Woaw Gallery is pleased to present Gentle Creatures, the first solo exhibition of British artist Felix Treadwell in Hong Kong. The exhibition is on view from 25 February 2022 to 17 March 2022 at 9 Queen’s Road Central.
Incorporating both East and Western influences into his art through a flattened contemporary style, Treadwell’s soft rendered paintings depict playful characters, animals, and fantastical creatures inspired by his favourite childhood comics.
Following his interest in examining the notions of adolescent vulnerability and conformity, the works featured in this show explore a more grown-up character in their daily routines of part-time jobs and hobbies, while revisiting and mirroring the dinosaurs in their everyday journeys millions of years ago.
Treadwell’s recent works portray our connections over millions of years between two dominions, a loneliness, fragility, and mortality that we and all living beings have to face. The experiences of our lives are so fleeting in the long history of life’s existence, even the small moments, such as watering a flower. Yet, beauty lies in the tiny subject matters. Our lives are made up of numerous scattered moments. The moments might not be seen important separately that they are easily forgettable. But when we see them as a whole, representing a person, or the living beings, the moments shape our lives. Regardless its transient nature, every living being may once share the same experience, highlighting the similarities, differences and speciality in every of us.
The dinosaurs and the humans are still naive, fragile and insecure and may always be, yet there is beauty in that and a reason to continue existing, regardless of how short our time is. The limitation of time gives meaning to life. Within the bounded time, humans are trying their best not only to survive, but the eager to live, to achieve their goals and to attain what they want. Treadwell hopes the works can conjure some comfort and relate to our loneliness in the quiet suffering we face.
About Felix Treadwell
Felix Treadwell was born in Maidstone, England in 1992. In his painting he often uses fictional characters who perform everyday actions. Treadwell studied art at Camberwell College of Arts and later specialised in painting at the Royal College of Art, where he graduated in 2018. Over the last couple of years, Treadwell has been getting a lot of recognition and appreciation for the works depicting the semi-autobiographical character, Feelo. “It was just meant to be this protagonist which explores these worlds, but I think I worked it out that it is more meant to be me. It wasn’t intentional but I think it kind of acts as me, but also acts like you, the viewer within the work. I feel like Feelo is more like an outsider entering this world in which you are, and exploring what you might not necessarily know you might encounter.” Through the use of simple compositions, playful, non-threatening scenes, the softness of the airbrush, along with pastel hues, the artist is reviving and visualizing his childhood imagination in his practice.
His solo exhibitions include “Dominion”, Dopeness (Taipei, 2021); “FEELO”, L21 Gallery (Palma de Mallorca, 2020); “Little Dark Fantasy”, Union Gallery (London, 2019); “Community”, LTD Los Angeles (Los Angeles, 2019); and “Dark Age”, L21 Gallery (Palma de Mallorca, 2018).
He has received awards such as the HIX Award (2014) and participated as an artist in residence at the L21xCamper Foundation (2018). In recent years, his work has been shown in numerous group venues such as Primary Projects (Miami, 2021); Gallerie Marian Cramer, (Amsterdam, 2020); imlabor (Tokyo, 2020); Choi&Lager Gallery (Cologne, 2019) Tatjana Pieters Gallery (Gent, 2019) and Galleria Patricia Armocida, (Milan, 2019). WOAW Gallery (Hong Kong, 2022).
Carl Kostyál gallery will have a solo show for Felix Treadwell later this year.