Cob is pleased to present an installation of painting and sculpture by two British artists - Alfie Caine and James Shaw. The display compares artistic explorations of the surreal, symbolic and anthropomorphic potential of both the domestic space and the objects contained within them. A pair of paintings from Alfie Caine, with one conceived at monumental scale, will interact with a new series of lamps and furniture by James Shaw crafted from recycled HDPE plastic.
For Cob's debut presentation at Independent NY - James Shaw has collaborated with New York based fashion designer Henry Zankov with bespoke upholstery for Shaw's sculptural centrepiece. Shaw's work sees the addition of patch-worked cushions made from the mohair sweater material from Zankov's eponymous knitwear brand.
The cork panelled installation envelops the presentation with a warmth and intimacy alluding to a domestic space. However, it’s commonality as a natural building material serves to parallel both Caine and Shaw’s interest in structure, materiality and architecture. Meanwhile, cork as a raw and sustainable material ties these artists together in their respective reverence to the natural world.
With a background in architecture, Alfie Caine creates architectural dreamscapes in his intricately constructed paintings, merging domestic scenes with striking natural landscapes to form environments that are idealised, yet always tinged with familiarity. His scenes are inviting and revel in the small moments of pleasure we take in daily life, lighting a candle, or admiring freshly picked flowers. Yet their surrounding imaginary, almost fantastical, interiors and landscape exude a surreality that draws us beyond daily life and into the otherworldly realm of dreams. Doors left temptingly ajar and far-off houses half obscured by haze entice the viewer into Caine’s worlds, where they are encouraged equally yet contrastingly to explore his meticulously detailed interior spaces while dreaming up what views and places exist in the landscapes beyond the canvas. The artist revels in these contrasts that lie deceptively beneath the works’ calm surfaces, but it is by balancing the inner oppositions that creates their atmosphere of unstilted serenity: meditative yet anticipatory. Caine creates visual and stylistic contrasts; beyond the linear confides of his buildings lie fantastical soft-edged and untamed nature. Anachronistically, the use of architecture to divide composition draws on Caine’s love of Early Renaissance painting while the focus on entrances and interior scenes echoes works of the Dutch Golden Age; both art historical references that are at odds with the decidedly contemporary arbitrary colours.
James Shaw is a designer and a maker exploring the material landscape in a hands on way. His work aims to interrogate the material, systemic and formal approaches to the creation of objects. His functional sculptures often begin as discarded post-consumer plastic that he turns organic forms reminiscent of crude cake frosting, created with his self-built plastic extruding gun and sculpted into quotidian objects. Frequently Shaw's work considers the resources around us challenging the notion of ‘waste’ to create new beautiful materials. James Shaw has exhibited internationally and past awards include being nominated for the Design Museum Designs of the Year Award and winning the Arc Chair Design Award. His work is in the permanent collections of MoMA, The V&A, The Montreal Museum of Art, The Design Museum Ghent and The Museum of London.
Selected Press
Independent Art Fair Review: Better Not Play It Safe, The Wall Street Journal, Brian P. Kelly
At Its 15th Edition, Independent Celebrates Its Past and Looks to the Future, Artsy, Maxwell Rabb
Alfie Caine (b. 1996) is British artist who lives and works in Rye, East Sussex. His artistic practice centres on crafting expansive worlds that operate at all levels; in the architecture and fantasised countryside beyond their windows, down to the minutiae of cutlery, tiles, and fabrics. Navigating through dreamlike architectural landscapes becomes both a refuge from personal challenges and a powerful avenue for self-expression.
The former architecture graduate has been featured in gallery exhibitions internationally, including his inaugural solo exhibition What Lies Beyond, Union Gallery, London, UK (2021); Moments of Calm, JARILAGER Gallery X Lotte Gallery, Seoul, South Korea (2022), High Humanity, Jack Siebert Projects, Paris (2022), White Chapel Gallery Art Icon Auction, London (2023).