February 2026 — London / Paris
Allure
Contemporary painting exploring experience, identity, and the spirit of unique retail environments.
Feel Soho
Calla Paris
Le Labo Melbourne
February 2026 — London / Paris
Contemporary painting exploring experience, identity, and the spirit of unique retail environments.
About
Project Allure explores the conceptual synergy between contemporary art, retail ambience, and shared cultural values. Drawing upon a four-decade career spanning fashion, design, and art, Hunt integrates his gestural imagery into curated commercial environments that mirror a philosophy of authenticity and aesthetic rigour.
"I intend this initiative to serve as a non-commercial exploration of 'participant-observation'," Hunt explains. "The objective is for art to illuminate the intrinsic spirit and attitude of an environment, transcending its purely mercantile function."
By presenting works within the boutique spaces they depict, Hunt facilitates a poetic dialogue that enriches the consumer experience. This intervention acknowledges a deep alignment of intent between the artwork and the curated commercial space.
He focuses on the "public interface"—the boutique, salon, or restaurant—as a vital communal site where brands balance exclusivity with accessibility to foster positive lived experiences. His paintings function as atmospheric captures, emulating the specific "aura" of a space.
"I have spent twenty years working with artists and designers, with an ongoing interest in how their work contributes to a sophisticated and specific experience of place. In this capacity, I believe the presentation of Dale's paintings of the Le Labo armchair exemplifies a masterful contribution to the site's identity."
— Dr Simon Maidment, art curator and author
The Work
Cutting-edge art celebrates 1980s' hairdressing imagery highlighting values of the unique retail environment as more than mercantile through the show entitled 'Allure'.
Artist Dale Hunt and Feel Soho have collaborated in a unique project exploring the synergy between contemporary art, retail ambience, and shared cultural values.
"I intend this initiative to serve as a non-commercial exploration of 'participant-observation', where art highlights the intrinsic spirit and attitude of an environment, rather than the purely mercantile," says Hunt.
The work reflects Hunt's history, including formative years hairdressing on London's King's Road under art director Ted Reynell, whose philosophy of cutting "attitude out of hairstyles" deeply informs the artist's current authentic aesthetic.
Having shifted from ephemeral hairdressing to the tactile depth of painting 30 years ago, Hunt's current canvases reinterpret styles from '80s luminaries: Dessange, Mods, Sissors, and Sorbie, reflecting how fashion intersects with emotion, identity, and cultural change.
The works are presented in situ within the boutique spaces, creating a poetic dialogue that heightens the customer experience by acknowledging shared intentions between the artwork and the unique commercial space.
'Allure' — 10–28 February 2026 / Feel Soho, 83 Berwick Street, London W1F 8TS
Mods
Sissors
Rockdale
Dessange
Julia
The Work
A unique project exploring the synergy between contemporary art, retail ambience, and shared cultural values.
Paris-based designer Calla Haynes built her label on a fresh balance between refined and relaxed. Focused on artisan collaborations and sustainable design, her boutique becomes the site for Hunt's reinterpreted product imagery.
Hunt was drawn to Calla's refusal to choose between luxury and craft — the same tension that animates his own canvases. A shared philosophy: authenticity over artifice, where contemporary art meets the curated space.
Hunt's current canvases reinterpret the product, reflecting how fashion intersects with emotion, identity, and cultural change.
'Allure' — February 2026 / Calla, Paris
The Work
This project continues Hunt's longstanding interest in the public interface of the boutique, salon and shop as a place where the community comes together, blending a sense of exclusivity with openness.
The evocative interior design of Le Labo, its embrace of an interior world, its intimacy akin to that found in a private home, is a rare feeling in the site of a high street. There is a sense of being out of time, which is accentuated by the decor, and particularly its furniture. In contrast with the street, bustling with visitors and local community alike, there is a stillness to the fading armchair that sits by the front window. Whether it is its age, its state of repair, or the discrepancy between its stillness and the energy around it outside, the chair appears to attract people from outside, drawing people inside the space.
Having worked at the nexus of style and image for most of his life, through this project the artist invites us to recognise the role these moments play in our enjoyment of a particular area. The paintings help elevate the objects that surround us – whether knowingly selected and styled or not – beyond mere backdrop or props but as integral to our experience of place.
"As a contemporary art curator and gallery director, I have spent the past twenty years working with artists and designers, with an ongoing interest in the ways in which their work contributes to an experience of place that is sophisticated and specific; a direct rejoinder to the sameness that pervades a globalised world. In this capacity, I believe the presentation of Dale's wonderful paintings of the Le Labo armchair in the space itself will prove a poetic attraction and experience. I would encourage close inspection of the canvasses, as they will convey much about the generous nature of this project, serious and accessible in equal measure."
— Dr Simon Maidment, curator and author
Dr. Simon Maidment is a gallery director, curator, writer, art consultant and commissioner with extensive experience leading the artistic direction and effective management of arts organisations including institutions such as National Gallery of Victoria and University of Melbourne and grass-roots contexts.
Past Exhibition — 2024 / Le Labo, Gertrude Street, Fitzroy
Proposed
Exhibitions
83 Berwick Street
Soho, W1F 8TS
London, UK
10 – 28 Feb 2026
4 Cité Dupetit-Thouars
Paris 75003
France
Throughout Feb 2026
Collaborations
Values-aligned partnerships with unique retail environments.
Perfumery — Melbourne, Australia
Fashion — Paris, France
Hair Salon — Soho, London
Le Labo, Melbourne
Calla, Paris
Feel, Soho
The Artist
For four decades, creative practitioner Dale Hunt has explored the vibrant intersection of street culture, style, and the image. His journey began in the early 1980s on London's iconic King's Road, where, as a 22-year-old hairdresser, he worked under the mentorship of art director Ted Reynell. Together, they pioneered dry-cutting techniques that gained global recognition through their collaborative photography. Reynell's philosophy of "cutting attitude out of hairstyles" remains a cornerstone of Hunt's authentic aesthetic today.
Hunt returned to his hometown of Melbourne mid '80s to establish a photographic studio and successful salon. However, seeking to resolve the tension between the ephemeral nature of hairdressing and the perceived lack of tactile depth in photography, he transitioned his primary focus toward painting and drawing.
Hunt remains a participant-observer, capturing the profound ways that style intersects with emotion, identity, and cultural evolution.