The talented artist Roid recently debuted his first Solo Exhibition titled “More than Ever” with TopSafe London. Roid has established himself as one today’s premier graffiti artists over the past decade. With “More than Ever” Roid anchors himself within the gallery entering the world of fine art. Roid who’s work on walls could be described as innovative and progressive is an immense talent with letterforms. Roid has defined himself not just as a follower of traditional graffiti, but also as an artist who sets out to redefine its boundaries. When we first got word that Roid would be having a solo exhibition, we knew it would be important. We are happy to share some pictures of the work courtesy of the artist, and the opening courtesy of photographer Caz Brown.
With “More than Ever” Roid takes influences from music, nostalgia from the 80’s and 90’s, manga, typography and remixes them into works of art. When you first look at the work you can immediately see the computer and design influence. You can be fooled by the precision of Roid, as hand painted works so precise they look like they might have been done digitally, or printed. The hand painted work brings us back to the point of precision. The precision involved and calculated nature of the work coincides with the artists subject matter. As stated in the show summary the artist comments on this. “Computer love” is a phrase Roid uses in describing the themes of his new work. He talks about certain paintings being “inspired by the idea of love stories between robots and computers.” He also says “I don’t like working on computers, but I like the mathematics and precision you need to create that kind of aesthetic by hand.” Even with all the precise fades and clean lines Roid is able to break up the rigidness with glitched movement.
It is the glitched, remixed effect that really completes the work for us. The ability for Roid to create broken perfection in the work sets it apart. As he bridges and composes all these elements of geometry, and texture the artist brings in an underlying principle of letters and type. Another statement from the show describes this “Letter studies” is also a term that often comes up. Four of his largest works each take, break down, repeat and explode elements of the structures of the four letters R, O, I and D. They will hang together, in order, but don’t expect to be able to read them. “I want them to be open to interpretation,” says Roid; “I want there to be suggestions of letters, but I want people to have to work out how to read them, rather than it be instantly obvious. You have to look at them hard.”. This statement brings the work full circle to his graffiti work. I know we can all differentiate the effective nature of graffiti in its element, versus graffiti influenced art. With this new direction Roid is able to bring one of his strengths as a graffiti artist. His is ability to progress letterforms even if abstracted create the composition. It is these progressed and remixed letterforms that move in and out of the new work that cement Roids aesthetic in our eyes. Even when deeply deconstructed or minimalized they are their, as is the aura of a writer.
With old forms, new forms, letter-based, and non letter objective the artist creates amazing paintings. Roid definitely delivers in his debut solo exhibition. The work also showcases an artists struggle with imagery and letterform. As graffiti influences, it also tends to alienate some from understanding it. The work of Roid transcends graffiti, yet at the same time solidifies its importance at the same time. It this contradictory nature of what artists like Roid are doing in today’s art world that will define our generation of painters. With talent in abundance Roid showcases what is next, and not in a cliche next level sense. It is in a sense that their is something left to see here, it hasn’t all been done yet. We don’t think we need to tell you to pay attention to the future of Roid, if you see what we see in his work you will be waiting for the next update as much as we are.
GF
