Philippa Horan in her studio. Photograph by Dafydd Jones.
Philippa Horan graduated from London's Chelsea School of Art in 2002 and since then has worked independently in studios in London, New York and Berlin, on paintings, installations and music. Her paintings, which she describes as addressing 'the language of art and the lexicon of aesthetics exposed through theatrical filmic imagery', reference a wide range of sources, from Caravaggio, Velasquez, Hans Bellmer and Dürer, to film-makers Jodorowsky and Bunuel and more contemporary imagery. Her recent paintings are large-scale explorations of the male figure in art, the doppelganger and ideas of camp.
Philippa Horan is also a musician, and over the past year she has been writing, working and performing with Mekon and Alan Vega on a number of new projects and songs, which they' ve performed at Fabric and nagnagnag. She is also recording a second single (the first was released last September, and was a double A side with Alan Vega and Bobby Gilespie, for which Horan produced a video directed by Matthew Huston).
Horan has recently moved to an old hat shop in King's Cross where she will be expanding her range of interests still further with a series of artist-curated projects and exhibitions, the first of which opens today. The exhibition, entitled 'Viewing Club', is part of an ongoing initiative started in 2005 in Berlin by artists Heike Silbernagel and David Tidball. Viewing Club was conceived as a nomadic artists' space which for the last two years has been travelling to different cities around the world (Berlin, London, Hamburg, Paris, Los Angeles, Chicago, Dublin, Vienna, Nottingham and Nuremberg) and putting on exhibitions in all manner of spaces, including pubs, karaoke bars and parks. The idea behind Viewing Club was to create a non-profit project focusing on 'artistic curatorial self-empowerment'.
Each exhibition presents a different group of artists, some well established, others emerging, such as Andreas Hofer, Theo Ligthart, Florian Kompatscher, Iskender Jediler, Ulli Wulff, Ralph Andersen, Robert Welch, Richard Tate, Martin Mcginn, Dexter Dalwood, David Tidball, Heike Silbernagel, Andre Butzer, Maja Körner, Tine Furler, Olivia Berkemeier, Bianca Schoenig, Lutz Braun, Thomas Zipp, Thomas Helbig, Ben Contrell, Mariola Groener, Astrid Sourkowa, Ulli Hakel, Phillipa Horan, Jens Mentrup, Daniel Müller-Friedrich, Andreas Templin, Chris Krönke, Joep van Liefland, Tjorg Douglas Beer, Chris Pate, Markus Sendlinger, Thomas Schrören, Bettina Semmer, Peter Stauss.
The artists in the show opening today at Philippa Horan's Hats/Plus include Andreas Hofer, Thomas Zipp, Andrew Gilbert, Thomas Helbig, Dexter Dalwood, Abigail Lane and Philippa Horan. The exhibition will be on for two weeks until 17 April, and Hats/Plus will be open Wednesdays to Fridays, all weekend and by appointment.
Viewing Club
Hats/Plus
101B King's Cross Road
London WC1 X9LP
phillipahoran@hotmail.com
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