Vielmetter Los Angeles has a great weekend ahead, with April Bey and this excellent show, Everything Is Borrowed, London-based artist Aly Helyer’s first solo exhibition with the gallery. Blending elements of classical painting with nontraditional portraiture, Helyer’s distinct visual language speaks to the complexities of the human experience and the diverse depths of our personalities. The exhibition features a range of recent dreamlike enigmatic portraits, each offering a glimpse into the artist’s meticulous craftsmanship and evocative imagination.
Helyer’s works begin as drawings often composed of fragments from fashion magazines, memory, and imagination. The paintings are both materially and instinctually driven, derived by the intimacy of how paint is laid down. Layer upon layer a psychological narrative slowly unfolds, as instinct and form intermingle to suggest mystery, tenderness, as well as times of solitude and or togetherness.
Referencing such sentiments as love and loss Helyer creates tightly cropped compositions inhabited by youthful figures that lean toward androgynous. The characters in her paintings don’t exist in the real world, they are constructs both familiar and surreal. Throughout the artist’s interiors elements curiously appear such as birds, feathers, hands, snakes, cigarettes, and shadows — as well as romantic, pastoral Toile patterns and luxurious designs delicately find their way onto the curtains, clothing, and walls. The artist’s steadfast use of vibrant, yet uncanny colors unearth an undeniable resonance presenting the viewer with a paradoxical point of view; embracing the fleeting nature of our existence while embracing the deep-rooted connections that bind us together.
Alluding to the well-known Picasso quote “Good artists borrow, great artists steal” — the exhibition’s title is inspired by the song “Everything Is Borrowed” by The Streets (Mike Skinner). In it the chorus goes: “I came to this world with nothing / And I leave with nothing but love / Everything else is just borrowed / Memories are times we borrow / For spending tomorrow….” For Helyer, the title also points to an overarching spiritual and philosophical perspective that amidst the cycle of life nothing really belongs to anyone.
Aly Helyer lives and works in London.
