News — Flog

Vertical Gallery is very excited to release Flog's latest print "Happy Meal" for our 11-Year Anniversary! A special edition of 50, plus 10 hand-finished prints. 

Release details:
In-person on Friday, April 19th at noon at the gallery at 2006 W Chicago Ave #1R.

Remaining prints will be released online Monday April 29th at 9am central time.

Limit of one print per person (you may purchase one regular edition, and one variant).

Flog
Happy Meal (Main Edition), 2024
Fine art print on 100% cotton fibre, acid free, lignin free, archival 310 gsm paper.
Edition of 50 
20 x 20 in., 50 x 50 cm
Signed and numbered by Flog
$225 + tax

Hand-finished prints are $375 + tax.

Artist statement :
I’ve created “Happy Meal” specially for Vertical Gallery’s 11-year anniversary group show. I wanted to offer the collectors something different than what I’ve done so far in terms of limited edition by doing for the first time ever a complete drawing of my “Human of glass” signature character. So far I’ve only ever shown sketches or research boards but never a drawing treated as a stand alone artwork. This drawing, through the use of mixed media, allowed me to work more on the glass effect, shadows and volume like I would have on a painting. As usual with my work I rather not share my own interpretation of this work to leave everyone free to interpret this visual in the hope that people can relate to it.

Vertical Gallery is excited to present their 11-Year Anniversary Group Show. Thank you to everyone that has supported the gallery over the years. The show runs April 5 – 27, 2024 with an opening reception on Friday April 5, 5:00-8:00pm. The show features an international roster of artists: Akio Harada (JP), Arne Spangereid (NO), Blake Jones (US), Chris Uphues (US), Euan Roberts (UK), Ezra Brown (US), Flog (FR), Graham Franciose (US), Hama Woods (NO), Louis (Masai) Michel (UK), Mau Mau (UK), Oscar Joyo (US), Pipsqueak Was Here!!! (NL), Richard Ankrom (US), Sweler (AU), Troy Scat (US), and Yusuke Toda (JP).

Akio Harada (JP): Showing with Vertical for the first time, Akio’s layered animal shaped work depicts human emotions while navigating between imagination and reality. His work features sharp silhouettes with multiple layers of paint, creating work that is both flat and deep.

Arne Spangereid (NO): Showing with Vertical for the first time, Arne is a celebrated artist known for his intriguing fusion of classical techniques and modern expressions. By blending old masters, impressionism, and cartoon art, he crafts playful interior scenes featuring unconventional elements.

Blake Jones (US): Blake has been showing with Vertical since 2020, including a solo show and curating a group show. Blake’s use of graphic line work and bright color palettes illustrates narratives of complex worlds inhabited by his own iconic characters, objects, and landscapes.

Chris Uphues (US): Chris has been showing with Vertical since 2014. His imagery as a designer, artist and street painter is inspired by facets of pop culture, such as comic books, animation, and video games.

Euan Roberts (UK): Showing with Vertical for the first time, Euan’s artistic practice is focused on analyzing the human condition, distilling feelings of humor, hope, suffering, joy, love and longing via his distinctive cast of animal avatars and visual metaphors.

Ezra Brown (US): Ezra encapsulates his many experiences, emotions, and feelings using his character ‘Happy the Clown’ as a reflection of himself to portray his message. His character is used to cope with events in the world around us today. This is his second group show at Vertical.

Graham Franciose (US): Showing in his second group show at Vertical, Graham’s whimsical, and sometimes emotional, illustrations share a glimpse of a story. A moment between the action, leaving the exact circumstances and narrative up to the viewer. There is sense of familiarity and honesty within his characters and scenes, as well as a sense of mystery and wonder.

Hama Woods (NO): Hama’s work shows a deep respect for nature and its immediate connection to humanity. Hama’s stencil intuitively reflects and introduces a sociological approach to greed and human consumption, and its direct impact on our natural environment. She has been showing with Vertical since 2019, including her sold out show in May 2022.

