Gallery Spotlight: Underdog London

By John Freeman on May 21, 2020

The Underdog London gallery and live music studio may he closed for the foreseeable, but the team are still actively promoting and highlighting the work of artists they’ve exhibited. If you have a bit of cash stuck down a sofa somewhere and you’re looking for something unique to round off Pandemic-prompted redecoration, you might want to check out their web site.

Be warned – if you’re after original, unique and often stunning art, we’re sometimes talking a lot of cash, but that doesn’t stop anyone’s appreciation, right? However, the limited edition print prices are reasonable considering what’s in offer.

Chris Guest is a London based Artist who creates paintings in a classic figurative tradition, coupled with a contemporary twist, utilising classical drawing and oil painting techniques, learnt at London Fine Arts in Battersea. At age 18, Chris began showing his work in galleries in Cornwall, and has since exhibited extensively throughout the UK and the US

An eclectic arts and music bar with a welcoming environment for everyone to enjoy, Underdog London was first established back in 2007 on the Old Kent Road SE1, as an art gallery and live music studio. The ethos was to promote up and coming artists and creatives of all types and genres but mostly in the graphic art and rock music scenes, gig poster design, graffiti / street and outsider art.

The Underdog has since evolved in its current surroundings since 2011 in London Bridge, still staying true to its ethos of championing the outsider, but working and growing alongside some amazing, up and coming and well established artists and musicians.

Matt Adams, born in Germany and raised in England, is a British artist new to the London art scene. He started drawing and painting at a very young age. As a teenager every inch of Matt’s bedroom walls and ceiling were covered in paintings, graffiti and sketches. When Matt took his work to the streets he quickly felt limited by the typical graffiti style and gravitated towards painting portraits of women using acrylics, chalk, gold leaf, ink and collage

Kieran Ingram attained a scholarship to study classical drawing and painting techniques at the Angel Academy of Art in Florence, Italy. After he completed his studies he moved to London to establish a studio and produce work for exhibitions in Australia and the UK. Still life is the primary focus of Kieran’s work, he finds the relationship between specific objects particularly fascinating, especially when elements that seem incongruous can be made to complement each other in surprising ways

Today the style of art they promote has grown to encompass a more finer, dark, surrealist and figurative offering. In normal times, the Underdog curates regular solo and group exhibitions with artist from the UK and all over the world, offering a unique, edgy and darker take than most galleries in London.

Sylwia Makris is an educated sculptor but fine art photography has been her main visual medium for several years. Her creative expression fuses photography with traditional painting and sculpting techniques inspired by old masters and silhouettes of contemporary culture

Rosso’s art revolves around femininity and her identity as a woman in our contemporary society. The female figures are predominant in her paintings and are placed within imaginary, timeless spaces made up of dreams, childhood memories and pure fantasies

Nikko Mercialo (Saint Saturday) is a Vancouver-based contemporary artist and designer whose work strives to reconcile inner conflict and the tidal sweep of our emotions with an external world that is both brutal and beautiful

By mixing exceptional young talent with well seasoned artists in their disciplines, including Matt Adams, Chris Guest, Kieran Ingram, Sylwia Markis, Rosso, Saint Saturday and many more, they curate some of the most interesting exhibitions in London. They also sell original paintings, sculpture, fine art photography and very limited edition prints and curate artwork for residential and commercial environments.

Hopefully the Underdog – normally, hosts to some of the most interesting contemporary art exhibitions and events, a diverse range of live music gigs – and many places like it will be back in operation by the end of 2020. But in the meantime, check out their web site and at least treat yourself to looking at some great eye-catching art, – even if the prices of original canvas may be a trifle mind boggling for many of us!

• Underdog London is online at theunderdog.london| Subscribe to their mailing list to be kept up to date and invited to their exhibitions and events | Facebook | Instagram | The Underdog London – Arch 6 Crucifix Lane, SE1 3JW London | For information on Underdog artists contact them at info@thewildbeasts.co.uk

All artwork featured copyright the artists, available for sale via Underdog

John Freeman

The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.

Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.

He’s the writer of “Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies” for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs” with Dave Hailwood.