About the artist

The artist has spent four and a half years becoming heavily tattooed with his own designs. Raised as a Roman Catholic but with strong influences form Indian members of his family, Wagstaff’s tattoo designs draw strongly on his religious upbringing and consist of symbols and patterns that are found in almost every culture in the world (circles, squares, swastikas, stars etc). Wagstaff is interested in the migration and spontaneous generation of geometric forms; how the same shapes and patterns can be found in diverse cultures over vast geographic areas.

The artist has used the medium of tattoo to transform his body into a work of ‘living art’, a celebration of form and geometry using the fundamental concept of mark making combined with the creative possibilities of the human body. Wagstaff has become form and content as well as subject and object.

Alongside the photographs Wagstaff will also be showing ‘Shroud’; a life size impression of the artist screen-printed using his own blood. Blood is a byproduct of tattooing so it seemed natural for the artist to use this in his work.

“The emergence of Lee’s image on the Shroud elevates him to the status of a surrogate divine seemingly without the intervention of God. It comes off as both disquietingly heroic and at the same time spiritually arrogant”
-DAVID BOWIE

Wagstaff studied at the Royal College of Art in London, spending one semester studying with master woodblock printers in Kyoto Japan. Wagstaff’s graduation show in 2000 was greeted with a great deal of media interest and lead the art critic Edward Lucie Smith to say “... anyone looking for a genuine successor to the Hirst/Emin generation, in terms of potential public interest should make a note of his name”.

In the last year Wagstaff’s international reputation has grown, taking part in exhibitions in seven countries (including six solo shows). Wagstaff’s performance was included in the prestigious Ornament Und Abstraction at the Fondation Beyeler in Basel, Switzerland; he was also the first western artist ever to be included in Art Annual in Kobe Japan.

CV

Lee Wagstaff
27.10.1969

Education
MA Royal College of Art, London, England (1998-2000)
BA (Hons) Saint Martins College of Art, London, England (1990-93)

Solo Exhibitions
The Proposition, West 22nd Street, Chelsea, New York: Sept/Oct 2002
Javogue & Ingalls Fine Art, Miami, Florida; USA February 2002
35, Belgrave Square, London, England; January 2002
Gallery Edward Mitterrand, Geneva, Switzerland; September 2001
Gallery Valerie Cueto, Paris, France; May 2001
Gallery Engelhorn, Vienna, Austria; March 2001
Gallery Seine 51, Paris, Franc; March 2001

Group Exhibitions
" Summer Exhibition" The Royal Academy of Arts, London; June 2003
"Naked Before God" Museum of New Art, Parnu, Estonia: June 2003
"Express- A Journey Through the RCA Print Archive" Study Gallery Poole, England March 2003
“The Fourth Sex, Adolescent Extremes”,Fondazione Pitti Immagine Florence , Italy Jan- February 2003
“Sacred Century” Victoria & Albert Museum, London, England; February 2002
“Impressions of the 20th Century” Victoria and Albert Museum, London, England; September 2001
“Ornament Und Abstraction” Fondation Beyeler, Basel Switzerland; June 2001
“What’s New From London” Orion Gallery, Ostend, Belgium; May 2001
“Typical Men” Touring Exhibition 2001 including; Museum of Modern Art Glasgow, Scotland, Djanogoly Gallery, Nottingham, England and First Sight at The Minories, Chelmsford, England
“Ra to Hi” Kobe Art Village, Kobe, Japan; October 2000
“Swastika” Show Gallery, Kyoto, Japan; December 1999

Awards and Fellowships
Royal College of Art Printmaking Research Fellow (2000-2001)
Waterstone RCA Award 2000
Kyoto City University of Art Travel Award (1 semester 1999)

Collections
Victoria & Albert Museum, David Bowie Collection, RCA and various private collections in Japan, India, USA and throughout Europe.

Commissions/Collaborations
Karlheinz Weinberger - new publication 2003
BowieArt Print Project 2001
Mercedes Benz/ Esquire C-Class Commission 2000

Bibliography
Books:
L'Eglise ET l'art d'avant-garde, De la provocation au dialogue Chair ET Dieu 2003
By Monsignor Albert Rouet/Gilbert Brownstone (isbn 2 226 1135529)
ARS Erotica (2003 re-print)
By Edward Lucie Smith (isbn 084720602)
The Fourth Sex: Adolescent Extremes 2003
Ed. Francesco Bonami/Raf Simmons (isbn 8881 584042)
Art Tomorrow 2002
By Edward Lucie Smith (isbn 0847820602)
Ornament and Abstraction: the Dialogue Between non-Western, Modern & Contemporary Art 2001
Ed. Marcus Bruderlin (isbn 0300092261)
Impressions of the 20th Century, Fine Art Prints form the Victoria & Albert Museum Collection 2001
Ed. Margaret Timmers (isbn 1851773398)
Typical Men-The Male Body in Photographs by Men 2001
By Michael Watson
Ambit 162 (2000)
Ed. Martin Bax/Eduardo Paolozzi (isbn 0002-6772)

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