Press
It’s a right royal bust-up on east London’s art scene. Last week an exhibition opened in a space at the Black & White Building in Shoreditch and immediately ran into controversy. Are we returning to the age of censorship?
At a packed private view for the Art Society Soho show Revolution, an upset punter took offence at Annie Zamero’s painting of Prince Charles dreaming of pushing the Queen out of an airborne chariot. But the argument over the painting proved to be just the beginning of the show’s troubles.
Over the weekend, The Londoner is told, the gallery removed 20 paintings with no explanation, including one by Fiona McAuliffe emblazoned with the message “Don’t Kill the Arts”. In protest, Art Society Soho members voted to take down all their work, ending the show more than a week early.
This morning Zamero told The Londoner that artists were very surprised by the gallery’s actions. “We were a bit shocked,” she said. “Some of the artists don’t know why, it’s a bit of a puzzle. It is particularly bad to do it without notifying the artists or curators or anything. We won’t be using the space again,” she said. “The manager said the paintings were off-brand. But it’s not a commercial enterprise – we’re not selling a packet of cigarettes.”
A representative of the Black & White Building is looking into the matter. Hugo von Hugo, chairman of ASS, said the show was called Revolution to “examine the underlying fears in society”. Too much of a revolution for some, evidently.
The collective artistic orgasm over the wedding of Prince Harry to Meghan Markle has left some wondering where modern boundaries lie when it comes to taste.
At The Londoner we welcome kitsch tributes. This week the dustsheets were ceremoniously ripped off the royal couple’s Madame Tussaud’s waxworks, while ITV screened serious documentaries devoted to the wedding, The Royal Wives of Windsor, and Prince Harry’s Story: Four Royal Weddings.
Now we learn that the controversial artist Annie Zamero has made her own panegyric offering. Two years ago Zamero’s painting of the Queen and Prince Charles in an airborne chariot had to be removed from an exhibition at the Black and White Building in Shoreditch after complaints.
The chariot is a leitmotif in Zamero’s work: the new painting, pictured, features Harry in military uniform and Markle in a bath towel riding in one. A clapperboard in the corner references Markle’s acting career in the American TV series Suits.
Zamero insists the work is not in poor taste. “I am a great fan of the royal family, and Harry and Meghan in particular. This is a celebration of him as an Adonis and her as a nymph,” she says. “My friends wanted me to show her naked as in Suits, but I thought it better to leave something to the imagination.”
The painting is scheduled to be shown at the Euroart Open Studios gallery during the first weekend in June. After that, Zamero will offer it as a wedding gift to the couple.
The royal household were said to be “seriously worried” last week by a fictionalised American TV film about the couple that includes sex scenes.
In May, we revealed that controversial artist Annie Zamero had painted a portrait of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex as Adonis and a Nymph. Now that the work has been exhibited at a gallery in Tottenham, she wants to send it as a wedding gift.
“I thought their wedding was wonderful — an uplifting highlight amidst the general Brexit gloom”, she says. “My painting shows them literally being lifted up! It is my celebration of the wedding and I am trusting to their good humour.”
Perhaps it would fit in the spot above the fireplace at Nottingham Cottage.
Published on July 18, 2020July 18, 2020 in Spotlight by Emma Roper-Evans
I am a painter with 2 main series currently ongoing- one is the ‘Warrior’ paintings of mystical warriors who are engaged in personal and spiritual battles, and are a celebration of the power of the human spirit to overcome obstacles and gain self knowledge. The other very different works are satires of royalty and politicians, each painting set in an art historical context by referencing an Old Master that has a humorous relevance. I have used the lockdown time to finish a very large (2m x 1.5m) painting of Boris Johnson as it is due to be exhibited in a show that may resurface later this year. I have dressed Boris in ballet shoes, a tutu made of a Union Jack, carrying a flag of the same whilst prancing on a Russian tank in a quasi goose step pose. Fortunately, prior to lockdown, I had already taken the necessary photos of a friend posing for me on a tank affectionately known as ‘Stompie’ on open ground in Bermondsey. Boris sadly was not available for the photo shoot.
Annie Zamero hasn’t been invited to the Coronation on Saturday despite, or more likely because of, her paintings of the royals, the latest being titled “The Coronation of King Charles III and Queen Camilla”, though that’s still a drawing at the moment with a finished painting some months away.
Previously she received a polite letter from Buckingham Palace declining an invite for Queen Elizabeth II to attend an exhibition showcasing Zamero’s portrait of Her Majesty on a swing in commemoration of the Queen’s 90th birthday. The painting was based on French Rococo artist Jean Honoré Fragonard’s “The Swing”, where a man has a view up the dress of the swinging lady, who is quite likely not wearing underwear. Those who write royal thank you’s may not be students of 18th century painting.
