Dorothy Circus Gallery is proud to introduce you to its new programme of double solo shows in Rome and London, starting in November with the opening of ‘Chambrum Rangeam,’ the first double solo exhibition by Street Artist Seth at DCG.

With this new exhibition and a unique approach, curated for us by Stefano Antonelli, we celebrate with our international audience the experience of the surreal and the rediscovered freedom of imagination, visual and conceptual codes that have always distinguished the curatorial line of DCG. Once again strengthening the link between the two DCG galleries, we invite our spectators on a journey from Rome to London and vice versa, discovering the dynamic Artist's Diary of Seth and the poetic dialogue that can be read between the lines of his stories on canvas. On this occasion, we will also inaugurate the grand opening of the permanent London location in Marble Arch.

Julien Malland, alias Seth, is one of the most renowned and beloved street artists of our contemporaneity. Born in Paris, Julien Malland studied at the Ecole Narionale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs of Paris (ENSAD) and, in 1972, he began painting murals in the 20th arrondissement of Paris under the name of Seth. He made himself known among Parisian graffiti artists by creating characters that stood out from the classical iconography of French Urban Art.

Seth’s art aims at encountering people and cultures from all over the world, in order to broaden his and our horizon on life and urban art. By no coincidence, he is deeply engaged not only in mural painting, but also in film making and writing. He directed numerous documentaries, among which ‘Graffiti Argentina’ in 2014, ‘Khmers et Sprays’ in 2013, and ‘Les Nouveaux Explorateurs’ - a TV serial show produced by Canal+. He also authored the book ‘Extramuros’ (2012), which narrates Seth’s travels around the world.

Seth draws simple characters, mostly children, dwelling in imaginary environments that, like in a trompe l’oeil painting, belong to our reality while also opening up to a new visionary dimension. His children float in a timeless space where everything is eternal and contemporary at the same time. Moving away from an ‘easy’ graffiti code made of skulls and enraged icons, Seth celebrates innocence and simplicity by depicting extremely coloured and ordered compositions where the viewers get loose.

As Stefano Antonelli claims: “They [the children] represent us, they are the innocence lost in the disillusionment of our time. It's the Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust, it's the poetry of Giovanni Pascoli, it is the projection of the fundamental memory of our innocence at the time of the Internet and globalization.” These children are “suspended between life and illusion, protagonists of a unique and universal language that this artist has created conquering the world through the hundreds of thousands of shares on social networks, the only real exhibition space of street art.”

And indeed Seth’s characters embody the hybrid culture of our present times, where contemporaneity and tradition meet and mix, giving birth to an artistic and social dialogue not only in the streets, but also on social media and on the galleries’ walls.

The title of the show, ‘Chambrum Rangeam,’ means “clean up your room” - words everyone has heard from his/her mother when you are young, too young to care, too lost in a parallel universe of images, colours, and floating thoughts often too deep to describe with words. The same universe is brought back to life by the French artist who, through lines and hues and figures, helps us recall the dreams we dreamt in our bedrooms.

Each image renews Seth’s and the Gallery’s invitation to navigate, thanks to the beautiful works on view, through the memories of a lost time where we can still find our inner child. The chambre where we meet the artist is the same room where we can find our lost fantasy, our purest emotions - the magic pixie dust that helps us fly.

S.E.T.H.'s representations are accurate, timely and patient. Image after image, the artist has shaped and given substance to an imagery that we didn't know we had, but probably it has always been there, we just needed the right talent to reveal it.

(Stefano Antonelli)