Rob and Nick Carter are delighted to present an exhibition of new work, ‘Postcards
From Vegas‘ at FAS Contemporary at The Fine Art Society, London.
Drawing on their personal collection of postcards sourced throughout childhood,
strikingly combined with their shared passion for raw neon, Rob and Nick Carter
have created fourteen new pieces marrying postcards from the 60s and 70s with
neon signs of the type originally found on locations such as casinos, diners, ice cream
parlours and motels. The result is a new body of work that delivers an intriguing play
on place and mood.
“We’ve always been fascinated by the gaudy lurid neon signs of Las Vegas, and loved
the idea of juxtaposing these with the ‘readymade’ postcards to create different and
surprising connotations. The scale of neon has been reduced, while the postcards have
been enlarged up to 150 times their original size. The series creates a jarring between
not only the two forms of advertising, but also the flat photographic surface and the
more sculptural neon form. We hope the viewer will create their own narrative and
direct response to the work” comment Rob and Nick Carter.
The process behind each piece of artwork is complex. A 10x8” transparency is made
from a detailed scan of the original 4x6” postcard. A hand print is then created onto
Cibachrome paper, which in turn is mounted onto aluminium. The neon is then hand
bent, closely following the original vintage neons, both in terms of form and colour,
and overlaid onto the postcard. All the neon transformers and cabling are neatly
housed at the rear of the artwork, and the viewer can control the brightness of the
neon too.
Rob and Nick have been working with neon since 2003 and have been commissioned
to undertake several large scale neon installations including 23 Savile Row for D2
Private, 200 Aldersgate for Helical Bar, and Cardinal Place for Land Securities. And in
December 2008, Upper Street in Islington was illuminated by the first ever billboard
neon art installation ‘Read Colours Not Words’ commissioned by London Art Fair
and created by the Carters in association with The Fine Art Society.
Rob and Nick are colourists working in the mediums of photography, painting and
sculpture, are married and live and work in London. Their work has recently
become part of the V&A’s Collection of Cameraless Photography and is on display in
the Permanent Collection’s gallery, running concurrently with the ‘Shadow Catchers’
exhibition, October 2010–February 2011. They have had two solo shows at The Museum of Neon Art in LA and have shown internationally, including at the Cat
Street Gallery in Hong Kong in summer 2010, as well as New York, Zurich, Geneva,
Milan and London.
‘Postcards from Vegas’ opens on the 14th January and runs until the 15th February
2011, FAS Contemporary at the Fine Art Society, 148 New Bond Street, London
W1S 2JT, opening hours from 10am-6pm weekdays and 10am–1pm Saturdays.
For more information on Rob and Nick Carter contact Nicky Eaton on
07771 758915. For further details on FAS Contemporary contact Juliet
Bailey on 0207 318 1895.