At the beginning of the year I vowed to find a way of exhibiting further afield than just exhibiting in London. By chance my wish was answered by an invite from Nik and John Daughtry owners of 99 Mary St, located in Sheffield.
The great, but also overwhelming thing about doing solo shows, is working out what to exhibit. I thought it would be a good idea to show Portrait of Heroes, with the inclusion of some new original paintings, but it also my intention to show off the soon to be release of my new print "Wallflowers" which I thought it might be nice place to debut it. The question was what would connect these collections. Of course it didn't take long to work out that all the work I wanted to show had one thing in common, which was mixing old with new. So the idea came to me of 'Better Days' ... Here's how the show got described.
Better Days
History is always written after the fact: we look back, join dots, see patterns that were not apparent at the time.
So it was with ‘Better days’. The exhibition is a composite of three different series that Heath Kane undertook in 2018, at the time each was separate, but with hindsight he saw a common theme.
As a former design consultant, advising companies on creating future concepts, Heath has always been interested in our fascination and romance with the past.
Drawing on three of his collections: Portrait of Heroes, Sober on Capital-ism, and the newly released, Wallflowers, Heath saw a common theme that resonates strongly with the zeitgeist and political atmosphere at present. As our society becomes increasingly volatile and divided, many are seeking to find a way of going back to an idea of ‘better days’.
In all three collections, Heath realised there was an implicit question: ‘has there ever been a time where the past has been better than the present or do we illustrate only what we want people to believe? How much of classic art is smoke and mirrors, much the same as Instagram or other social media is today?’.
Heath’s art process draws on the practice of design thinking, with a focus on creating simple, iconic and memorable pieces that have the ability to tell stories and are linked to a larger narrative. Within the, often lurid colour, artwork he tries to distill subtle but often subversive themes.