Zaza Galerie is pleased to present “London Landscapes in Tokyo” an exhibition showcasing the work of Oren Ezuz and Anna Shapiro, London-based artists and urban practitioners. The exhibition features five new paintings alongside several rapid observational drawings. The work contrasts two faces of London: one undeniable universal, the other celebrating the local.
Anna’s urban skylines capture three South London scenes that often remain unnoticed for their assumed ordinariness. However, what is offered in Anna’s rapid observational work as a personalised reading, is often later revealed as a reassuringly universal.
Oren presents two semi-imaginary depictions of Haggerston Park, his local green space, created through a combination of memory and observation. The works showcase his familiarity with the place, utilizing composition, colour, and artistic styles.
On the ground floor, the exhibition features *Twinning*, a series of collaborative drawings where Oren and Anna each depict the same locations in London from their own perspective, style, and choice of subject. The resulting works highlight the richness and complexity of these places.
Perhaps Tokyo will be the next subject?
Anna Shapiro
Anna Shapiro is a London based visual artist, architect and urbanist. She is a practising architect and a course master and design tutor at the Housing and Urbanism Graduate programme, Architectural Association School, London. Anna is an initiator and an active member of Collective Formations – an international design research group focusing on the architectural challenges of new spatial models emerging globally and shaping the contemporary city.
Anna also is an exhibiting artist and illustrator. She is involved in various printed productions and design initiatives. She uses her drawings and paintings as an exploratory tool – driving and formulating the communication process, rather than the final moment of any specific body of work. The critical aspect is that the work process has to be set in a way that would allow for the drawing to lead her in a direction of the theme, rather than acting as a representation of the predefined one.
Anna uses her drawings and paintings as an exploratory tool – driving and formulating the communication process, rather than the final moment of any specific body of work. The critical aspect is that the work process must be set in a way that would allow for the drawing to lead her in a direction of the theme, rather than acting as a representation of the predefined one.
Anna’s everyday practice of drawing can be paralleled with some alternative formats of visual diaries. This association is related to her use of the social media as a primary platform of chronological sharing and exposure, largely in a lifetime. But it can be also linked to her fascination with the scenes that often remain unnoticed or disregarded for being banal. Interestingly, these visual experiences of “being present here and now” that from the first sight, appear as a personalised reading, are often later revealed as a reassuringly universal.
Anna’s continues fascination with various formats of an architectural image, whether it’s a diagram, drawing, visualisation or photograph, involves a process of observations via sketching and is deeply rooted in the questioning of the prospective transformation and change. In this sense her own exploration of an architectural image is simultaneously an exploratory and generative tool, offering the possibility to constantly engage with the predetermined by asking: “What if?”, or speculating on the possibility of the future formation by proposing a sequence: “If this… then that…”
Oren Ezuz
Oren Ezuz is a London-based artist and urban designer. His practice covers visual art, urbanism, architecture, landscape design and photography. Oren is interested in urban places, and in the careful and responsible process by which one understands, documents, steers or designs urban life. He enjoys and values collaborations with peers and meaningful engagement with the context. Oren’s practice of drawing and photography is a visual documentation of his response to the place..
The subjects of his works cover urban landscapes, everyday life, intimate interiors or beautiful day-to-day objects. Simple subjects that are often overlooked which he draws and redraws in different media, formats and at changing scales, pace, or seasons.
Oren’s acrylic works were exhibited at the Royal Academy’s Summer Exhibition in 2020 and 2022. Launched in Macondo Gallery in London, Oren had self-published a duo of themed photograph books. Oren is a senior practitioner in a London based multidisciplinary practice, with a leading role in the Landscape and Urban Design team. Oren was born and educated in Tel Aviv, and currently living and loving London.