Louis (Masai) Michel (UK): Louis uses his art in the form of murals, paintings and installations as a way to highlight extinction, climate change and species equality. His solo show at Vertical in May 2021 featured interactive remote-control robot chickens — letting viewers experience the show and explore the gallery setting in real time from the comforts of home.

Mau Mau (UK): A renowned British graffiti artist, Mau Mau has been showing with Vertical for many years – including two solo shows. His work is politically and environmentally focused, usually with a mischievous fox as its hero. The artist has traveled across the globe, including the UK, USA, Jamaica, Thailand and Australia, painting on everything from shipwrecks and surfboards to billboards and city walls.

Oscar Joyo (US): Oscar is a Malawian-born, Chicago-based artist known for expressive portraiture that features his unique combination of photo realism and tribal patterning. His practice fuses both traditional and digital mediums to explore imagery and themes connected to Afrofuturism and afrosurrealism. He has been in many group shows at Vertical over the years.

Pipsqueak Was Here!!! (NL): With two sold-out solo shows at Vertical (September 2018 and October 2020) and multiple group shows, Pipsqueak has become a Vertical fan-favorite. Using children and animals in their work, they make us aware of the tender relationship that exists between nature and human nature. They aim to invoke contemplation and discussion about issues in the world today and let us look at the way we humans treat our globe.

Richard Ankrom (US): Richard reacts to his mundane surroundings, redefining found objects and environments. Since 2012, his figurines series creates a more intimate scale, creating BDSM masks for household trinkets. He takes sentimental goods that target nostalgic consumers and change them to make them individual and surreal by dipping or pouring them several times with synthetic rubber and tucked zippers. This is his first time showing with Vertical.

Sweler (AU): Sweler has participated in multiple group shows at Vertical over the years and every work has sold out. Influenced by the street art graffiti scene, his whimsical world of characters create their own unique stories. 

Troy Scat (US): Troy is a fine artist, illustrator, and tattoo artist from Chicago, now residing in LA. Frequently using realism portraiture, he’s created his own visual aesthetic. He has participated in multiple group shows at Vertical.

Yusuke Toda (JP): Returning to Vertical for his second group show, Yusuke’s work combines Japanese culture and pop art. His feature character named "yum" expresses how we and the environment around us are living in harmony together. Yusuke has been globally recognized for his dynamic blend of traditional and modern styles, with exhibitions selling out and receiving significant attention within the art world.

And a special print release from Flog:

Flog (FR): Flog has developed his unique graphic signature through his "People of Glass" series, a universe of transparent characters filled with colors. Against the contrasting background of an increasingly hard and gray world, the “People of Glass” share their colors subtly by interacting with each other or their environment. Flog has been showing with Vertical since 2022, including his sold out solo show at the SCOPE international art fair in December 2023.

Q&A: Flog gets transparent about debut U.S. solo show ‘Rewind’ at SCOPE Miami Beach 2023

Flog sees people for who they really are. The fast-rising French painter acclaimed for his signature Human of Glass character exposes the emotions and experiences swirling below the surface, bypassing our exterior selves to capture the true essence of our beings.

You can see what Flog sees at SCOPE Miami Beach 2023, which runs from Dec. 5-10. There Vertical Gallery, Chicago’s premier urban-contemporary art gallery, presents Rewind, Flog’s debut U.S. solo exhibit — a playful, poignant and deeply profound collection of paintings and sketches inspired by the artist’s most formative childhood memories.                     

Flog (born Florian Gaborit in 1984) began drawing during childhood, going on to study graphic design at Nantes’ École Pivaut before pursuing his painting career. He gained international attention following the 2020 introduction of his ongoing Human of Glass series, which depicts humankind in the form of transparent entities filling up with a dazzling array of colors — in short, mere vessels for the elemental forces within.

“The colors symbolize the emotions that we feel, or the knowledge and the values that were transmitted to us and that make each of us unique,” Flog says. “These glass figures are intentionally non-gendered to allow each and every one of us to identify with them, depending on our own feelings.”

