Artist Talk: Luke Edward Hall '300,000 Kisses'
Friday, 3 November
18:00pm - 19:00pm
The Breeder is pleased to host an artist talk between Luke Edward Hall and Sean Hewitt moderated by Gemma Rolls-Bentley on the occasion of Hall’s solo exhibition at Frieze No.9 Cork Street, London, titled 300,000 Kisses. The show is centered around a series of works on queer love in the ancient world, that are part of 300,000 Kisses, a book by Sean Hewitt and Luke Edward Hall, published by Penguin. The talk, hosted at No.9 Cork Street on Friday November 3, 2023, 6-7 pm will shed light on different connections between Hall’s art, Hewitt’s literary practice and their common threads linking antiquity and queerness.
In the book, Hewitt and Hall present a collection of 40 stories, previously suppressed or overlooked, a series of queer tales to complete the canon narrative on love, desire and affection. Luke Edward Hall’s series of drawings vividly complement the words of poet Sean Hewitt, to build a safe yet extroverted space for those stories to be narrated and illustrated through a contemporary lens. The exhibition includes Hall’s original drawings for the publication providing a mystical introduction to the artist’s poetic universe. In his world, classical iconography meets the immediacy of the everyday in vibrant drawings and paintings with a bold yet lyrical motion.
Luke Edward Hall works on a broad range of interests, blurring the boundary between art and design. From interior design and fashion projects to murals and illustration work for books, restaurants and hotels. He has collaborated with a variety of companies and institutions including Burberry, Lanvin, Christie’s, Royal Academy of Arts, Ginori 1735, Svenskt Tenn and Habitat. In 2020 Luke’s first large interior design and art direction project opened in Paris at Hôtel Les Deux Gares: a thirty- eight bedroom hotel and bistro in the city’s 10th arrondissement. In March 2019 Luke joined the Financial Times as a weekly columnist in FT Weekend, answering readers’ questions on aesthetics, interior design and stylish living. In February 2022 Hall launched Chateau Orlando, his own brand for homeware and clothing. In January 2021 The Breeder hosted Hall’s first solo exhibition with the gallery in Athens, titled Figs and Honey and Sailing and his second solo with The Breeder in Athens took place in September 2022 titled The Hunter Hunts in a Pink Mist.
Seán Hewitt‘s debut collection of poetry, Tongues of Fire, won The Laurel Prize in 2021, and was shortlisted for The Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award, the John Pollard Foundation International Poetry Prize, and a Dalkey Literary Award. In 2020, he was chosen by The Sunday Times as one of their “30 under 30” artists in Ireland. His book J.M. Synge: Nature, Politics, Modernism was published with Oxford University Press (2021). His memoir, All Down Darkness Wide, is published by Jonathan Cape in the UK and Penguin Press in the USA (2022). It was shortlisted for Biography of the Year at the An Post Irish Book Awards, for the Foyles Book of the Year in non-fiction, for the RSL Ondaatje Prize, and for a LAMBDA award, and won the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature in 2022. His forthcoming books include 300,000 Kisses: Tales of Queer Love from the Ancient World, illustrated by Luke Edward Hall (2023), and a second collection of poetry, Rapture’s Road (2024).Seán is Assistant Professor in Literary Practice at Trinity College Dublin, and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
Gemma Rolls-Bentley has been at the forefront of contemporary art for over a decade, working passionately to champion diversity in the field. Curating exhibitions and building art collections internationally, her curatorial practice amplifies the work of female and queer artists and provides a platform for art that explores LGBTQ+ identity. Gemma is an advisor to early stage startups, global businesses and cultural projects and she teaches at institutions including the Royal College of Art, Glasgow School of Art and Goldsmiths. She co-chairs the board of trustees for the charity Queercircle and is a member of the Courtauld Association Committee. Most recently she curated The Brighton Beacon Collection, the largest permanent display of queer art in the UK and the inaugural Tom of Finland Art & Culture Festival in London, her debut book ‘Queer Art’ will be published in 2024 by Frances Lincoln.