Florent Stosskopf: The Mocking Bird

7 Mar-13 Apr 2024

PV 7 Mar 2024, 6-8pm

Still Life With Mocking Bird, 2023, Oil, Acrylic and Acrylic Ink on Linen

Overview

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 singular pursuit in live and practice revolves around his own development in the studio. A self-taught artist, Stosskopf’s own erudition in art has been a passion project, resulting in a new inclusion of collage and appropriating themes from classical painting with contemporary colours and techniques.

Since his debut with the gallery in 2020, Stosskopf has had a meteoric rise in the art world, showing internationally and – unlike some artists who would be comfortable to remain in their lane – Stosskopf has upped the ante here, pushing the works away from easy comparisons to, say, Jonas Wood, and into more abstract, fantastical territory: Alessandro Pessoli or Dana Schutz.

Stosskopf explains how the works in The Mocking Bird are rooted in both reality and fantasy. As he states, each painting refers to one or more birds. Some are domesticated, others wild, others in a cage. It is an allegory of the human condition. 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, birds have a strange way of reminding us of our mortality, the human condition, and the beauty in the smallest of events.

Paintings, too, remind us of these very same tenets. From life and death, to myth, fact, and fiction. We invite you to explore Stosskopf’s newest paintings and explore these themes for yourself.

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FLORENT STOSSKOPF (1989, Rennes, France) is currently based in Brittany, France. The self-taught young artist holds a BA in Web and Graphic Design and an Advanced Technician Diploma in Communication from L’école Multimedia.

Solo exhibitions include: I Feel Like Pablo, Gärna Art Gallery, Spain (2023); The Diaries of a Painter, OTI Gallery, Hong Kong (2023) and; Eternal Flowers, BEERS London (2021).

Group exhibitions and fairs include: Future Fair New York with Duran Mashaal Gallery (2022); Karen Gallery, Australia (2020); Antigalerie in Paris (2019) and; Master of Botanical. 

Artists

Press

Florent Stosskopf: The Mocking Bird press release
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