Tate Modern
Peter Halley - Artist Talk at the Modern Art Gallery in Old Street
For more than 30 years Peter Halley, who first rose to prominence in the 1980s, has enjoyed a robust yet steady career with consistent demand for and interest in his geometric abstract paintings, with their signature prison cells and conduit imagery, often in DayGlo colours. He is a contemporary American artist best known for his brilliantly colored geometric paintings. Halley's oeuvre has focused on abstractions of a single subject—a barred window from a prison cell. Over time, his compositions have become more intricate, as he has increased the number of conduits, prisons, and cells in each painting. Often credited as an early example of the Neo-Geo movement, Halley's Minimalist work serves as a critique of the mass globalization, commercialism, and digitalization of modern life. I recently went to his artist's talk at the modern art gallery in old street, he spoke about the meanings behind his paintings, his development of practice and self exploration, he was a pleasure to meet!
The Flowers Gallery London
Image that caught my eye whilst touring the Flowers gallery.
Pace London
Nigel Cooke
"I have been painting for 25 years. It is a way of seeing everything – everything becomes painting. It is a love affair, but a curse as well." Cooke's mysterious paintings have always seemed to carry an implied menace, as if something apocalyptic is about to happen just outside the painting's edge. |
YINKA SHONIBARE for the Stephen Friedman Gallery
The show marks a pivotal moment in the artist's practice with the complete absence of the Dutch wax batik textiles for which he is known. Shonibare removes the fabric altogether and uses the batik designs in new forms; mural painting, bronze sculpture, screen prints on canvas and the appropriation of classical sculpture.
Shonibare uses the patterns as a device to interrupt the canon of classical and renaissance art and Western religious iconography. He indicates his intention to challenge and dismantle the boundaries of Western understanding in the title of the show. By leaving the ‘trace' of his trademark batik motifs, Shonibare gives a personal insight into the complexities of identity, nationality and colonial history.
Shonibare uses the patterns as a device to interrupt the canon of classical and renaissance art and Western religious iconography. He indicates his intention to challenge and dismantle the boundaries of Western understanding in the title of the show. By leaving the ‘trace' of his trademark batik motifs, Shonibare gives a personal insight into the complexities of identity, nationality and colonial history.
The Ordovas Gallery
Artists and Lovers
This exhibition 'artists and lovers' will trace a number of the greatest artistic partnerships of the mid-20th century to suggest how love and friendship can shape creative process. Presenting a striking selection of sculpture, painting, photography, dance, music and film, the exhibition aims to bring fresh perspective to intriguing and significant artistic alliances, from well-known couples such as Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, to more private artistic pairings, including the long friendship between Joseph Cornell and Yayoi Kusama.
Lygia Pape at the Hauser & Wirth
Lygia Pape was a leading Brazilian artist whose work brings together formal rigour and daring experimentation. Lygia Pape was a founding member of the Neo-Concrete movement, which was dedicated to the inclusion of art into everyday life. Pape's early work developed out of an interest in European abstraction, however she and her contemporaries went beyond simply adopting an international style, and started to draw on their own local situation. Neo-Concretism is often seen as the beginning of contemporary art in Brazil, and Pape's work - which focus on the coming together of aesthetic, ethical and political ideas - has formed an important part of Brazil's artistic identity. |
Mike Kelly at the Hauser & Wirth
Hauser & Wirth London presents a single monumental installation from 1999: ‘Framed and Frame (Miniature Reproduction ‘Chinatown Wishing Well’ built by Mike Kelley after ‘Miniature Reproduction ‘Seven Star Cavern’ Built by Prof. H.K. Lu’)’. Kelley was fascinated by Middle America’s many diverse and alternative subcultures, and through his work he became both a participant in and commentator on their cultural conventions and constructions. Taking Los Angeles’ marginalized Chinese-American community as its inspiration, ‘Framed and Frame’ explores the conceptual space between real and imagined places.
‘Framed and Frame’ recreates a local landmark in the Chinatown of downtown LA and consists of two separate sculptures divided by a wall. ‘Framed’ is a ‘wishing well’ in the form of a biomorphic, concrete, grotto-like landscape, covered with spots of spray-painted colour and cheap religious statuary and tossed coins on its ledges and niches. A secret crawlspace complete with a mattress, candles and condoms is revealed at the rear of the well.
