Close Aaron Kasmin
Enquire about
Details

    Thank you for your enquiry
    We will be in touch shortly.

    Close Aaron Kasmin
    Aaron Kasmin

    Aaron Kasmin
    Always a Show

    16th September - 28th October 2021

    We are thrilled to present Always a Show by Aaron Kasmin, following the success of Lucky Strike (2016), Up in Smoke (2017) and Showtime! (2019). Sims Reed Gallery is hosting Kasmin’s fourth exhibition which is inspired by recent American feature matchbook discoveries. This exhibition showcases twenty-nine new pencil drawings which portray vibrant scenes from the post-prohibition era. Focusing on a wide range of themes from bars and restaurants, fashion, sporting events and precious objects, Kasmin is drawn to the rich source of subject matter on these ephemeral objects, which provide endless inspiration. Bold, dynamic, energetic and nostalgic, the vibrancy of these drawings immediately set the scene and transport us back to the dynamism of a bygone America.

    Aaron Kasmin
    The Bel Air

    Coloured pencil drawing, 2020.
    30 x 21 cm.

    Sold
    Enquire

    Kasmin began collecting Lion Match Company’s matchbooks several years ago, inspired by these lively and inventive images. Originally mass-produced for advertising purposes, the humble matchbook soon became the most effective advertising medium in America, which was embraced by almost every industry.

    Aaron Kasmin
    Metropolis

    Coloured pencil drawing, 2020.
    21 x 30 cm.

    £1,500 framed
    Enquire

    A small selection of Aaron Kasmin’s large collection of matchbooks.

    “It’s both a challenge and an exciting task to find new matchbooks that aesthetically fit my artistic aspirations. Knowing there are so many more matchbooks out there gives me momentum, inspiring me to explore and develop further.”

    –  Aaron Kasmin

    Aaron Kasmin
    Models by Mathilde

    Coloured pencil drawing, 2020.
    30 x 21 cm.

    Sold
    Enquire
    Aaron Kasmin
    Prosperise

    Coloured pencil drawing, 2020.
    21 x 15 cm.

    Sold
    Enquire

    “They are wonderful pieces of cultural and social history. The ‘matchbook’ is an object that marks the rise of America’s consumer culture when advertising was still a fairly modern and exciting construction.

    –  Aaron Kasmin

     

    Aaron Kasmin
    Stacy Sport

    Coloured pencil drawing, 2020.
    30 x 21 cm.

    Sold
    Enquire

    The drawings were created during the exceptional year of 2020 which saw many of us isolating in our homes. During a time when it has not been possible to travel, Kasmin found “the matchbooks foreign and exciting depictions a great source of inspiration, allowing my mind to wander to exotic places.” When selecting new subject matter he was drawn to the most dynamic and original matchbooks in both colour and themes, which he imbues with his own artistic freedom.

    Aaron Kasmin
    Always A Show

    Coloured pencil drawing, 2020.
    30 x 21 cm.

    Sold
    Enquire

    “These works offer an enticing glimpse into the romantic world of America in the era of F. Scott Fitzgerald and Humphrey Bogart. They are small ephemeral vestiges of Americana.”

     

    –  Aaron Kasmin

    Aaron Kasmin
    The Nut Club

    Coloured pencil drawing, 2020.
    30 x 21 cm.

    Sold
    Enquire
    Aaron Kasmin
    Leon & Eddie's

    Coloured pencil drawing, 2020.
    21 x 30 cm

    Sold
    Enquire

    For 30 years, Leon & Eddie’s was a stellar attraction on New York’s “Swing Street,” a block of West 52nd Street just off 5th Avenue in Manhattan dominated by clubs that featured swing music. The club’s Sunday night celebrity parties attracted a large clientele of show business celebrities, such as George Jessel, Bob Hope, Red Skelton, Milton Berle, Helen Morgan, Jackie Gleason, Marie McDonald and Eydie Gorme.

    The comedian, actor and filmmakerJerry Lewis recalled: “Leon and Eddie’s was a mecca for nightclub comics. Sunday night was Celebrity Night: The fun would start after hours, when anybody in the business might show up and get on to do a piece of their act. You’d see the likes of Milton Berle, Henny Youngman, Danny Kaye. It was magical. I used to go and gawk, like a kid in a candy store.”

