‘LOVE IS ALL WE NEED’: A WINDOW EXHIBITION AT GLOBE ART POINT BY ALEX MARKWITH & VALIOART
‘LOVE IS ALL WE NEED’: A WINDOW EXHIBITION AT GLOBE ART POINT BY ALEX MARKWITH & VALIOART
4.1. – 25.1. 2024
Love is All We Need is a collaborative two-panel painting by Alex Markwith and ValioArt. Hybridizing the artists’ distinctive styles, the work combines abstraction and street art influences while exploring their overlapping imagery. Themes of life, death and passage of time are explored in a simultaneously playful and contemplative approach with dripping paint, skulls, cats and a positive affirmation.
This painting is the third in a series of collaborations between the duo, including an outdoor work on Lauttasaari which Markwith describes as Helsinki’s best Helen electrical cabinet.
Alex Markwith and ValioArt, ‘Love is All We Need’, 2023
Acrylic, spray paint and markers on canvas
Diptych (two panels), each 100 x 80cm
About Alex Markwith – Blending painting and sculpture, I create abstract mixed media assemblages combining traditional and unconventional materials. The work begins outside the studio, as I collect objects from the natural and urban environments. Construction supplies, such as reflectors, roofing shingles, concrete and brightly colored tape appeal to me for their visual qualities, as well as their reference to the street, and the idea of repairing or building. Fallen branches scavenged from the forest speak to the natural order of things and the passing of time. The materials I choose are often pre-damaged, or else become damaged as a result of my process. This recalls death or decay, though the goal is transcendence. I always look to transform the material into something beautiful, providing it a new life through art. Moving between the floor and the wall, each decision is a response to the previous. The process is intuitive before analytic, though both play a role. I do not know what the piece will look like until it is finished. Working with my hands provides a bridge between the mind and body.
About ValioArt – I’m ValioArt, a Finnish illustrator and I enjoy creating stunning and funny artworks starring cats as cute animals.