Four in the afternoon, and the flat has gone quiet and grey the way flats do. Then there’s this thing on the wall throwing orange around like it hasn’t been told.
It’s The Shard. Drawn cold, sharp, every edge clean, sitting in a grey that London does about eleven months a year. And out of the very tip, colour goes off — Lagos orange, magenta, cyan, yellow — poured and sprayed and escaping upward.
Look at the drips
Here’s the part people walk past. The colour is blasting up, but the drips are running back down, against their own explosion. Wanting and holding on, in one gesture. Once you’ve seen it you can’t unsee it, and you’ll point it out to everybody who stands there.
Kai Reynolds builds the grey world exactly right first — flat, precise, no drama — then lets one thing go. One burst per picture, always leaving the subject, never decorating it. Charlotte, one of our critics, called the burst “both arresting and unforgettable.” That’s the whole idea: the colour is a thought leaving somebody’s head.
What it does to a desk, a hallway, a first flat
It gives you energy with no slogan attached. Nothing to read, nothing to explain. People notice it before they notice the sofa, and it’s a very good thing to be given the week somebody starts a new job.
Getting it up
Landscape, printed edge to edge with no white border, so the grey runs right out to the edges and the burst has room. Archival matte paper, smooth and non-reflective — hang it under a bright light or opposite a window and you still see the colour, not a glare. Made to order, which means nobody else on your street has this one.
It arrives rolled in a tube, ready for a frame you already own or a few pins if you’d rather have it bare. Most people take the 20 x 16 in (50.8 x 40.6 cm) — that’s the one already selected. Go 24 x 18 for a wider wall, 14 x 11 for a desk or a shelf. $49.00 for the middle size, free shipping in the continental US.
One honest thing
It’s loud in exactly one spot. If you like a room where everything agrees, this will not agree. If you like one thing on the wall that’s clearly having a better day than everyone else, take it home.
Not sure yet? Have a look through the rest of Kai’s GREY BURST work on printasso.com — or follow him, and you’ll see the next burst before anyone else does.
One is a piece. Two is a set. Three is a collection.
Almost nobody stops at one. A second work by the same hand turns a wall into a pairing. A third turns it into something you chose rather than something you bought. There are 6 other works by Kai Reynolds available.
Optimism Through Downpour – Kai Reynolds | Digital Download$19
Number Seventeen Erupting – Kai Reynolds | Fine Art Print Price range: $129 through $229
Chair Holding Silence – Kai Reynolds | Fine Art Print Price range: $29 through $69
Ignition Climbing Slow – Kai Reynolds | Digital Download$19
Exit Erupting Orange – Kai Reynolds | Fine Art Print Price range: $129 through $229
Wing Unfolding Fuchsia – Kai Reynolds | Fine Art Print Price range: $29 through $69
