On January 18th Autoversion Ltd presents SKIN. From a rough and tumble display of urban sexuality to an endless depository of historical identities, artists, Paul Brainard, Pia Dehne and Sissel Kardel tackle layer after layer of this surface so close to all of us.

Paul Brainard shows skin throughout his buoyant and commercially driven artworks. Included in the show are three beautifully rendered drawings and one sexually charged painting. Brainard layers his artworks with bold and elegant subject matter using an adding and taking away technique. The compositions unfold into an almost farcical yet very sweet collision of seductive imagery.

Pia Dehne includes three powerfully subdued works in the show they involve collage and merge abstract with figurative painting. Dehne stretches pantyhose around her canvas – tinting the lush color palettes that lie beneath. The works draw on a wide range of content peculiar to the artist’s history including nude suits and re-examinations of some of the most provocative album cover art from the 1970’s.

Sissel Kardel takes on the notion of the self as object and cooks up some dynamic paintings that place feminine ideals into a delicate balance. Drawing on fairy tales, Greek mythology and Norse ideals of feminine beauty, Kardel’s subjects pine distant lovers, nourish themselves with their own milk and protect innocent prey. The four paintings included in the show find Kardel’s mythical nudes unbalanced on the way to nirvana – in a state of putting oneself back together.