Yeo’s knowledge of art history is evident in the chronology of his painting. The appropriate personality to use as subject is decisive and Yeo uses them as a vehicle to explore the study of physiognomy, whilst simultaneously tackling often complex narratives and ongoing themes. Content ranges from how we consume and discuss imagery, the modern day obsession of social media, actor’s in character, the pervasiveness of pornography, cosmetic surgery and societal portraiture. His career as a painter has seen him confront a multitude of different narratives and themes. Yeo has emerged as one of the foremost pioneers of figurative painting in Britain. In Yeo’s twenty-five year career he has exhibited widely in Europe, North America and East Asia and in 2016 he collaborated with The Museum of National History at Frederiksborg, in Denmark, resulting in Yeo’s largest retrospective to date. The exhibition then toured in 2014 to the Lowry in Salford and the Laing Art Gallery in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne. His 2013 exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in London was acclaimed by the critics and public alike, and was accompanied by a major monograph and a BBC1 Culture Show special. He has painted and worked with iconic and celebrated figures including actors Kevin Spacey, Dennis Hopper and model-turned-actor Cara Delevingne, artists Damien Hirst and Grayson Perry, former Prime Minister Tony Blair, peace activist Malala Yousafzai and has produced official commissions of HRH The Duke of Edinburgh and HRH The Duchess of Cornwall. London, 18 December 1970) is one of the world’s leading portrait artists. Yeo’s ongoing innovations in theme and narrative and his engagement with society continue to challenge the genre of portraiture and reinvigorate it for the modern era.British artistJonathan Yeo (b. Underwood, from the Netflix series House of Cards, was unveiled at the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC, with Spacey unveiling the painting in character as the fictional President. Earlier in 2016, Yeo's portrait of the actor Kevin Spacey in the role of President Francis J. In recent years he has been the subject of several major museum retrospectives including one at the National Portrait Gallery, London, in 2013 and more recently at the Museum of National History in Denmark in March 2016, where he unveiled a series of work of Cara Delevingne, which looked at how social media has changed how we read and construct images of ourselves and others. Plastic surgery has also been the subject of Yeo’s brush and his series of paintings showing patients before and after cosmetic procedures continue his exploration and fascination with contemporary notions of beauty and identity. Bush in 2007, made from cuttings of pornographic magazines, bought him international notoriety and led to a series of works that used the explicit material to make carefully constructed satirical collages of figures ranging from the moral crusader Mary Whitehouse, to the brilliantly corrupt Silvio Berlusconi. His sitters include the Noble Prize Winner Malala Yousafzai, former Prime Ministers Tony Blair and David Cameron, artists Grayson Perry and Damien Hirst, as well as other leading figures from the worlds of music, fashion, comedy and film, such as Dennis Hopper, Idris Elba, Jude Law, Kevin Spacey, Helena Bonham Carter and Cara Delevingne. Entirely self-taught, his career, which spans over 20 years, has seen him create sometimes provocative images of many of the most politically and culturally influential people of our time. British artist Jonathan Yeo, born in London in 1970, where he still lives and works, is widely considered one of the world’s leading figurative artists.
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