Ayan Farah at the Pippy Houldsworth Gallery
Ayan Farah makes unconventional mixed-media paintings, as well as installations, photographs, videos, and sound pieces, through which she explores the overlap between natural and manmade environments, and notions of chance and control. Her work, in her words, is “about weight and weightlessness, the making or the unmaking of the work and its nature, its cause and creation.” She is especially known for her work with textiles, which she weathers, stains, and otherwise alters with materials including terracotta, salt, vinegar, and ash. Working both inside and outdoors, she has buried textiles in the earth, left them outside to be beaten by wind and sun, and manipulated their surfaces with a mixture of acidic substances in her studio. Farah then drapes them onto wooden stretchers, where they appear as luminous abstractions, resonant with the time-based process of their making. |
Galeries Bartoux
In the Arts for three generations, the Bartoux group, led by Isabelle and Robert Bartoux, comprises today of 16 galleries both in France and internationally, with Singapore, New York and its newest, London. Specialising in Contemporary art, they promote new artistic currents and offer the possibility of rediscovering works stemming from the modern day Surrealist and of the New Realism movements, as well as the great Masters of Pop and Street Art.
The Opera Gallery
The Opera Gallery is one of the leading dealers in modern and contemporary art with museum as well as private clients worldwide.
Offering artworks of exceedingly high quality, the gallery has a reputation for excellence, integrity and discretion that it continues to earn by providing a high level of service to understandably demanding clients.
Opera Gallery will assess quality and authenticity, evaluate, exhibit, care for, buy and sell art principally for the benefit of the collector.
Offering artworks of exceedingly high quality, the gallery has a reputation for excellence, integrity and discretion that it continues to earn by providing a high level of service to understandably demanding clients.
Opera Gallery will assess quality and authenticity, evaluate, exhibit, care for, buy and sell art principally for the benefit of the collector.
Pedro Paricio at the Halcyon Gallery
Fascination with vivid colour and a love of paint itself are hallmarks of the contemporary Spanish artist Pedro Paricio. In bright and dynamic canvases he sets out to solve conceptual problems, to incorporate street culture into fine art, to pay homage to great artistic figures of the past and to examine and question the role of the artist. His subjects range from contemporary science to Hispanic folklore and from music to philosophy.
The Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy
These works are really, unpredictable, stimulating and startling. You never know what you will see at these exhibitions, the range in work and materiality is immense. I have captured a few of my favorite pieces. Famous as the world’s largest open submission show, there are certain things the Summer Exhibition delivers on every single year: a panorama of art in all mediums, a remarkable mixture of emerging artists and household names, and more to see and explore than any other exhibition you’re likely to visit this year.
The Serpentine Gallery
Four ‘summer houses’, commissioned by the Serpentine Gallery to accompany this year’s Serpentine pavilion in London’s Kensington Gardens, are up for sale through agent The Modern House. Inspiration for the architectural follies came from this nearby 18th-century neoclassical summer house, Queen Caroline’s Temple.
These paintings in the Serpentine really surprised me, I had never come across these artists before, the works of Alex Katz I personally found so inspiring. The blankness and lack of pigment in the eyes reminded me of Modigliani famous figures. The bold orange backgrounds simply compliment the images with a contrast again the skin tones and black hues of the hair. All the different styles of work show versatility and made to look effortless.
Private View
The Proud Gallery on the King's Road
This summer, Proud Chelsea is pleased to introduce Pure Evil on the Kings Road, an exhibition of original artworks by leading British street artist Pure Evil. This collection explores the cultural history of the infamous Kings Road, documenting icons of the swinging sixties, all of which played their part in London’s creative explosion.
Charles Uzzell-Edwards, better known as Pure Evil, takes inspiration from 60s icons with Warhol-esque portraits of Mick Jagger,Twiggy and Jane Birkin showcasing doomed and dripping portraits. These pieces feature his trademark 'tear' emblem which justifies his artistic excursions into the darker side of people and their social ills. This amalgamation of humour, art and malevolence is captured throughout this portrait of the Kings Road. From the early 1960s, Chelsea was a hubbub of creative activity and the epicenter of Swinging London. It was frequented by a large community of literary figures and artists, moving through the 70s and 80s with the
birth of the British punk movement and the opening of Vivienne Westwood's infamous ‘SEX’ shop alongside husband Malcolm McLaren.