    The matchbooks are small, ephemeral and almost forgotten; the ingenuity of the imagery in what must be the golden age of graphic design is here in minute form. To Kasmin, they conjure up nostalgic imagery of an exciting moment in history and he brings new life to these ephemeral objects with bold, coloured pencil drawings.  Each highly evocative work reproduces a three-dimensional scene or object, transporting the viewer back to a liberal and captivating time.

    Aaron Kasmin
    The Twist

    Coloured pencil drawing, 2021.
    30 x 21 cm.

    Sold
    Enquire
    ‘Well, shake it up, baby, now
    Twist and shout
    Come on, come on, come, come on, baby, now
    Come on and work it on out
    You know you twist, little girl
    You know you twist so fine
    Come on and twist a little closer now
    And let me know that you’re mine’
    Twist and Shout written by Phil Medley and Bert Russell, performed by The Top Notes in 1960 and The Beatles in 1963.
    Aaron Kasmin
    Stockings

    Coloured pencil drawing, 2020.
    21 x 30 cm.

    Sold
    Enquire

    Although these little-known ephemera were considered objects to be used and discarded, rather than appreciated for their dynamic design and artistic qualities. Kasmin’s lifelong passion for cinema led him to engage with the classic and stereotypical depictions of early to mid-twentieth century America, echoed in the lively and inventive images adorned on the matchbooks. Motivated by his ever-growing collection, he decided to turn them into an art form in their own right.

    Aaron Kasmin
    The Oscars

    Coloured pencil drawing, 2020.
    21 x 30 cm.

    Sold
    Enquire

    ‘American culture has always been exciting and quite dissimilar from British society. My interest in cinema from an early age allowed me to engage with the classic and stereotypical depictions of America in the first half and middle of the 20th Century; Raymond Chandler, Hemingway, Scott Fitzgerald and music by Cole Porter and  Irving Berlin. I love film noirs’.

    –  Aaron Kasmin

    Aaron Kasmin
    Cocoa Nut Grove

    Coloured pencil drawing, 2020.
    30 x 21 cm.

    Sold
    Enquire

    “Even without you,
    My arms fold about you,
    You know darling why,
    So in love with you am I.
    In love with the night mysterious,
    The night when you first were there,
    In love with my joy delirious,
    When I knew that you could care”. 

    –  So in Love by Cole Porter

     

    Aaron Kasmin
    The Silhouette

    Coloured pencil drawing, 2020.
    30 x 21 cm.

    £1,500 framed
    Enquire

    Kasmin takes several days to create these incredibly detailed unique works on paper, building up A4 and A5 sized drawings using a broad palette of colours. The chalky and matt quality of Carbothello pencils, render a texture similar to that of the matchbooks, allowing for a stencil-like quality that incorporates the matches into the images.

    Aaron Kasmin
    Julie

    Coloured pencil drawing, 2020.
    30 x 21 cm.

    Sold
    Enquire
    Aaron Kasmin
    Soldiers

    Coloured pencil drawing, 2020.
    21 x 15 cm.

    £850 framed
    Enquire

    “Having discovered the matchbooks I set about trying to make a collection which has taken a long time, I thought they were so brilliant and also almost completely unknown, especially in England.
    I used to get them out and show them occasionally to friends and it was one of them who said I should draw them and  I haven’t stopped since. I decided to make drawings of them as I thought that they were such wonderful pieces of cultural and social history”.

    –  Aaron Kasmin

    Aaron Kasmin
    Bird in Hand

    Coloured pencil drawing, 2020.
    30 x 21 cm.

    Sold
    Enquire

    “One of the great things about drawing these matchbooks is that I will never have a complete collection, it’s an impossibility.  So many were produced and very few were kept.  After all, matchbooks are ultimately throw-away objects”. 

    –  Aaron Kasmin

    Biography |

    Aaron Kasmin (b. 1963) is a British contemporary artist based in London. He studied at the Chelsea School of Art in London and has exhibited in New York, Paris and London. He works with watercolour, oil paint and chalk pencils, preferring pencils for these drawings, “as with paint it would all be too fussy drawing is a much more immediate medium,” says Kasmin.

    Close Search