“Did you eat something that didn't agree with you?" asked Bernard. The Savage nodded "I ate civilization.” - Aldous Huxley, Brave New World, 1932.

On the 11th April 2013, Rook & Raven Gallery is pleased to invite you to the preview of Brave New World Hits a Glitch by Celina Teague. In her most politically charged solo exhibition to date, the artist continues her conversation with some of the most prominent historical and contemporary allegorical tales, particularly those that illustrate humankind’s unstoppable daring in the name of progress. Approaching painting from an activist's standpoint, but addressing activism as an introspective narrative, a concern with environmental and feminist issues pervades every work. Teague’s intricately detailed paintings depict unsettling pseudo-domestic worlds with little else but the mechanical leftovers of humankind; worlds in which interior spaces are synonymous with construction sites, and where humans are faceless, uniformed entities or fodder for birds.

In Brave New World Hits a Glitch, Teague references religious fables such as The Tower of Babel and Noah’s Ark but, in keeping with Huxley’s seminal novel, her works bring the conversation to a future world, where humanity seems curiously absent. A keen reader (many titles of paintings are appropriated from the novels she is inspired by) her work ultimately concerns itself with the consequences that arise from the discrepancies of our perceived reality and our socially understood truths. In doing so, she explores the complex structures of our belief systems aside the ambiguity of our known knowns and our unknown unknowns. The result is a body of work in which the artist creates a fluid and unstable reality; one that finds a balance somewhere beyond what we know. Sustainability, the artist seems to suggest, is not just a practical social endeavor, but an intimate philosophy of endurance.

Teague studied English and Drama, gaining a First Class Honours from Trinity College, Dublin and the Free University of Berlin. Later she studied painting at the Universidad de Bellas Artes in Mexico, followed by a Masters in Fine Art at Central St Martins College. Since graduating she has been involved in a number of solo and group shows in Europe and the USA and her work sits in various private collections. She lives and works in London. This will be her first solo show at the Rook & Raven Gallery.

Rook & Raven Gallery
7 Rathbone Place
London W1T 1HN United Kingdom
Ph. +44 020 73230805
info@rookandraven.co.uk
www.rookandraven.co.uk

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