[dropcap style=”font-size:100px;color:#992211;”]S[/dropcap]urrey-born artist Vincent Kamp, known for his striking portraits of people in a fused background of cinematic lighting, brooding sexual tension and impending drama, is creating a series of paintings inspired by a short film he has written, co-directed and produced.
Heavily influenced by cinema and a fascination with the dark, gritty underground world of urban subculture, Kamp’s paintings delve beneath the surface of social class to capture a moment of high tension, with the suggestion of something surreptitious going on in what could be a perfectly innocent situation.
Heist thriller Queen of Diamonds is a collaboration between Kamp and Berlinale Talent Campus graduate Naeem Mahmood (Brash Young Turks) and centres on an audacious plot to rob an international diamond trader. The film stars Georgia May Foote, Tamer Hussan, Leo Gregory and Samuel Anderson.
Kamp says: “I made this film to show how I visualise the story before I tell it with paint. My paintings have always been inspired by cinematographers and I felt it was time to take that creative influence to the next level.”
Queen of Diamonds will run from 12 September at Clarendon Fine Art, Mayfair, followed by a national gallery tour
Naila Scargill is the publisher and editor of horror journal Exquisite Terror. Holding a broad editorial background, she has worked with an eclectic variety of content, ranging from film and the counterculture, to political news and finance.
