the kids are all riot: retrospective exhibition
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The Kids Are All Riot
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By Sylvia Arthur
It’s an ironic coincidence that Goldie’s latest solo art exhibition is held in a gallery called Maverik in trendy, unconventional Shoreditch. And it's just as well because the bad boy of drum n’ bass proves himself to be as nonconformist in his art as he is in his music to biting anti-establishment effect. The title of the show is itself a witty play on words that immediately announces the intent of Goldie's highly politicised works, which use art as a medium for social commentary on the extreme anomalies of contemporary British society and its underclass. Its been called "art for the ASBO generation" but to reduce this collection of wonderfully acerbic works to a trendy catchphrase would be criminal. Yes, the show attracted massive hype but ,for once, the hype was justified.
His chosen media are canvas and palettes and Goldie's subject matter ranges from the big issues of war, peace and pop and consumer culture to the deeply personal. Works like "War Mart" and "ToysRUs", dated circa 2007/2008 and featuring young women in sinister poses toting machine guns, take a huge swipe at the pervasiveness of capitalism and contrast with a series of self-portraits that depict the recondite artist against a backdrop of council estates and schizophrenic scrawls from his diaries.
Goldie knows full well the impact of putting spray paint to canvas. The formerly socially-excluded have long taken grafitti from the streets to the gallery, pioneered by the likes of Basquiat and Banksy, creating a lucrative new form known as Urban Art. With the average price of a Goldie original somewhere between the range of £2000 and £3000, owning a piece of artistic dissent doesn't come cheap. But the experience of taking a peak in to this maverick's world was definitely worth its weight in Goldie!
The Kids Are All Riot was at the Maverik Gallery in Shoreditch throughout April. Goldie's work is available to purchase at www.eddielock.co.uk.
