Vela Projects is proud to present Good Fortune and Prosperity, Alexis Schofield’s third solo exhibition and his second with the gallery.  The title derives from maneki-neko, the Japanese beckoning cat with a mechanical arm, which is thought to bring good fortune and prosperity to its owner. Schofield is fascinated by this talisman of artificiality which, he says, represents the paradoxical times in which we live. “We all feel a sense of despair,” he says, “and at the same time, we’re just trying to get rich.”  It might be said that Good Fortune and Prosperity is the artist’s attempt to make sense of the torrent of images that he has absorbed:photos of friends mixed with AI-generated slop mixed with content catered to his interests. When he paints, Schofield is imitating as much as questioning the imagery he sees on social media. It is with no small amount of irony that images of the paintings will soon be uploaded onto Instagram, where they will be gazed upon for a matter of seconds before the viewer moves on to a cool drink advert or a video of cute dog.