Tinsel Edwards: Affluence and Avarice at Galerie Michaela Stock, Vienna

On Sunday, Twinkle Troughton and I will be flying out to Vienna to prepare for our exhibition at Galerie Michaela Stock, due to open on Thursday 27th June.

An Excerpt from the press release:

The title for our exhibition was inspired by the painting AnAllegory of Avarice by Albrecht Dürer (1507) which is in the Kunsthistorisches museum in Vienna. The painting serves as a warning at both the transience of life and the ultimate worthlessness of earthly fortune; it is one of many known paintings under the same title, all warning of greed and its consequences.

Here the word 'Affluence' replaces ‘Allegory’ which offers insight into the narrative of the exhibition. Allegory is certainly relevant to some of the pieces, but ‘affluence’ reflects the hopeful references within their works as well as the critical and questioning aspect. We live in an affluent world, but her wealth lies in the hands of the fewest. And the artists do not believe affluence and wealth to be negative, but that it is used in the wrong way.

With greed being a pivotal starting point to many of Tinsel and Twinkle’s own works, and as well as being an urgent current global issue, this title highlights our repetitive history and how art reflects yet challenges life, both now and centuries ago.

As well as exhibiting their individual paintings, the duo is heading to Vienna to stage their collaborative piece ‘The Bank of Twinkle and Tinsel’. Following on from their 2012 ‘Mini Retrospective’ exhibition and notorious Kidnapped Banker stunt in London, the exhibition at Galerie Michaela Stock will be the first time the artists have shown work in and taken their art performance works to Vienna.

During a two week residency with the gallery, Twinkle and Tinsel will be setting up their Bank of Twinkle and Tinsel in public spaces to continue trading in their currency of thoughts, where passers-by will be able to write their thoughts on the global economy on bespoke T&T bank notes (pictured above) and receive a T&T banknote stamped and dated in return. The bank will also be open in the gallery during the opening night and visitors can participate.

You can read all about the progress of The Bank of Tinsel & Twinkle on our blog here:

We have produced a catalogue for the Affluence & Avarice show, the artist Graham Crowley has written an essay to accompany the exhibition, a distinguished painter and previously the professor of painting at the Royal College of Art, he has boundless knowledge and energy! It has been wonderful working with Graham on this project and we are delighted that his text will accompany the show. I will be posting the full text on here shortly, you can also read it here on the Tinsel & Twinkle blog.

I will be exhibiting several brand new paintings, all based on the theme of Greed. My work has changed drastically over the past couple of years (more on that another time!), I am still a long way off from having a body of work which represents a new style, approach and ideas, but it's wonderful to finally be exhibiting the very small beginnings.

Thankyou Galerie Michaela Stock for inviting us to exhibit with you! We can't wait to show our work to a completely new and different audience.