Flog reveals more about the Human of Glass, the Rewind show and his continued creative evolution in this exclusive Q&A with journalist and media critic Jason Ankeny.

What can viewers familiar with your past work expect to see from the collection you’re unveiling at SCOPE? 

Rewind is by far my most ambitious exhibition. My Human of Glass character is evolving in a universe different from what the public has seen to date, and with 30 paintings and as many sketches, spectators will discover my work in proportions never seen anywhere before. Beyond references to childhood, emotions, dreams, symbolism, metaphors and a little poetry — and, above all, a lot of colors — I hope viewers will also notice a technical evolution linked to painting my character in new formats, both small and large. 

Tell us more about this evolution. 

There was a great deal of exploration and research required to create these works, and the wide variety of formats allowed me to develop my character, particularly in the treatment of its transparency. The treatment of backgrounds and clouds has also improved. Spectators will still find many references to the theme of children's games, but the approach is different, and more thoughtful. The large number of paintings also allowed me to work on this theme from many different aspects and offered a lot of freedom, leading to richer subject matter. 

Which dimension of this exhibition is most likely to surprise spectators?

Visually, this series deviates most from my previous works in regards to the presence of very colorful but plain backgrounds, without the gradients that I usually include. I combined many different colors for the backgrounds and in the waves inside my characters to create a totally new color palette, which allowed me to explore more things and not make everything monotonous. It’s like entering a candy store.

Color is life, so that’s what colors convey for me. I am not generally attracted to one color more than another: I think that each color has potential, and its own way of speaking to people. My favorite colors are not necessarily yours, but each color is able to express and convey something. 

For this exhibition, I relied a lot on the colors of the Eighties and Nineties –– the era I grew up in. It seemed obvious to me, and in line with what I wanted to paint. From an emotional point of view, I wanted to create a very colorful series in order to catch the viewer’s eye and remind them of their own past. As the title Rewind suggests, there is a slight graphic distortion in each painting that reminds us of time passing and altering our memories, as if you were watching an old videotape.

What inspired you to explore this subject matter?

The experiences we had as a child shape us as adults. They are our most important memories, but as we grow up, we tend to forget them or put them aside, for all kinds of reasons. Each work in Rewind draws on my own childhood; it is a very personal exhibition. But, as is very often the case in my work, spectators will be able to identify with my characters through the situations or dreams told, because ultimately, we all share similar memories and the same references.

What may seem very intimate in regards to what I say in these paintings is ultimately quite universal, I think, since anyone can appropriate and interpret what they see differently from what I wanted to convey. This is why I very rarely reveal the symbolism in my paintings, so as not to disturb the viewer's reading. Once exhibited, the work no longer belongs to me. It is up to the public to bring it to life.

I don't really know what pushed me to explore this theme at this point in my life. Probably it's to remember where I come from –– what era I grew up in, and what I've been through in my life. It’s also a way of exploring the innocence that we have when we are children, and it reminds me of the time when everything was just discovery and games. It’s a simple step back, but it allows me to preserve my childish soul, and to learn to love the little boy that I was and who still lives within me.

I hope to awaken similar memories in viewers –– to make them smile, and perhaps make them remember the children they were: what they played with, what their dreams were, and who they were at that moment in their lives. I also hope they will rediscover their own innocence, their own childish souls, even if just for a few seconds.

Rewind is your first solo U.S. exhibition. What does this milestone mean in the context of your life and career as an artist?

Exhibiting in the United States –– especially a solo show –– is a real honor. I am French, and I hope to make my art known to as many people as possible. There is no better way to spread my art outside my country than the incredible setting that is SCOPE: I have never had an opportunity to show my work like this. I put aside a lot of things in my life hoping to become an artist one day, so this exhibition is a dream come true, and it validates the choices I have made over the last 20 years to get here. But this is only the beginning. The road is still long, because I hope to be here for the next 20 years.

