Slasky - YQEII

Title: YQEII (Elizabeth II)
Year: 2020
Medium: fine art print on Hahnemühle archival paper
Dimensions: 90 × 90 cm
Condition: shows signs of accidental wear to the paper, visible and documented (see photos)
Uniqueness: unique work

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Description

This work portrays Elizabeth II through a direct, iconic, and unsettling visual language. The image, built on a saturated red, dominating background, transforms the queen’s figure into a contemporary symbol, suspended between authority, public image, and media reproducibility.

The color band crossing the gaze acts as an interference: it does not hide, but alters perception. It is a minimal gesture that breaks the icon’s untouchability, suggesting a distance between real identity and visual construction.

The signs of wear on the paper — accidental yet permanent — become an integral part of the work. They are not defects, but physical testimonies of time and matter, reinforcing the concept of image as a contemporary relic: fragile, exposed, inevitably subject to transformation.

The work was presented at Bel Air Fine Art, situating it within an international market and collecting context.

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Artist Bio

Slasky (b. 1972, Italy) is a self-taught artist based in Artena, Rome. His practice developed outside the institutional system, shaped by a background in manual labour that informs both the physical presence and conceptual precision of his work.

Active since 2015, he has built an independent market across Europe and Asia, later shifting toward a more research-driven and institutionally oriented approach. His work explores the transformation of iconic imagery into contemporary artifacts, questioning authorship, permanence and visual authority.

His work has been exhibited internationally, including selection by the jury of the Rijksmuseum.

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Selected Exhibitions (2015 — 2026)

2026
• FACE2FACE — Laundry Studios
5 – 9 March

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2025
• Tokyo Open Art | Art on Loop Exhibition — Tokyo
12 – 16 September

• Art Parallax — London
15 – 16 February

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2024
• Waterloo — Solo Exhibition, Limassol
10 – 20 December

• ARTLAB 2024 — Munich
13 – 22 June

• Must Be — Solo Exhibition, Anemi, Limassol
3 – 10 February

• Contemporary Venice 2024 — Solo Exhibition, Venice
12 – 15 January

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2023
• Time Is An Illusion / Le temps est une illusion — Kramfors
2 – 23 October

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2022
• (UN)FAIR — (UN)DISCOVERED ART — Superstudio Maxi, Milan
8 – 10 April

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2021
• MIA Fair — Superstudio Maxi, Milan
7 – 10 October

• Lausanne Art Fair — Lausanne
30 September – 3 October

• Lille Art Up! — Lille Grand Palais
24 – 27 June

• Works on Paper — Antibes
18 March – 21 April

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2020
• StreetArt // UrbanArt — Tozzo Atelier
8 – 30 October

• Works on Paper — Stockholm
18 March – 21 April

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2019
• Long Live Rembrandt — Rijksmuseum
15 July – 15 September

• Wopart Art Fair — Lugano
19 – 22 September

• Andy Warhol Exhibition — Group Show
14 April – 23 September

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2018
• Neo Urban Classic — Solo Exhibition, MGallery by Sofitel, Kaluga
16 March

• Anti Donald Trump — Creative Debuts, London
12 – 18 July

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2016
• Arte Firenze — Sandro Botticelli International Contemporary Art Prize — Florence
18 – 20 November

• Twitter Art Exhibition — Trygve Lie Gallery
31 March – 21 April

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2015
• HUMAN RIGHTS? — La Casa della Pace
Fondazione Opera Campana dei Caduti, Rovereto
31 May – 30 August