residence, creating over 100 paintings for the centre and helping to establish the Bishop Phillpotts Gallery in Truro.
Griffiths has since gone on to enter the National Portrait Gallery’s BP Portrait Award, showcase at the State Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg in 2016, and present several solo exhibitions at Halcyon, including Immortal in 2022, which explored themes that rapidly emerged in Western society over the preceding years, such as isolation during the Covid-19 pandemic, social media’s impact, the growth of activism, and human treatment of one another.
Sacred and Profane also includes murals by Santiago Montoya. The Colombian artist collects banknotes from around the world to create artwork with political and historical connotations and notions of national identity. These artworks simultaneously serve as vibrant mosaics made from an entirely novel medium.
The lower gallery opens a dialogue between celebrated photographer David LaChapelle, emerging artist Graceland London and pioneer of Pop art Andy Warhol. LaChapelle took the last ever photographic portrait of Warhol in 1986. It hangs hauntingly in the exhibition alongside Warhol’s silkscreens of skulls. Graceland London’s work demonstrates how the legacy of pop art continues into the 21st century, but it also draws from Christian art, a theme that she shares with the work of Warhol and LaChapelle.
Scottish artist and poet Robert Montgomery showcases conceptual sculptures in the exhibition, which take inspiration from church altarpieces. Over the last few years, the artist who made his name as the Banksy of poetry, pasting verse across the streets of Shoreditch, has directed his attention to painting in a more dedicated way: on display is his painting of the Annunciation, capturing the Angel Gabriel as he gives the Virgin Mary the news that she will have a son. The expressively captured scene is in dialogue with Montgomery’s poetry, which frames the holy figures, delivering a message of renewal.
Canvases by Spanish artist Pedro Paricio, who appropriates motifs and compositions from Old Master painters Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres and Caravaggio, are also on view. He reimagines celebrated oil paintings with a vibrant painterly approach and the kaleidoscopic patterns characterising his style.
The work of pioneering digital artist Dominic Harris is returning to Halcyon’s flagship gallery. His interactive environments will be presented as an immersive experience in a purpose-built space in the lower gallery. His work also deliberately dialogues with art history. The Essence of Time is a piece created across three digital canvases to form a triptych of butterflies that flutter around traditional symbols of birth, life, and death.
Sacred & Profane is on view at Halcyon, 148 New Bond Street