Power Ballads is a new series of paintings by Saffron Newey that summons masterpieces of French Rococo, Italian Baroque, American and Norwegian Romanticism, alongside images sourced from commonplace stock-photo archives. These works are digitally conflated, collaged, and reimagined as painterly references where value, history, and taste blur in the online environment.
Countering the indifference of the Internet, the series celebrates hyper-romance and melodrama. Referencing the Romantic era (1798–1837) while nodding to the musical genre of the power ballad, Newey’s works seek the sublime—a heightened state of awe and emotion. Classical landscapes are pierced by laser beams; pearlescent shimmers elevate pastoral palettes. The viewer is invited to step inside the paintings and imagine a guitar solo or vocal crescendo, swept up in a swoon.
Harvested from search engines, manipulated by software, and collaged with imposters, these works become painterly ‘power ballads’—dedicated to our lost connection with the original.
