The Descent of Man

Wolfe von Lenkiewicz
Lincoln Eagle


All Visual Arts is to display new work by British artist Wolfe von Lenkiewicz in his largest exhibition to date. Using the landmark bank built by the notable Arthur Beresford Pite, over 80 works will be on show throughout the building, taking the viewer on a literal and metaphorical journey of Lenkiewicz's imagination.

Focusing on ideas of religion, creationism, mythology, and science, Lenkiewicz engages in the elaborate project of 're-sequencing' (borrowing the term from geneticists) the existing language of images into a new and fantastical visual syntax. In the manner of a nineteenth century naturalist such as Darwin, Lenkiewicz catalogues the varieties of iconographic experience - grafting together multiple images to produce startling hybrids of a disturbing and uncanny new order of 'species'.

Lenkiewicz's consummate technical skills combine with his anarchic imagination to create enigmatic visions that are so fathomable, the viewer could easily presume they have always existed together, and yet - on closer inspection - they escape a single interpretation. Frequently pushing the boundaries of iconographic deconstruction towards a flamboyant and absurdist meltdown the artist manages to tune the images just short of the outrageously blasphemous or preposterously comical.

Lenkiewicz's style is reminiscent of the Renaissance artists, echoing the drawings of the Old Masters with their technical ability and attention to detail, whilst stamping his own individuality with equal weight. By adopting the most classical of materials - silverpoint or pencil for the drawings, oil on canvas for the paintings and bronze for the sculpture the artist manages to smuggle an explosive contraband of challenging imagery into the history of art. Highlights of the exhibition include a life-sized drawing that depicts Adam and Eve being expelled from Eden and running across the back of a stegosaurus as well as a bronze statue entitled, St. Eustace, a magnificent bust of a stag bearing a Boeing 747 that will greet visitors as they enter the show.