Artist Graceland London's brashly sinister yet colourful cartoon scenes explore the darker depths of human nature, consumption, vice and vanity in the contemporary age, interwoven with humour and pop culture references.
Read MoreGrace McCalla, who goes by the moniker Graceland London, was born in London in 1992. Growing up she took to art at an early age favouring bright and vivid colours that have become a staple of her professional artistic career.
Graceland studied fine art and art history at Hampstead Fine Arts London, before completing a Bachelors in 3D digital design and animations at Greenwich University, London. This design animation background is reflected in the crisp animated cartoon-like style of her works.
Continuing to live and work in London, from a studio near Portobello Road (referenced in a 2018 artwork), trips to the United States have given further inspiration to her work.
Rendered with psychedelic colour combinations, Graceland London's busy surreal illustrations and paintings are packed full of bric-a-brac. They reference narcissistic consumption, pop culture, Americana, horror and elements of Biblical Italian Renaissance and Flemish art.
Reflecting themes persistent throughout her work, Graceland's How Often (2016) speaks of hedonistic pleasures undercut with a deeper emotional reality.
As with many of her works the viewer is presented in How Often, with a surreal mal-formed femme fatale like figure. Her features include alien green skin marked by apparent stubble around the legs and chin, green and purple horns dripping with blood, and red eyes with cruciform pupils. Love hearts flutter down her sides. Flanked by champagne flutes, like many of Graceland's femme fatale characters she is surrounded by emblems of vice.
A self-questioning quote undercuts this surreal expression of indulgence: 'How often do you think about the way you think?' An allusion to mental health, interrogating one's ability to understand and come to terms with their own feelings. Mental health, and themes of coping permeate Graceland's art. She actively fundraises for mental health charities through her art, and often incorporates questions and mottos relevant to mental health into her art.
In 2019, the artist took part in Art Basel Miami art week. There she created a 10ft square interactive art booth called Calcination for Marcel Katz's Art Plug Powerhouse, and also created live art for E11EVEN, one of Miami largest clubs. Right at home, Graceland's colourful aesthetic, referenced Miami Art Deco, while her staged scenes reflected elements of Miami Vice.
Graceland explains 'I am heavily influenced by the darker side of the human ego and psychology. 'Her 5-part series 'Vices' (2020) delves into human themes such as conflict, and seeking comfort amidst chaos.
In these oil paintings, her mildly horror-esque femme fatales conveying tortured inner selves, are surrounded by many of the recurring motifs that have come to define Graceland's works. Crosses and bibles for example are used to explore established notions of good and evil. In addition, named brands like Gucci, Coco Chanel and Balenciaga, are incorporated too.
Also present in these works are some of the strange supporting cast of figures that often appear in her works, including death himself.
Like the works of her 'As Above So Below' (2020) series, presented in a 3d digital setting of a horror-theme motel in her first online show with Maddox Gallery, Graceland's images highlight the iniquity of religion and hedonism in the face of a lockdown age.
In 2021 the artist created Black Lives Matter - George Floyd, a series of 30 limited edition prints to be sold to raise funds for the George Floyd and Trayvon Martin Fund. The homage to the movement, Floyd, and other victims of police violence, incorporates Graceland motifs such as a fried egg, crucifix, the world in a drop of blood and a green figure with a downcast expression.
Graceland London has been the subject of both solo exhibitions and group exhibitions.
Exhibitions include the solo show As Above So Below, Maddox Gallery, online (2020) and group exhibitions including, Herstory, Maddox Gallery, London (2020); _The Digital Renaissanc_e, Bloomsbury Gallery, London (2020); The Shop Window, Mr. President, London (2019); Chocolate and Art Show, the Vortext, Los Angeles (2018); Myth & Lore, Styx, London (2017).
Graceland London's website can be found here and Graceland London's Instagram can be found here.
Michael Irwin | Ocula | 2021
