The shadowmen by Richard Hambleton are in London

At Saatchi Gallery, London, Woodbury House presents Nightlife, an exhibition of works by Richard Hambleton and Franc Palaia. Rare paintings on paper by Hambleton and photographs by Palai (who documented the artist's infamous wall works during 1980s) will bring the public through a visual journey like no others. Each piece (26 in total, 22 of Hambleton's Nightlife series and four unearthed Artist's Proofs) sees the artist portray his trademark Shadowmen on classic Japanese Kinwashi paper. Woodbury House' founder Steven Sulley and art consultant Michael Doohan were determined to reunite all the Nightlife Shadowmen, this brought them to spend four years trying to collect all the works together. Their hard work paid off: this exhibition represents the most complete presentation of the series since they were first shown together. The exhibition will also feature three self-portraits, entitled "I Only Have Eyes for You" life- size serigraphs that originate from Hambleton’s 1980 project of the same name, which saw the artist wheatpaste 800 wide-eyed images of himself across the walls of 13 cities.

Alongside the works by Hambleton, eight images by photographer Franc Palaia, the artist’s friend and confidant, who was invited to accompany him on his ‘guerilla’ expeditions, will be included in the exhibition. This photographs play an important historical role in the art's field capturing the artist's ephemeral paintings and also the cities they inhabited at a very particular moment for street culture. To celebrate this, Woodbury House will release an exclusive print of Nightlife 39, limited to an edition of 50. Silkscreened onto Japanese Ginwashi paper, the prints will be made available for purchase from the exhibition onwards, priced at £10,000 each. Also a new edition of Plato’s book, Nightlife: The Shadow Paintings of Richard Hambleton, 1981-87 will be published on the occasion of the upcoming show.

Of Nightlife the exhibition, Sulley, who founded Woodbury House in 2014 with the dream of helping to build Hambleton's legacy as the godfather of street art, says, “We are tremendously excited to be able pay tribute to Hambleton, to bring these rare works together with Frank’s photographs, and to tell the story of this extraordinary, reclusive, and too often overlooked artist.”