ALEX HAMILTON
Last year a DJ saved my life 2021
I turned to music.
It has always played a very important part in my creative process, but it has also been my therapy, my escape, my emotional well-being and my pure joy. Essentially an ode to the visual art of album covers, this exhibition celebrates my favorites.
Patti
Acrylic on canvas
100 x 100cm
Joggie album covers
Hand cut stencil, spray paint and acrylic on wood
25 x 25cm
Variable edition of 10
David Bowie - Aladdin Sane Hand cut stencil, acrylic and spray paint on wood. 25 x 25cm Variable edition of 10
Freshlyground – Can’t stop Hand cut stencil, acrylic and spray paint on wood. 25 x 25cm Variable edition of 10
Van Morrison - Astral Weeks Hand cut stencil, acrylic and spray paint on wood. 25 x 25cm Variable edition of 10
Nirvana – Nevermind Hand cut stencil, acrylic and spray paint on wood. 25 x 25cm Variable edition of 10
Stevie Wonder – Songs in the Key of Life Hand cut stencil, acrylic and spray paint on wood. 25 x 25cm Variable edition of 10
Yazoo – Upstairs at Eric’s Hand cut stencil, acrylic and spray paint on wood. 25 x 25cm Variable edition of 10
Neil Diamond – The Jazz Singer Hand cut stencil, acrylic and spray paint on wood. 25 x 25cm Variable edition of 10
The Doors – The Doors Hand cut stencil, acrylic and spray paint on wood. 25 x 25cm Variable edition of 10
The Rolling Stones - Let it Bleed Hand cut stencil, acrylic and spray paint on wood. 25 x 25cm Variable edition of 10
The Rolling Stones – Sticky Fingers Hand cut stencil, acrylic and spray paint on wood. 25 x 25cm Variable edition of 10
The Rolling Stones - Forty Licks Hand cut stencil, acrylic and spray paint on wood. 25 x 25cm Variable edition of 10
Bruce Springsteen – Born to Run Hand cut stencil, acrylic and spray paint on wood. 25 x 25cm Variable edition of 10
Fleetwood Mac – Rumours Hand cut stencil, acrylic and spray paint on wood. 25 x 25cm Variable edition of 10
Prince – Purple Rain Hand cut stencil, acrylic and spray paint on wood. 25 x 25cm Variable edition of 10
Marvin Gaye – What’s Going On Hand cut stencil, acrylic and spray paint on wood. 25 x 25cm Variable edition of 10
Tracy Chapman – Tracy Chapman Hand cut stencil, acrylic and spray paint on wood. 25 x 25cm Variable edition of 10
Eurythmics – Touch Hand cut stencil, acrylic and spray paint on wood. 25 x 25cm Variable edition of 10
Amy Winehouse - Back to Black Hand cut stencil, acrylic and spray paint on wood. 25 x 25cm Variable edition of 10
Simon & Garfunkel – Bookends Hand cut stencil, acrylic and spray paint on wood. 25 x 25cm Variable edition of 10
Pink Floyd – The Dark Side of the Moon Hand cut stencil, acrylic and spray paint on wood. 25 x 25cm Variable edition of 10
Queen - Queen II Hand cut stencil, acrylic and spray paint on wood. 25 x 25cm Variable edition of 10
Miriam Makeba – Pata Pata Hand cut stencil, acrylic and spray paint on wood. 25 x 25cm Variable edition of 10
Andy Warhol - The Velvet Underground Hand cut stencil, acrylic and spray paint on wood. 25 x 25cm Variable edition of 10
Marianne Faithfull – Broken English Hand cut stencil, acrylic and spray paint on wood. 25 x 25cm Variable edition of 10
The Beatles – Revolver Hand cut stencil, acrylic and spray paint on wood. 25 x 25cm Variable edition of 10
Depeche Mode – Construction Time Again Hand cut stencil, acrylic and spray paint on wood. 25 x 25cm Variable edition of 10
The Sex Pistols – Never Mind the Bollocks Here’s the Sex Pistols Hand cut stencil, acrylic and spray paint on wood. 25 x 25cm Variable edition of 10
Patti Smith - Horses Hand cut stencil, acrylic and spray paint on wood. 25 x 25cm Variable edition of 10
The Beastie Boys – Licensed to III Hand cut stencil, acrylic and spray paint on wood. 25 x 25cm Variable edition of 10
Madonna – True Blue Hand cut stencil, acrylic and spray paint on wood. 25 x 25cm Variable edition of 10
Grace Jones – Slave to the Rhythm Hand cut stencil, acrylic and spray paint on wood. 25 x 25cm Variable edition of 10
Johnny Cash – American IV: The Man Comes Around Hand cut stencil, acrylic and spray paint on wood. 25 x 25cm Variable edition of 10
