Surf was the first exclusive print edition we launched with
Jacky Tsai back in October 2011. Having worked with him for a few months, following a couple of sales of his pieces at an auction event we hosted at the May Fair Hotel earlier that year, we noticed the growing interest in his prints and as him as the creator. He had a great story - the floral skull image he produced while on work experience at the studio of late British fashion god Alexander McQueen was used for the label’s 2008 menswear collection and became an iconic symbol for the designer in years to follow, and this was all while Jacky was still studying at St Martins.
But in terms of his art, it wasn’t the skull image he was most loved for at first; works such as
Surf and
Flying Tiger were well-thought-out digital collages with a subject matter close to Jacky’s heart, and it was these that captured those of his followers. After a short stint in mainland Europe (where he was originally meant to go to art school), he came over to London straight from his native China when he was in his early twenties to study fashion and textiles and has been here ever since, carving his career both in the art and fashion worlds (he also has his own clothes label which is sold in major London department stores). It’s his art that he wishes to pursue the most however and he has so many great ideas for new projects that it’s often difficult to keep up with them. This is fantastic for collectors and for us as a gallery as there’s a constant flow of activity, and with print editions selling out, such as previous Eyestorm screenprints
Soul Harvest and before that
Golden Harvest, and now of course with Surf almost gone as well, this only adds to the momentum and is what essentially builds an artist’s career at the beginning.
Back to
Surf; An autobiographical amalgamation of images from the east and the west, a yellow Morris Traveller (looking to me distinctly like the Trotters’ Robin Reliant, although I’m not sure if this was Jacky’s intention); a fire rescue helicopter and vintage images of American surfers and fun-fair rides are fused together with traditional Chinese motifs, landscapes and flowers, which are often used as symbolism in Chinese art and poetry. The inclusion of waves in this piece, for me not only relates to the work’s title, but also acts as a reference to Hokusai’s ‘The Great Wave off Kanagawa’ or ‘The Wave’ as it’s sometimes abbreviated to, which is one of the most recognised works of Japanese art in the western world. Again, I’m not sure if this was intentional or not, but this element of uncertainty and opportunity for freedom of interpretation is why art can be so fascinating.
There are only a few Surf prints remaining from the edition of 30. See the piece
here.