Pure Evil fell into the group behind Banksy’s “Santas Ghetto” and started producing dark new prints and artwork, a style which has cemented the artist as a fearless image maker extraordinaire. When asked why these icons are crying, he has said “It’s an illustration of the heartbreak and sadness we have all experienced in relationships in the past.” To understand a bit about Pure Evil it is illuminating to know that he is a descendant of Sir Thomas Moore, the Lord Chancellor who wrote the controversial work Utopia and who was later beheaded by King Henry VIII. With this background it is only natural that Pure Evil should explore the darker side of the wreckage of Utopian dreams and the myth of the Apocalypse, a belief in the life-changing event that brings history with all its conflicts to an end.
In this never before seen exhibition, Proud Chelsea will celebrate the cultural importance and significance of street art, whilst revealing Pure Evil’s trademark tongue in cheek style of contemporary art which has since inspired a cult following. This exhibition will revisit the creative contemporaries who made the Kings Road legendary and commemorate Pure Evil’s unique street art sensibility that is admired and collected globally.
Charles Uzzell-Edwards, better known as Pure Evil, takes inspiration from 60s icons with Warhol-esque portraits of Mick Jagger,Twiggy and Jane Birkin showcasing doomed and dripping portraits. These pieces feature his trademark 'tear' emblem which justifies his artistic excursions into the darker side of people and their social ills. This amalgamation of humour, art and malevolence is captured throughout this portrait of the Kings Road. From the early 1960s, Chelsea was a hubbub of creative activity and the epicenter of Swinging London. It was frequented by a large community of literary figures and artists, moving through the 70s and 80s with the
birth of the British punk movement and the opening of Vivienne Westwood's infamous ‘SEX’ shop alongside husband Malcolm McLaren.
Pure Evil fell into the group behind Banksy’s “Santas Ghetto” and started producing dark new prints and artwork, a style which has cemented the artist as a fearless image maker extraordinaire. When asked why these icons are crying, he has said “It’s an illustration of the heartbreak and sadness we have all experienced in relationships in the past.” To understand a bit about Pure Evil it is illuminating to know that he is a descendant of Sir Thomas Moore, the Lord Chancellor who wrote the controversial work Utopia and who was later beheaded by King Henry VIII. With this background it is only natural that Pure Evil should explore the darker side of the wreckage of Utopian dreams and the myth of the Apocalypse, a belief in the life-changing event that brings history with all its conflicts to an end.
In this never before seen exhibition, Proud Chelsea will celebrate the cultural importance and significance of street art, whilst revealing Pure Evil’s trademark tongue in cheek style of contemporary art which has since inspired a cult following. This exhibition will revisit the creative contemporaries who made the Kings Road legendary and commemorate Pure Evil’s unique street art sensibility that is admired and collected globally.
Second Year Visits Below
The experience of colour
Unlike the Objective Abstraction of various British artists of the 1930s, Astrazione Oggettiva is the term used to describe the work of a small Italian collective active in the 1970s who saw colour as their main topic of enquiry and through it sought to develop analytical methods of painting that contested what they saw as the superficiality of contemporary culture.
The resulting works are bold, yet sparse, abstractions that in some cases – for example Giuseppe Wenter Marini's soft-hued, shaded panels – resemble the work of Bridget Riley or Josef Albers’ 1963 Interaction of Colour project. Others, meanwhile, such as Luigi Senesi's graduated chromatic structures, look like futuristic rainbows that intersect art and graphic design.
Although each artist possessed a unique and independent artistic vision, what united them was their desire to make colour the focal point of their artistic practice, exploring its optical and perceptual effects.As the group’s name suggests, instinct was set aside in favour of discipline and control, resulting in the creation of an impersonal, intellectual art that minimised the importance of an emotional response on the part of either the artist or the viewer.The Estorick Collection in Islington is a hidden gem, with a permanent collection devoted to modern Italian art. It is currently showing an exhibition of abstract artists who formed a collective movement in the 70’s. They manifesto set out to reinvigorate Italian abstract art, with their main focus the exploration of colour. The movement was short lived due to the early deaths of two it’s founding artists.
