Don’t let these cosmic kittens fool you, German artist Martin Eder is just as concerned with celebrating ugliness as he is with portraying kitschy cuteness. “I look for beauty in filth,” he explains. “You find the most interesting colours at motorway service areas and in the bushes.” In his biggest solo exhibition to date, opening this week at Newport Street Gallery with the suitably gruesome title Parasites, Eder brings together a disparate collection of oversized spaniels, erotic swan women and murderous bunnies. Though his images look like a cut-and-paste job, they are actually carefully executed paintings. The “illusory possibilities” of the medium have long fascinated the artist.
