Swiss artist Zoé Byland is exhibiting at Lay Low Fine Art Limited Editions gallery in Palma de Mallorca, Balearic Islands in Spain from the 4th of July. If you are in Spain we highly recommend you see Zoé’s print exhibition whilst experiencing the beautiful Island locale.
Byland’s work leaves the viewer with a multitude of impressions. While enchanting and humorous, it simultaneously carries an air of mystery, sometimes verging on being disturbing. A wide variety of sources influence Zoé Byland’s work. The artist focuses on references to art history and cinematography but is also heavily influenced by tattoo aesthetics, comics, science fiction and street art. In her paintings we encounter masked characters painted in the style of the old masters, mysterious women reminiscent of film noir protagonists, portraits of pets elevated to superhero status, life-sized poodles crafted from clay and fake fur covered in tattoos, luchadoras, and plus size pin-ups flirting with the viewer.
When questioned about her art, Byland says, “I stage my characters in a world between idealism and trash. I am interested in combining opposites such as the old and the new, concealing and revealing, the construction and deconstruction of identity. I’m interested in timeless forms of representation, attributes like drama and mise-en-scène, and the subversion of viewers’ expectations. My paintings are narrative paintings, thematically dense and laden with symbolism. I want my “stories” to continue playing out in the head of the viewer. I do not want to limit my work by imposing rigid definitions of what it is. Rather, I want to interweave the lines between underground art and the high art canon.”
On the 4th of July recently opened gallery Lay Low Fine Art Limited Editions at Carrer de les Caputxines 4-2, 07001 Palma de Mallorca, Balearic Islands, Spain will exhibit a solo print show with Zoe Byland, presenting 6 new prints and one small LL50 (LL50 = a special Lay Low limited edition of 50 prints for 50 euro each).
This painting was created to be the design/poster for the famous Viennese Opera Ball 2012.
There was also a limited stamp edition produced by the Austrian post from that sujet.
It’s a tradition in Vienna, that every year another artist designs (has been chosen to create) the official placard to this prominent international event in the viennese State Opera.
(And it was in fact the first time, they also produced a stamp)