Faith47 – Aqua Regalia – Chapter Two

Jonathan LeVine Gallery presents ‘Aqua Regalia – Chapter Two’ by Faith47, her first solo show in New York City, on view through December 20th, 2015 (557C West 23rd Street). A continuation of the London 2014 exhibition, the show features works created with ink, graphite and oil paint, as well as mixed media collages that utilize articles the artist has collected in various countries during her travels, which include international currency, torn pages from books and magazines, signage, vintage film and photographs, playing cards and government records.

‘Aqua regalia’, also known as ‘royal water’, is the alchemical name for a highly corrosive mixture of nitric and hydrochloric acid that has the ability to dissolve gold, a symbolic reference to the artistic process of restoring value to that which has been forgotten and overlooked. At the same time, this metaphoric dissolution reflects the need for a catharsis, a transformative process with the goal of permanently discarding all that causes the ignorant and comfortable acceptance of the current injustice, inequality, poverty or any such damage to other human beings based on race, gender and social mechanisms of exclusion.

Nature is a source of life and wisdom, serving a higher purpose and allowing deeper connections within ourselves and with the other. However, man has chosen to be his own god reigning over the chaos and suffering he has enabled to disperse and become rooted in the world more or less consciously. Disoriented by the rush for ephemeral and material things, we face the tragic faith of constant failure. Believing in the illusion and feeding our thirst for power, we fall in blindness and emptiness, unable to empathize, incapable of any kind emotion that could exchange for the inner and physical misery we find ourselves in, while certain there could be no alternative to our convictions and behavior, trapped in this narrow and vicious circle para siempre.

‘Yearning’

‘The psychic power of animals’ – Sketch

‘Cash for gold’

‘Deductions’

‘Chaos’

‘Feed’

‘Racing home’

‘Tough to get, easy to die’

‘Para siempre’

Exhibition view

 

About Faith47

Faith47 is an internationally-acclaimed street and studio-based artist from Cape Town, South Africa. Following an active street art career spanning more than 15 years, her work can now be found in major cities around the world. Using a wide range of media, her approach is explorative and substrate appropriate – from found and rescued objects, to time-layered and history-textured city walls and their accretions, to studio-prepared canvas and wood.

Through her work, Faith47 attempts to disarm the strategies of global realpolitik, in order to advance the expression of personal truth. In this way, her work is both an internal and spiritual release that speaks to the complexities of the human condition, its deviant histories and existential search.

 

About Jonathan LeVine Gallery

Jonathan Levine Gallery is committed to new and cutting edge art. Our roots go back to 1995, when Jonathan’s life-long participation in punk and underground music grew into a curatorial experiment with the visual culture that surrounded him. We moved to Chelsea in 2005, with an eye towards honoring and connecting with the history and context of Post War art. In 2014, the gallery opened a second space on the ground floor of 557 West 23rd Street. We contribute to the dialogue by challenging the conventions of the canon — exploring the terrain of the high/low and everything in between.

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Images of artworks and video © Faith47.

Photos of exhibition view © Jonathan LeVine Gallery.

Follow Faith47 on her website, on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube.

Find out more about Jonathan LeVine Gallery on their website, on Facebook and Instagram.