June historically has been an important month for the LGBTQIA+ community. Being celebrated as Pride month each year to honour the Stonewall Uprising, we used to struggle to decide which events to attend. With lockdown restrictions in place it has been very quiet both last and this year. But there is a Pride Month highlight for the London LGBTQIA+ community this year: if you are a lover of the arts and the male form, you are invited to visit Georg Meyer-Wiel’s latest solo show THE AIRMALES at The Fitzrovia Gallery.
The Life Studies: Georg’s studio is in South London and can be visited by appointment.
Georg presents a new body of works on paper, exploring the male figure.
Starting with a series of portraits on vintage letters, the exhibition explores multiple facets of masculinity through a rich variety of media.
The lost world: drawings on historic documents that can be seen in the exhibition.
Following Georg’s life-long habit of collecting old documents, many of his figurative drawings are executed on antique airmail envelopes, postcards and other historic correspondence.
The subject of travelling creates unique narratives by placing the figures in times and places that actually once existed, in a world now long lost. These artworks invite us to travel the world and map out long forgotten journeys and relations.
Tunisie. Pencil and watercolour on vintage envelope, 12.4cm x 31cm.
For Georg the fluidity of drawing lends itself to an accurate recording of bodies in performance. This examination of a transient moment is an intimate carnal dialogue, urgent and demanding.
On show will also be drawings on painted backgrounds created in multiple media.
‘’Georg Meyer-Wiel’s drawing is a never-ending, constantly updated work in progress, intensely personal, executed with graphic haste in the heat of the moment.. They present, in public, a private truth. Seen one by one, they offer us brief encounters of a very masculine immediacy, finding tenderness in the raunchiest of beauties; seen as a series, they initiate a charged conversation with the viewer.’’
Neil Bartlett (Author, Director)
In Conversation with Georg Meyer-Wiel
What is your background Georg?
My father was an architect and my mother an artist, and they always supported me in exploring my creativity. I studied Communication Design in Germany and later did a Masters in Menswear at the Royal College of Art in London. Subsequently I started to work as a designer for stage and costume for ballet, contemporary dance and opera – whilst running my artist studio in South London, where I paint and draw. The natural form inspires me – and I don’t just talk about the male physique! My work is very much a direct response to the world that surrounds me, very physical and visceral.
Which artist has inspired you?
Oh, many! I do very different things in painting and drawing – my painting is usually the result of slow material processes, it is about materiality – so Anselm Kiefer has hugely inspired me… whilst my drawings are figurative and immediate. I aim to capture the intimate energy of a situation, its intensity, its passion, the movement and the desire. So I would say that the great British painter Michael Leonard has been very influential. His sketches are fantastic, especially his drawings on the subject of ‘Undressing’ – which is also a central theme in my work.
Examples from the ‘Undressing’ series can also be seen in the exhibition. Watercolour and charcoal on paper, framed 72.5cm x 52.5cm x 3.5cm each.
Has Covid affected you in the way you think?
I guess so. For the past two decades I lived in London and I never stopped, always produced and promoted – and then there was suddenly something unexpected: silence. And in this silence awareness unfolded in me; it became clearer for me what I want to achieve in my work and how I should put it out into the world. Covid did not change my work, but it allowed me to focus and organize myself. Amongst other things I created the website LIFESTUDIES.ART, a showcase and shop for my drawings.
Travelogue: Georg’s drawings of men, created on historic documents of which many are up to 150 years old.
What are your hopes and dreams for the future?
I love my life and I love what I do – it is such a privilege to be able to work with wonderful people and draw them, it is a very intimate way of getting to know someone. Maybe spending more time abroad would be great, a life between London, Berlin and Italy – but it is so easy to ask for more whilst already having so much. So if life continues as it is now I am grateful.
At this point I like to thank all my wonderful models, whether friends or strangers, who have inspired me so much and allowed me to immortalize on paper all those unforgettable moments that make me feel alive.
So I hope that you can come and see my work, either in the exhibition, or in my studio, which can be visited by appointment – I look forward to welcoming you!
Gym buddies: watercolour and charcoal on paper, framed 52.5cm x 42.5cm x 3.5cm each.
Stephen Vowles from Boyz talks to Georg Meyer-Wiel at THE AIRMALES exhibition
Georg Meyer-Wiel’s Solo Show THE AIRMALES at The Fitzrovia Gallery runs from Friday 25th June until Sunday 4th July.
Online Booking for Private Views is essential as visitor numbers will need to be limited.
For further enquiries and to register for PVs, visit https://lifestudies.art/
For more information about Georg’s paintings and design work please visit https://www.meyerwiel.com/
Gallery Opening Times:
Tuesday – Friday 3pm – 6.30pm
Saturday / Sunday 1pm – 6pm
Monday closed
Pre-booking is not required for gallery visits during opening hours
Out-of-hours appointments available on request
The Fitzrovia Gallery 139 Whitfield Street, London, W1T 5EN
2 minutes walk from Warren St Underground station
fitzroviagallery.co.uk
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