212 Arts is pleased to present the debut solo exhibition of acclaimed stencil artist Lambros. His new series entitled Takeover, utilizes his groundbreaking multi-layer stencil technique to create larger than life figures dominating an urban landscape. The work pays homage to classic 20th century cinema like King Kong and Godzilla, while exemplifying a contemporary interpretation by intertwining dark humor and sexual undertones.
Veteran stencil artist Matt Lambros is taking over 212 Arts in Manhattan NYC’s East Village this Tuesday October 24th to display a new super intricate body of work almost a year in the making. Known for his almost impossibly detailed stencil cuts, Lambrose has learned his craft cutting stencils for such artists as Faile & BD White.
Lambrose explains “I’ve been drawing since before I can remember…. I was always better than the other kids at drawing, so I decided to stick with it and see where it went. Ive dabbled in every medium, watercolor, charcoal, acrylic painting, oil painting etc. They all bored be a bit… they were too easy to hold my attention for very long. But then I discovered stencil art which presented me with a real challenge. I’ve stuck with stenciling because the medium has built in limitations which made it more interesting to me. That and most stencil artists aren’t very good. The medium had a lot of room for growth and I saw an opportunity to push the boundaries of the medium. My work starts out as rough sketches, which I’ll build up and photograph before editing them digitally. Once they’re on the computer I can paint over them with a tablet, add 3d models and do some major photo compositing to make seamless images to stencil later. My process spends half of its life in a digital form”.
“Earlier this year I lost my life’s work to a hard drive failure. Takeover was the first series I made after starting to put the pieces of my life’s work back together. The city was making me feel small and overwhelmed so I started painting figures who would turn that dynamic on its head. My giant monsters inspired me to move on more boldly than ever and hopefully they can do the same for someone else.”
“The process of making these was very intense. Some of the backgrounds and women were done by simply hand painting and photo compositing in photoshop. Most of them required heavy reconstructing to create an idealized version of the city. I had to revisit perspective drawing and learn some basic 3d modeling to bring my visions to life. All that took place before hand cutting the majority of the stencils used to spray paint them on canvas.”
Takeover will be running from Tuesday, October 24 through Wednesday, November 1st at 212 Arts in NYC (240 East 4th St.). Make sure your top by to see these pieces in person… a photograph does not do them justice!
All Photo’s Copyright 2017 Matthew A. Eller. Follow me on Instagram @ellerlawfirm.
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