Hadley, 2024
Drypoint etching with chine-collé
290gsm 100% cotton rag Tiepolo paper and Japanese washi
290gsm 100% cotton rag Tiepolo paper and Japanese washi
96 x 65 cm
Edition of 6
R 8,000.00
*Artwork sold unframed
ENQUIRE
Jeremy, 2024
Drypoint etching and silkscreen
290gsm 100% cotton rag Tiepolo paper
290gsm 100% cotton rag Tiepolo paper
96 x 65 cm
Edition of 6
R 8,000.00
*Artwork sold unframed
ENQUIRE
Callan Grecia at Loft Editions.
“My drawing practice remains the one constant in an ever shifting methodology. As much as the paintings shift, I find myself fully grounded with a pencil and a piece of paper. Painting is still fresh and new to me in the grand scheme of things, presenting problems and challenges that need solving at almost every turn. I’ve only been painting seriously for about 10 years. With drawing, the style tends to shift and change as well, however, I know my parameters when drawing because its something I’ve done my whole life. I never took much of an interest in printmaking during my eduction, mainly because it was a medium that required a certain type of methodical thinking and upkeep in studio practice that I did not possess and would only begin to appreciate in my own studio at home many years later. I found etchings and woodcuts by Tal R and Dana Schutz that blew me away and opened the door in my mind to attempt something similar when the opportunity arose.
After years of screaming into the void, with some help, I received a response. Georgina emailed me asking if I would be interested in working collaboratively on two prints to which I responded with a resounding yes (and a major sigh of relief, finally!). The timing was perfect, as I had recently decided to step back from painting as frequently to split my time and improve other, recently neglected aspects of my practice, drawing being at the top of that list. This resulted in splitting my practice into two definitive spaces.
The first space I decided to reserve for the warmer months, where I can muster the energy to be in my studio as often as possible. This space is reserved for my exploration of technology and painting and involves fervent making, research and time in studio, stretching, priming, painting, repeat. For this the warmer months are ideal, the primer dries fast and the works are made with acrylic paint so I can bash out ideas as fast as they come.
After years of screaming into the void, with some help, I received a response. Georgina emailed me asking if I would be interested in working collaboratively on two prints to which I responded with a resounding yes (and a major sigh of relief, finally!). The timing was perfect, as I had recently decided to step back from painting as frequently to split my time and improve other, recently neglected aspects of my practice, drawing being at the top of that list. This resulted in splitting my practice into two definitive spaces.
The first space I decided to reserve for the warmer months, where I can muster the energy to be in my studio as often as possible. This space is reserved for my exploration of technology and painting and involves fervent making, research and time in studio, stretching, priming, painting, repeat. For this the warmer months are ideal, the primer dries fast and the works are made with acrylic paint so I can bash out ideas as fast as they come.
Callan Grecia at Loft Editions.
The second space is more pertinent to this collaboration. This space is slower, the paintings are made with oils which take longer to dry and the imagery requires travel and time. I spend a lot of my time with my cameras and have recently gone through my image archive dating back as far as 2012. In this archive I found that I’ve taken thousands of photos of my friends and family and some are quite good. Good enough that I decided to actively begin to carry my camera with me when I visit from George and document the people close to me so that when I return, I can continue to spend time with them as I paint them in the studio via these photographic references. This all in the vein of Freud and Hockney, but I am separated from my sitters via distance and possibly patience.
This collaboration couldn’t have happened at a better time as it was my first adventure out of George actively taking photos for this half of my practice. I had already done a few drawings before coming down to Cape Town but in the space, I looked through my phone and found two photos I had taken in 2019 of my brother, Hadley, and our friend, Jeremy, who lived with us a few times between 2019-2020 before we made the move to George. I. Thought that it would be a wonderful way to continue in this figurative vein by spending time with these two at Loft, through the dry point etching process.
The process itself was arduous, much more physical than my usual sketchbook and pencil. It was however, still close enough that I felt right at home scratching away at the acetate with an abundance of strange tools provided to me by Georgina. I was offered sand paper and turned my nose up at it at first until I saw a printed test plate. This new way of making captured me immediately and I spent my time novel experience after novel experience.
I have yet to see the final prints but have been extensively consulted on them while Georgina does what she does best. It’s been wonderful to share such a beautiful space and learn so much from a master at their craft in such a short space of time. I find that I work best collaboratively, this is prefaced by duo shows with both Cameron Platter and Louis DeVilliers in the past. It’s often when people can put aside their ego’s, listen and learn from each other that good work happens, and I’m sure that that is exactly what has happened here.”
— Callan Grecia, 2024
This collaboration couldn’t have happened at a better time as it was my first adventure out of George actively taking photos for this half of my practice. I had already done a few drawings before coming down to Cape Town but in the space, I looked through my phone and found two photos I had taken in 2019 of my brother, Hadley, and our friend, Jeremy, who lived with us a few times between 2019-2020 before we made the move to George. I. Thought that it would be a wonderful way to continue in this figurative vein by spending time with these two at Loft, through the dry point etching process.
The process itself was arduous, much more physical than my usual sketchbook and pencil. It was however, still close enough that I felt right at home scratching away at the acetate with an abundance of strange tools provided to me by Georgina. I was offered sand paper and turned my nose up at it at first until I saw a printed test plate. This new way of making captured me immediately and I spent my time novel experience after novel experience.
I have yet to see the final prints but have been extensively consulted on them while Georgina does what she does best. It’s been wonderful to share such a beautiful space and learn so much from a master at their craft in such a short space of time. I find that I work best collaboratively, this is prefaced by duo shows with both Cameron Platter and Louis DeVilliers in the past. It’s often when people can put aside their ego’s, listen and learn from each other that good work happens, and I’m sure that that is exactly what has happened here.”
— Callan Grecia, 2024
Callan Grecia in the Loft Editions studio, photographed by Retha Ferguson.
Callan Grecia (b. 1991) was born in Durban, Kwa-Zulu Natal. He completed both his BFA (2014) and MFA (2017) in Painting at the Rhodes University. He currently lives and works in George, South Africa and has had numerous exhibitions locally and internationally.
Through painting, Grecia’s frenetic and constantly shifting output pushes on the boundaries of the medium, humorously poking the art worlds dead horse. Growing up in a post-apartheid South Africa, just short of being ‘born free’, Grecia’s obsessive making mirror’s the act of self discovery as a young South African thrown head first into the rainbow nation experiment, just prescient of everything prior. Sampling Y2K internet aesthetics, early-2000s television, pop culture and consumer capitalist culture, Grecia’s compositions reflect an “ultra-nostalgia” for the recent past; a conflation of millennials’ wildest dreams and ultimate discontents.
Through painting, Grecia’s frenetic and constantly shifting output pushes on the boundaries of the medium, humorously poking the art worlds dead horse. Growing up in a post-apartheid South Africa, just short of being ‘born free’, Grecia’s obsessive making mirror’s the act of self discovery as a young South African thrown head first into the rainbow nation experiment, just prescient of everything prior. Sampling Y2K internet aesthetics, early-2000s television, pop culture and consumer capitalist culture, Grecia’s compositions reflect an “ultra-nostalgia” for the recent past; a conflation of millennials’ wildest dreams and ultimate discontents.