Nick Cave – The Boatman’s Call Hand cut stencil, acrylic and spray paint on wood. 25 x 25cm Variable edition of 10
Elvis Presley - G.I. Blues Hand cut stencil, acrylic and spray paint on wood. 25 x 25cm Variable edition of 10
Karen Zoid – Ultimate Zoid Hand cut stencil, acrylic and spray paint on wood. 25 x 25cm Variable edition of 10
Miles Davis – Kind of Blue Hand cut stencil, acrylic and spray paint on wood. 25 x 25cm Variable edition of 10
Joni Mitchell – Both Sides Now Hand cut stencil, acrylic and spray paint on wood. 25 x 25cm Variable edition of 10
Hugh Masekela – Introducing Hedzoleh Soundz Hand cut stencil, acrylic and spray paint on wood. 25 x 25cm Variable edition of 10
Janis Joplin - Pearl Hand cut stencil, acrylic and spray paint on wood. 25 x 25cm
Nina Simone - My baby just cares for me Hand cut stencil, acrylic and spray paint on wood. 25 x 25cm Variable edition of 10
Led Zeppelin - IV Hand cut stencil, acrylic and spray paint on wood. 25 x 25cm Variable edition of 10
Rage Against the Machine – Rage Against the Machine Hand cut stencil, acrylic and spray paint on wood. 25 x 25cm Variable edition of 10
Eminem - The Marshall Mathers LP 2 Hand cut stencil, acrylic and spray paint on wood. 25 x 25cm Variable edition of 10
Bob Marley and the Wailers– Legend Hand cut stencil, acrylic and spray paint on wood. 25 x 25cm Variable edition of 10
Bob Dylan – Blonde on Blonde Hand cut stencil, acrylic and spray paint on wood. 25 x 25cm Variable edition of 10
Annie
Acrylic on canvas
90 x 90cm
Nina
Acrylic on canvas
60 x 60cm
Voices
Acrylic on canvas
180 x 135cm
ARTIST STATEMENT
In the bleak opening line of the July 1969 release of the one-hit-wonder song “In the year 2525” by Zager and Evans, it asks the poignant question ”if man is still alive?” and goes on to predict the distant future in a serious of blatantly bizarre scenarios. Never before in the lifespan of this song, exactly one month younger than myself, has it been more relevant than in the early months of 2020’s Covid 19 pandemic chaos.
Everyone I know panicked in their own way, from anger to despair and a whole lot of uncertainty mixed in, the reality of man’s demise was never more palpable. Everyone also coped in his or her own way. Some baked, some wrote and some switched onto social media while others avoided it like the plaque, or at least tried to.
I turned to music.
Music has always played a very important part in my creative process, but it has also been my therapy, my escape, my emotional well being and my pure joy. Trapped in a very small apartment during the first few months of lockdown I turned to mainly Spotify and made a few hundred different play lists within the first few weeks and in the process dove head first into finding some of the most obscure hits from all eras and new genres of music I had never even heard about before. It worked and occupied my curiosity, sense of adventurous research and often kept me from fretting about reality.
I used music to cope and stay at home safely and it aided me in dealing with the challenges. Luckily a fabulous soundtrack now accompanied all the problems and worries.
This exhibition is therefore a thank-you-tribute-exhibition to celebrate and acknowledge the absolute power of song, the extraordinary musicians who create this wonder and most prominently the albums they made to tell complete and complex stories.It is also a celebration of the by now almost extinct art of Album Covers which played such an important role in my early visual language development.
As a long time collector, admirer of and complete album art enthusiast I had the great pleasure to create my very own album art in 2018 when I designed the cover for one of my favorite bands ever. Can't Stop by Freshlyground was a complete dream come true job and I am including a stencil artwork of this album to acknowledge the importance it played in my career and aspiration as a pop artist.
The exhibition consist of two parts: one will be a new series of stencil artworks ( similar to Cast and Crew of 2008) of all of my favorite and iconic Album Covers and the second is a few paintings reinterpreting a selection of these covers.