D’Stassi Art is pleased to announce the launch of its new gallery located in East London’s Shoreditch. Formerly home to the legendary “Boiler Room Events,” D’Stassi Art will open on August 6th with the inaugural exhibition, Pop Nightmare, featuring new paintings by Australian-based artist and musician, Sidney Teodoruk. Drawing on the nostalgia of childhood and the evocative signage of circus sideshow banners, Teodoruk’s work is a playful and poetic exploration of color and lyrics. With London reopening for in-person events, D’Stassi Art will host a public reception for Pop Nightmare on August 6th.
“Sidney's work fills the space with bold block primary colours. The show was received incredibly well by all our collectors, friends and family ” - Edward Sanders ( D'Stassi Gallery founder)
Founded by friends and fellow art enthusiasts, Michael Howes and Edward Sanders, D’Stassi Art is inspired by the ethos of the radical inclusivity of the 1980s graffiti and street art movements and aims to infuse greater passion, approachability, and experimentation into the traditional gallery format. Prior to launching their first official space, the duo was known for fostering collaborative exhibitions between brands and artists that transcended art world conventions in favor of a new era of creative partnerships, most notably facilitating a project between the fashion brand Fiorucci and graffiti artist Endless in 2019. The gallery roster is made up of some of the most exciting emerging and established artists who carry on the legacies of neo-expressionism, neo-pop and street art, including Peter Opheim, Al Diaz, and Richard Hambleton. D’Stassi Art is located in Shoreditch, an area of East London known for its music scene and legacy of street art. Prior to the launch of D’Stassi Art, the gallery site previously housed the legendary “Boiler Room Events,” hosting artists like Joey Bada$$, Skepta, Kaytranada, and Steflon Don. Today, the renovated rooms retain the vivacity of the former club, transitioning comfortably between white walled gallery, nightclub, and immersive event space which can host 200+ guests. D’Stassi retained remnants of the space’s original identity while adding contemporary design elements, including a street level atrium that floods the main room with natural light and an old lift shaft converted into a print room. The sprawling basement includes galleries, a multipurpose bar and event space that will be used as a lounge for forthcoming programming, and even a canvas storage area available for collector use. Pop Nightmare marks Teodoruk’s debut UK solo exhibition, featuring a new series of paintings that mix figuration and abstraction in brightly-colored works that reference circus sideshow art depicted in a pop aesthetic. Spread across two floors, Sidney’s work draws heavily on childhood nostalgia and the transmission of cultural memory, revolving around poetic contradictions and liminal paradoxes that exist somewhere between reality and fantasy. For Pop Nightmare, Teodoruk captures a mix of cultural references, past and present, combining fragments of text, recycled poster imagery, and expressionistic mark-making in works that turn inner darkness into light through a joyous exploration of color and mark-making.
The D'Stassi Art team.