Publications
Tabish Khan, 'Artist as Sorcerer- Creating Realities', Exhibition Catalogue, 2025
Charles Thomson, 'Charles, Camilla, Biden, Putin, Trump, Harry, Meghan And Annie Zamero', 'Counterpunch' (American Journal), May 5, 2023 https://www.counterpunch.org/.../charles-camilla-biden.../
Constantine Panagiotakopoulos, 'Artists From Around the World', Art Number 23 Gallery Exhibition Catalogue, November, 2023
Bridget Galton, 'Crouch End Open Studios Group Exhibition at Hornsey Library', 'Ham and Hi' May 15, 2023
https://www.hamhigh.co.uk/news/
23523397.crouch-end-open-studios-group-exhibition-hornsey-library/
Charles Thomson, 'In Praise of Annie Zamero-The Art and Culture of Tenterden', 'Is It Art?', Poems By Charles Thomson, 2021
Emma Roper-Evans, 'Boris Ballet', Sunday Tribune (Sunday Spotlight), July 12, 2020
Anna McNay, 'The Role of Reinterpretation In Annie Zamero's Royal Revolutions', Exhibition Catalogue, 2019
Dr Joel Vos, PhD, 'Annie Zamero at Bermondsey Project Space', essay on Facebook, 2019
Charlotte Edwards, 'Tottenham Adonis Belongs in the Palace', Evening Standard, The Londoner, August 3, 2018
Charlotte Edwards, 'Now See Harry as the New Adonis', Evening Standard, The Londoner, May 11, 2018
Anna McNay, 'Massaging the Message, Exhibition Catalogue, 2017
Sophia Wallace Dunlop & Hercules Fisherman, 'Art4Grenfell', Exhibition Catalogue, 2017
Ron Throop, 'International Stuckist Invitational', Freeflow Publishing, 2017
Charles Thomson, 'ReModernism Corrects the Art World', New Art Examiner, September 2017
Editor's Blog, 'Annie Zamero', 1340 Magazine, July 2017
Rebecca Feiner, 'Remember Her', Exhibition Catalogue, 2017
Katerina Stavrou, 'Wonder Women - Annie Zamero', 2017
Guy Pewsey, Robbie Griffiths, 'There Will Be No Revolution in East London', Evening Standard, Londoner's
Diary, November 14, 2016
Editor's Blog, 'Happy Birthday to HM Queen Elizabeth', Fuck Yeah Black Pens, May 3, 2016
Bevis Hillier, Edward Lucie-Smith, Dr Grant Pooke, 'Remodernising the Mainstream', Exhibition Catalogue, 2015
Paul Carey-Kent, 'Magmatism, Quine and the Instability of Being', Exhibition Catalogue, 2014
Francis Lamb, 'A Restless Imagination', Exhibition Catalogue, 2014
'Billy Childish and Sweet Toof to exhibit at New Voices in Hackney Exhibition', East End Review, May 7, 2014
Anna McNay, 'A Heaven of Hell, A Hell of Heaven', The Espacio Gallery Catalogue, 2014
Anna Maria Pinaka, 'Expressing the Inexpressible of Selves and Others Through Conceptual Romanticism',
The Magma Group Exhibition Catalogue 2013
Anna Maria Pinaka, 'The Magma Group' Vibe Press Magazine 2013
Editor's Blog, 'Prepare to be Shocked.-The Stuckism Show at Bermondsey Project', Giddy Limits, October 7, 2012
Dr Chris Barlow, 'Proem:1819: Dialogue' Exhibition Catalogue, 2012
Dr Chris Barlow, Gayane Umerova, Parallax Art Fair Catalogue, 2011
Cristina Pedreira, 'Connection Point London' www.cristinapedreira.com/.../connection-point-london-this-years-show 2011
Dr Robert Janas, Edward Lucie-Smith, Charles Thomson, 'Enemies of Art' Victoria Press, 2011
Odysseus Yakoumakis, Exhibition Catalogue, published by Ash-in Art, May 2010
Charles Thomson, 'An Antidote to the Ghastly Turner Prize' Victoria Press, 2010
Dr Robert Janas, 'Stuckism International' Victoria Press, 2009
'Gallery 5 Exhibitions' Art in London Magazine, Spring 2009
Simon Wroe: 'You Can Go Stick It!' Islington Tribune, February 27, 2009