Inspired by the poetic visual language of Al-Qaswini's 13th Century book, this new exhibition features a series of seven images that introduce the viewer to characters that are in attendance at a meta-mythical partyin a not too far town of the imagination...

The images are worked independently but linked to each other by details of colour or composition, creating a visual flow between them. They are as vignettes of a non-scripted but imagined story with, magic realism and sensuality at its core. The images are wholesome, gentle and strong, with a focus on mood and compositional detail as well as decorative first impact. References were drawn from baroque mythological painters like Dosso Dossi or interior single figures portraits by Zurbaran, as well as a touch of the rural and the ancestral.

Hector de Gregorio graduated from London’s Royal College of Art in 2009, with a Master’s Degree in Printmaking, where he developed his labour-intensive way of working. Each image involves extensive research and costume making, photography, digital imaging and hand-finishing. He is interested in European art, and particularly the representation of ecstasy, whether this is the sensuality of the Renaissance painter Lippi, the realist style of Caravaggio, the macabre of Bosch or the metaphysical of Dali’s surrealist works. Other influences include his mother, who was a dressmaker and taught a young de Gregorio how to design and make clothes, and his Catholic upbringing, which seeded a further interest in religious and devotional art from all religions.

Hector de Gregorio has exhibited widely, with exhibitions in London, Berlin, Milan, New York, Miami and Chicago. His deliciously modern portraiture is held in the collections of Lady Victoria Conran, Mehmet Omer Koc and Theo Fennell.In November 2009 he won the prestigious annual Young Masters Art Prize for his inspiring contemporary portraiture.

In 2012 Hector de Gregorio was asked to exhibit in The Perfect Place to Grow, an exhibition of work by alumni of the Royal College of Art, to celebrate the college's 175th anniversary. Absinthes was exhibited alongside work by David Hockney, Tracey Emin, George Shaw, Chris Ofili, Eduardo Paolozzi, Barbara Hepworth and Henry Moore.

Opus Fine Art
Sheep Street, Stow on the Wold
Gloucestershire GL54 1AA United Kingdom
Ph. +44 (0)14 51870827

Opening hours
Monday - Saturday
From 10am to 4pm