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Nothing Lasts Longer Than a Brief Moment



Cleon
(b. 1991, Lisbon)
Works in London
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Promo Video


Performance with Máximo


Performance with Toto
With a background in moving image, painting, and experimental sound, Cleon is active practicing in the streets when he’s not in the studio. Recently, he has focused primarily on painting, using a cinematic approach that introduces narrative and contrasts with the expressive, abstract elements of his work.

The idea behind the title for this series of paintings, Nothing Lasts Longer Than a Brief Moment, taps into an understanding of time and existence, and suggests that no matter how significant or eternal something might feel in the present, it will inevitably be reduced to a memory or a past event. The moment we experience right now is all we ever truly have, because both the future and the past are intangible.

In the grand scheme of things, all moments, emotions, feelings, are fleeting. A year, a decade, or a lifetime may feel substantial, but compared to the infinite passage of time, they are merely “brief moments” that eventually pass. Joy, sorrow, success or failure, all of these are impermanent.

This concept resonates within Cleon’s body of work and artistic process, in nearly every medium he might be working on, in different ways, and since he can remember.

This notion is present in many stages of his work and probably the most obvious to notice is when he has just finished a layer/section of the work but the result does not satisfy him, when this happens, time tends to act in Cleon’s favour, and letting the work rest is what eventually generates the right solution by giving it a sense of time and transformation. Another way of showing this, is simply by the visual layout he has chosen to every painting of this series - divided by sharp lines, contrasting colours and themes, to represent a separation of “moments”, each one allowing itself to be contemplated as if it was living in a different time and space to the remaining subjects.

More specifically, this body of work exists at the intersection of urban art, traditional painting and experimental techniques where process and material are as much part of the narrative as the resulting images. Drawing from the contradictions between graffiti culture, abstract expression, figurative art, nature and the liminal spaces of architecture, Cleon combines a variety of tools and techniques that defy convention, embracing both the raw energy of the street and the reflective depth of the studio. His work reflects a preoccupation with the boundaries between abstraction and representation often distilling landscapes, cityscapes, dreamscapes and nature into fragmented and contrasting visual experiences, and its forms may suggest the idea that these are held in screen or window-like sections, inviting the viewer to the places, non-places, tensions and harmonies imbued in his narrative.

Cleon chooses to use tools, materials and techniques that speak to the nature of his practice on urban surfaces, allowing him to use the same motion and spontaneity in the studio. These are - glue, spray paint, concrete, metal paints, crayons, permanent markers and other tools used in tagging. These materials made to help glueing the carpet in a car or fix holes in a wall, are being repurposed as they are layered across the canvases.

Text by Daisy Delaney.

Exhibition Dates: October 30th - 24th November

Private View: October 30th - 6pm - Late

Location: Camden Open Air Gallery, 216 Camden High Street, NW1 8QR

Contact: Daisy (+44 7818692605)

Email: daisy@camdenopenairgallery.co.uk

Website: www.camdenopenairgallery.co.uk


Vertical Moments 1, 2
Acrylics, Glue, Spray Paint, Metal Paint on Stretched Canvas
101.5 x 153 x 3.5cm
2024
Vertical Moments 3, 4
Acrylics, Glue, Spray Paint, Metal Paint on Stretched Canvas
101.5 x 153 x 3.5cm
2024
Vertical Moments 5, 6
Acrylics, Glue, Spray Paint, Metal Paint on Stretched Canvas
101.5 x 153 x 3.5cm
2024
Moments 1, 2 , 3, 4
Acrylics, Glue, Spray Paint, Metal Paint on Stretched Canvas
59.5 x 84cm
2024
Moments 5, 6, 7
Acrylics, Glue, Spray Paint, Metal Paint on Stretched Canvas
59.5 x 84cm
2024
Moments  8, 9 , 10,  11
Acrylics, Glue, Spray Paint, Metal Paint on Stretched Canvas
59.5 x 84cm
2024
Moments 12, 13, 14
Acrylics, Glue, Spray Paint, Concrete, Metal Paint on Stretched Canvas
59.5 x 84cm
2024
Moments 0.1, 0.2, 0.3
Acrylics, Glue, Spray Paint, Metal Paint on Stretched Canvas
49 x 120 x 2cm
2024

Exhibition view
Moments 15, 16, 17, 18
Acrylics, Glue, Spray Paint, Metal Paint on Stretched Canvas
59.5 x 84cm
2024
Moments 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24
Acrylics, Glue, Spray Paint, Metal Paint on Stretched Canvas
59.5 x 84cm
2024
Moments 25, 26, 27, 28
Acrylics, Glue, Spray Paint, Metal Paint on Stretched Canvas
59.5 x 84cm
2024


Moments 29, 30, 31, 32
Acrylics, Glue, Spray Paint, Metal Paint on Stretched Canvas
59.5 x 84cm
2024

Exhibition view

Moments 1 to 14
Acrylics, Glue, Spray Paint, Metal Paint on Stretched Canvas
59.5 x 84cm
2024

Exhibition view
Vertical Moments 1 to 6
Acrylics, Glue, Spray Paint, Metal Paint on Stretched Canvas
101.5 x 153 x 3.5cm
2024

Exhibition view
Works from 2017 to 2024
Different formats
Introduction wall
2024

Exhibition view