Last week, East London art duo, Static opened their new  exhibition, Moments of Clarity, at Whisper Gallery. Having met at art college, Tom and Craig started working together in their own studio in 2006, combining their individual styles into a beautiful collaboration fusing elements of urban art with fine art.

We got to check out the exhibition at the opening last week and as amazing as the images in this post are they don’t quite do these impressive pieces justice. Static have used a new style of layered work, which toys with light, reflection and transparency to create unique pieces mixing screen printing and stenciling on layers of glass, Perspex and aluminum. This practice results in ‘floating’, deconstructed portraits and multi-layered symbols and patterns.

Make sure you check out their exhibition at Whisper and make sure you attend their live printing session where you will get to see Static at work and even buy the print for £35.

We asked the guys a few questions and they were nice enough to answer:

What’s new with Static? 

Our second London solo show, ‘Moments of Clarity’, opened at Whisper gallery last week. It’s the first time that our ’Pattern’ and ‘Portrait’ series of layered glass pieces have been shown here in the UK and we’ve had a great response from everyone who has seen it so far. We’re also in talks and finalising dates for shows in Milan, Tokyo and Las Vegas which means we’re working flat out in the studio on new pieces and print ideas to keep things fresh.

For your latest exhibition ‘Moments of Clarity’, you’re becoming artists in residence at Whisper Gallery. With more artists streaming their work (see Damien Hirst’s studio feed), do you think live art is something that’s important in the current art scene?

In many creative industries there is a high level of interest from the public to see ‘behind the scenes’ of the craft and skill that goes into making the final product. By doing something like this, it gives people the chance to interact with us and to see the processes and techniques that we use when creating larger pieces, like in the window, as well as for limited edition screen prints, as we’ll be doing next Tuesday (8th May).

As your studio is in Hackney would it be safe to assume you prefer East to West London?

When we first moved our studio to London we shared a space in Park Royal and then moved down the road to North Acton where we worked from a small metal cupboard with no windows. It wasn’t all bad though, as there was a great lebanese restaurant and our framer, Pauli Frames, was within walking distance. We made the move to Hackney Wick to be closer to where we were living at the time and also because the new
studio was 3 times as big and has a whole wall of windows!

Hackney Wick has a much different feel to it than the industrial estates we used to call home over in West London, but we’ve got good memories of the time we were there and it’s only an overground journey away if we miss it too much!

What’s  your favourite bar, restaurant or café and what’s your order?

The Van Man at the end of Wallis Road, Hackney Wick. Crispy Bacon, fried egg with runny yolk, mushrooms, brown sauce in between two slices of crusty white bread x 2. Thank you, we’ll get the kettle on!

Other than yours, which art exhibition or piece would you recommend? 

Conor Harrington: Three Kings from his recent show at Lazarides, Rathbone Place. Check out the photos, absolutely amazing work! We love his style and this show was seriously impressive. Also, keep an eye out for War Boutique’s next show at Andipa some time in June.

What’s the best piece of London slang (rhyming or otherwise) you’ve heard - and how would you use it in a sentence?

Loaf of bread… As in, “I feel like i’ve got an axe in my life of bread.”

What next for you guys?

Preparing for the Milan show, working on some commissions and collaborations, plus getting all our ideas for the Japan show to the next stage and ready to roll out in the next month or so.

Moments of Clarity is at Whisper Gallery (27/28 Eastcastle Street, London, W1W 8DH) until 26th May. Static’s live printing session will take place at the gallery at 6pm on 8th May.