March 7 – April 13, 2024 – London at BEERSLONDON GALLERY

We warmly welcome Florent Stosskopf’s return to BEERS for his second solo exhibition, entitled The Mocking Bird. The title, he informs us, is a loose reference to elements of his own autobiography that he found mirrored in the song ‘Mockingbird’ by Eminem.

Everything always happens for a reason. I guess it was never meant to be but it’s just somethin’ we have no control over, and that’s what destiny is.

Stosskopf’s work has undergone significant change in recent years. The true testament of an artist whose artistic practice revolves around his own evolution. A self-taught artist, Stosskopf’s erudition in art has been his passion project, resulting in a new inclusion of collage and appropriating themes from classical painting with contemporary colours and techniques.

With The Mocking Bird, Stosskopf has upped the ante, pushing the works into more abstract, fantastical territory akin to Alessandro Pessoli or Dana Schutz. Of course the references to the great masters are abundant, and his ability to pluck from a variety of historical movements is very much showcased here.

The works in The Mocking Bird are rooted in both reality and fantasy. As Stosskopf states, each painting includes a mix of birds; some are domesticated, others wild, others caged. It is an allegory of the human condition; how, through myth, history, a mix of fact and fiction and even the allegories of modern times, birds have always been thought to represent various emotions or herald important events; to warn of death or to bless those they visit. In Charlie Corbett’s 12 Birds to Save Your Life, for instance, the author describes how birds have a strange way of reminding us of our mortality; how to find the beauty in the smallest of events.

Paintings, too, remind us of these very same tenets. From the vanitas to the portrait, the inclusion of myth, fact, and fiction, we view an artwork much in the same way we might stop to listen to birdsong; wake with the dawn chorus; or take a moment in a busy city to watch a colourful bird busy itself. We invite you to explore Stosskopf’s newest paintings with us; his second exhibition with the gallery opens this Thursday and runs until April.