Because this road has been so long, I want to thank the people who believe in my work and support me. Vertical Gallery was the first to show my work outside of France, and I want to thank them as well as the collectors for the incredible welcome I received. [Vertical founder and curator Patrick Hull] has put so much faith in me and my work — I don’t really have the words to express my gratitude. It’s a real privilege to live all these crazy experiences.

Vertical Gallery, Flog hit ‘Rewind’ at SCOPE Miami Beach 2023

Vertical Gallery, Chicago’s premier urban-contemporary art gallery, is proud to present ‘Rewind,’ French painter Flog’s first U.S. solo exhibition.

‘Rewind,’ on view at SCOPE Miami Beach 2023 from Dec. 5-10, features a series of bold new paintings and sketches spotlighting Flog’s signature Human of Glass character — a transparent, genderless vessel containing the vast spectrum of emotions and experiences that together represent the essence of humanity.

“’Rewind’ is by far my most ambitious exhibition,” Flog says. “My Human of Glass character is evolving in a universe different from what the public has seen to date, and with 30 paintings and as many sketches, spectators will discover my work in proportions never seen anywhere before.”

By turns playful, poignant and profound, ‘Rewind’ draws visual and thematic inspiration from the formative moments in Flog’s upbringing. “The experiences we had as a child shape us as adults. They are our most important memories, but as we grow up, we tend to forget them or put them aside, for all kinds of reasons,” Flog says. “’Rewind’ is a very personal exhibition. But, as is very often the case in my work, spectators will be able to identify with my characters through the situations or dreams told, because ultimately, we all share similar memories and the same references.”

Color continues to play an elemental role throughout Flog’s body of work, symbolizing the feelings, knowledge and values that make each human unique. ‘Rewind’ embraces the colors of the 1980s and 1990s, affording the artist the opportunity to explore an all new palette of tints and tones.

“Color is life, so that’s what colors convey for me,” Flog says. “I think that each color has potential, and its own way of speaking to people. My favorite colors are not necessarily yours, but each color is able to express and convey something.”

Flog (born Florian Gaborit in 1984) began drawing during childhood, going on to study graphic design at Nantes’ École Pivaut before pursuing his painting career. He gained international attention following the 2020 introduction of the Human of Glass series, contributing works featuring the character to Vertical Gallery’s ninth and tenth anniversary group shows as well as 2022’s ‘Atomic Number 13 Part 2.’ Flog has also exhibited in Paris and Rome, among other international destinations.

FLOG
"REWIND"
SCOPE Miami Beach, 801 Ocean Drive, South Beach
December 5 - 10, 2023
Tickets: https://scope-art.com/

Vertical Gallery is excited to present two special shows celebrating our 10-Year Anniversary! 

Opening first on March 11 at Vertical Project Space:
March 11 - April 16: Vertical Gallery 10-Year Anniversary Show Part 1 at Vertical Project Space featuring: Chris Uphues, Rae Denise (Racheal Scotland), AJ Ainscough, Laura Catherwood, Van Dam One, Goosenek, Melissa Villarreal, Angel Onofre, Matt Zuska and Jordan Ferguson.

Vertical Project Space is located at 2006 W Chicago Ave #1R (entrance in alley off Damen). Open weekends 12-5.

VIEW PART ONE HERE

Opening on April 1 at Vertical Gallery:
April 1 - 29: Vertical Gallery 10-Year Anniversary Show Part 2 at Vertical Gallery featuring: AlexFace, Martin Whatson, Flog, 2CHOEY, Hama Woods, Sergio Farfan, Collin Van Der Sluijs, Mr. Kreme, Mau Mau, and Pipsqueak Was Here!!! 

Vertical Gallery is located at 1016 N Western Ave. Open Tues-Sat 12-6.

Thank you to everyone that has visited and collected work from us over the past 10 years. And special thanks to all of the artists that have shown with us over the past 134 shows! 

Email us at info@verticalgallery.com if you have any questions.