You're a hip new gallery, your graduate show went well and you're cruising nicely along, but now you need to show it wasn't a fluke and wow your punters with some snazzier stuff. So what do you do for that troubling second show? Skull-headed dogs with ice-cream cone tails, impressionist pictures of models by the guy who did The Killers album cover and a design duo whose work is collected by Leonardo DiCaprio: that's the answer according to this new Fitzrovia hotspot (don't you know it's all about Fitzrovia now dahling…?).
Gallery at 94 has rounded up these three celebrity-baiting artists for current show It's Art...Bitch! Taking the incestuous collision of fashion and art as its core theme, the show is a veritable smörgåsbord of cheesecake, celebs and requisite irony; and is a sure hit for the new establishment, whose mission statement is to 'nurture budding talent' (in spite of the fact that two of the three artists featured already have celeb commissions under their belt). Spurious artistic philanthropy aside, crowd-pleasing artists are a prudent move in this economic climate, when galleries are popping up and disappearing like a genetically-enhanced game of 'whack-a-mole'; and they've chosen wisely, picking a selection of artists whose work is exciting eye candy for Vogue readers and art buffs alike.
Mikael Alacoque is the most experimental of the three and his surreal neon creatures and low-brow monuments are an aesthetically mind-boggling celebration of lowest common denominators. His work includes a sculpture with a ring of women 'in flagrante' in the centre and helmeted babies on umbilical cords jutting out like chandelier branches (it's a comment on the capitalist approach of the military, apparently). Gnome Cone, a plastic ice-cream cone with a gnome head where the ice cream should be, and Bad Babysitter, the aforementioned skull-headed Chihuahuas are less successful, but still look like the unholy love children of Terry Gilliam and Hieronymus Bosch. Alacoque is definitely a name to keep an eye on if his work continues to be so startlingly brilliant. 
Mikael Alacoque, 'Prince Charming' mixed media 2008
Paul Normansell's portrait work is a mix between impressionism and pop-art. He specialises in pointillist renderings of celebrities such as Agyness Deyn, Britney Spears, Audrey Hepburn and Marilyn Monroe; so far so Athena prints - Normansell's subject range isn't terribly radical. But his technique is solid and it's an interesting way to update the medium using a sixties, space-age twist. Although his pattern and graphic work is more effective (check out his Killers album cover), Normansell seems to have his tongue firmly in cheek with a knowingly populist style – his work is appealing whether you 'get it' or not.
Well-established Italian design duo Dormice may have a moniker more fitting for graffiti guerrillas, but they're actually a class act. They channel the garret mindset in style, working in Leonardo Da Vinci's studio, living in a Tuscan chateau and painting some of Italy's most beautiful women, dressed in free clothes provided by designers like Roberto Cavalli. It seems Eurotrash is not such a bad route to go down after all. Their paintings exude the retro elegance of scuffed-up pulp novels, with piss-taking statements such as 'Let's Beat up the Poor' and 'Goya/Yoga' scrawled across them.
Choosing fashion as a theme is a clever move: it presents an opportunity to salivate over luscious imagery, whilst revelling guilt-free in the superficial pride of it all. Gallery at 94 have produced a good-looking show with sound saleable material and perhaps even the next big art star in Alacoque. Yes, it is a little on the 'trendy' side, but this is all about trashy indulgence; so if you're a secret Heat reader like myself and want to feel cultural, get yourself down to Gallery at 94. And sharpish.
Keen for more? See more about:
London Art
London Exhibitions
London Events
Add an event
Frieze Art Fair to launch new section for young galleries in 2012
Frieze have today announced details for the 2012 edition, their tenth art fair in London. Taking place...