'King of Pop' by Louis Masai, 2013
30 x 22 Inches
76.2 x 55.9 Centimeters
Rare 5-layer screen print with gold leaf on deckled edge 300gsm fine art paper.
Limited Edition of only 23 (#17/23) (acquired directly from artist's own vault sale).
Signed, numbered, dated and titled by the artist.

ARTIST STATEMENT

"I grew up living above my parents restaurant, which meant that I didn’t get a lot of time to hang out with my Dad but when he finished service I would join him in the studio to do my art homework. When he wasn’t being a chef, his other passion for painting took over. I guess it was then that my love for painting really started to flourish. I can’t say that I enjoyed education too much, so when I realised that I could study art at University I pursued that and acquired a degree in Falmouth, Cornwall."

"I have been living in London since 2010 and fulfilling this idea of making an income from my creativity. I maintain a fairly balanced combination of painting in the studio and painting murals in the public domain. I get huge enjoyment from both and embrace the influences that both practices have on each other."

"My subject matter focuses on animals but always strives to find a human reference to juxtapose an element that might not be previously obvious. For example with my show ‘Afrofabrication’ I entwined fabric patterns to the animals in an attempt to comment on a human desire to cover up, or indeed use flamboyant colours, to attract a mate. ‘Last of my kind’, documents critically endangered birds with references to extinct musicians. The idea for this series of work was to question why humans often fail to recognise a disappearing species yet mourn the death of a celebrity."

"My recent documentation of endangered creatures and raising of awareness of statistics has on occasion been associated with activism. I find this a bit daunting as I only see myself as an artist but I definitely see the power of visual language and I’m enjoying using that power via my murals and the modern world of social networking."

--Louis Masai
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Good (See Photos)

22 x 30 in