Silver Surfer

A monkey laying on the running board of a chrome hot rod with a surfboard on the roof - Tony South - Silver Surfer

The car in this piece doesn’t exist, it was fabricated digitally and then drawn onto canvas, the painting is mainly an exercise in capturing surfaces, reflections and a Californian Hotrod scenario to host. It also features the Hypno-Chimp motif again.

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The Last Lap

A monkey on a motorcycle racing a turtle and snail - Tony South - The Last Lap

Based on my fond nostalgia for old British motorcycles. A complex work that could take on many narratives to the viewer, there was a vague inspiration from the Aesop’s fable “The tortoise and the hare” but it’s mainly a self-indulgent work of things I enjoy painting.

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Hypno

The head of a money in red with other monkey heads captured inside his head - Tony South - Hypno

A reworked version of the Hypno-chimp design featured in other paintings, its a fairly large oil on canvas piece, merging snippets together to form the whole.

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Interlude

a monkey playing the piano with a dog - Tony South - Interlude

Another piece inspired by music, in this case it was The Lone pianist character, loosely based on Tom Waits. It’s a snapshot of reflection midst performance, the booze, the fedora, thin tie complete the character protected by the pensive in house security bulldog. A technically complex painting from an age old stereotype.

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Gravity

A gorilla flying through the air with an unplugged guitar - Tony South - Gravity

Rock n Roll gone apeshit in this one, all the background given a blurred appearance to throw the Apeaxeman into the limelight. Capturing human movement and translating that into the structure of a gorilla was the aim here, as well as a smattering of self indulgence.

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The Moloko Muscle

The men with pigs heads and baseball bats standing around an orange hot rod - Tony South - The Moloko Muscle

A parody from the “Clockwork Orange” movie, replacing Alex and his Droogs with Pigs, I used pigs a lot in my very early paintings with white backgrounds because they were a challenge to convey human characteristics. The car is fabricated and adorned digitally then drawn onto the canvas. Ultraviolence and swine, not something you see…

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Jukebox Hero

A monkey with a beer and guitar standing by a jukebox - Tony South - Jukebox Hero

A totally self indulgent nostalgia piece for me, things that rang true. The monkeys pose is pure Scott Weiland or Jagger whilst adorning a Paul Stanley eye star. All this iconography and sub culture played a fabulous role in my ascendancy into adulthood.

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