Matthew Buckham, Rachel Howard, Steven berkoff and Tania Wade
Matthew Buckham has his first solo show in one of the quaintest venues in town. Surrounded for the next five months by macaroons and eclairs at Maison Bertaux, Soho's prettiest and oldest cake shop, are fifteen of his faux-naive drawings. 'Woodenship' is the collective title - a Crosby, Stills and Nash song and a made-up word that seems to sum up the exhibition perfectly. Not only has Buckham surrounded his many pieces with found wooden frames that complement their mainly autumnal hues - (and the exhibition's charmingly shabby environment - none of the chairs match) - but they are all inspired by and infused with references to American music and sub-culture from the 1960s and 70s. A Londoner born and bred, Buckham lived in the States for eight years and journeyed all over the West coast, making road-trips, painting, playing music.
Now back painting and drawing out of his sick grandmother's tiny home, he's coming up with dense ink drawings of, for example, the Golden Gate Bridge as it morphs into a skull. There are chalkier looking coloured-pencil drawings of rock and roll stars whose faces appear to be sliding off the paper; there are childlike, bugged-out renditions of Mick Jagger and of Buckham's heroes Crosby, Stills and Nash. 'Helplessy Hoping' has them rendered in pastel pencil, sitting on a worn-out sofa looking for all the world as if they are about to dissolve. Charles Manson stares out at us from a coppery background, his rounded cheeks rendering him temporarily benign. 'Find the Winners in the Dives' is a side-on portrait of a sixties rock star, I'm sure - he's wearing a purple scarf - but Buckham has drawn him in what I can only describe as the style of the Middle Ages. Very Peter Breughel.
A stage technician at the Royal Opera House by day, Matthew Buckham hesitated about publicly showing his work until Tania Wade - gregarious owner of the laid-back Maison Bertaux cafe - persuaded him to. I bet he's glad he allowed himself to bring these strange works on paper out in to the open. Along with their cheque books on the opening night came uber-agents Caroline Michel and Tiggy Maconchie along with actors Steven Berkoff, Ralph Fiennes and Bernard Hill. So it's clear that a) a lot of famous people frequent the shop-cum-gallery and b) it never hurts to be backed by a friend like Wade who knows them all. But, more than the money, it's given the shy Buckham a new confidence - he's about to launch himself into a massive series of six-feet portraits, complete with flashing lights. Watch this space.
Laura K Jones
Matthew Buckham: Woodenship
Until 10 September
Maison Bertaux
Greek Street
T: +4 (0)7985 395079
'Frisco Skull'
'Helplessly Hoping'
'The Beatles'
Laura K Jones is a London-based journalist and a regular news correspondent for the Saatchi Gallery's online magazine.
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