‘This exhibition explores a little-known moment in Italian painting, but one that nevertheless represents an important phase in the evolution of abstract art in post-war Italy. It is also the first show in Britain to focus on the group, and presents a number of important pieces by each of its members.’ Estorick Collection
I was not familiar with the six artists exhibited here, but seeing their paintings together, I feel their work deserves far greater exposure than it has had in this country.
Amazing exhibition!!
The resulting works are bold, yet sparse, abstractions that in some cases – for example Giuseppe Wenter Marini's soft-hued, shaded panels – resemble the work of Bridget Riley or Josef Albers’ 1963 Interaction of Colour project. Others, meanwhile, such as Luigi Senesi's graduated chromatic structures, look like futuristic rainbows that intersect art and graphic design.
Although each artist possessed a unique and independent artistic vision, what united them was their desire to make colour the focal point of their artistic practice, exploring its optical and perceptual effects.As the group’s name suggests, instinct was set aside in favour of discipline and control, resulting in the creation of an impersonal, intellectual art that minimised the importance of an emotional response on the part of either the artist or the viewer.The Estorick Collection in Islington is a hidden gem, with a permanent collection devoted to modern Italian art. It is currently showing an exhibition of abstract artists who formed a collective movement in the 70’s. They manifesto set out to reinvigorate Italian abstract art, with their main focus the exploration of colour. The movement was short lived due to the early deaths of two it’s founding artists.
‘This exhibition explores a little-known moment in Italian painting, but one that nevertheless represents an important phase in the evolution of abstract art in post-war Italy. It is also the first show in Britain to focus on the group, and presents a number of important pieces by each of its members.’ Estorick Collection
I was not familiar with the six artists exhibited here, but seeing their paintings together, I feel their work deserves far greater exposure than it has had in this country.
Amazing exhibition!!
Julian Rosefeldt
Manifesto
The longing for manifestos continues uninterrupted today. This is shown by Rosefeldt's new film installation Manifesto: 13 films running in parallel bring angry, youthful, and amazingly current sounding words to the screen.Many of them reveal a surprisingly theatrical and literary power. The vitality and the fury of a young generation is inscribed in the thematic and performative energy of the proclamations. Rosefeldt has condensed this power in text collages. By way of cutting back and combining the texts of various figures, 13 poetic monologues emerged. Julian Rosefeldt combined them with his interest in the work and lifeworlds of the present, bringing the new manifesto texts in this work together with situations of today, with women holding public speeches or interior monologues. They are all embodied and presented by the Australian actress Cate Blanchett. The individual films develop a spectrum of highly individual figures: using costume, make up, location, and her talented acting, Blanchett transforms into figures as varied as a teacher, a puppeteer, a broker, a funeral speaker, and a homeless man. In the role of these protagonists, Blanchett combines the texts with an unexpected, present context.
Her performance was effortless, each character was so refined and well executed that to begin I hadn't thought of her portraying each one but actually another actor! This screening was the most memorable piece to me in Berlin, the message, set, costume, everything in this performance was tied together with such precision and beauty.
Her performance was effortless, each character was so refined and well executed that to begin I hadn't thought of her portraying each one but actually another actor! This screening was the most memorable piece to me in Berlin, the message, set, costume, everything in this performance was tied together with such precision and beauty.
Berlin
Interiors And Exteriors
The interior and exteriors of Berlin, travelling around and taking in the sights. The angles and points, curves and shapes that form the surfaces of every corner I turn. The build up of layers, patterns and textures. Using these images as a basis and inspiration to paint from, the muted colours I use often clashing against each other mirror the silent grays that cover these surfaces.
Galleries in Berlin
Berlin Galleries
KW Institute
Hamburger Bahnhof
Seeing all the great artists from Warhol to Lichtenstein. This modern art museum encapsulates such a huge variety of work ranging from sculpture, painting to film. Such a great place to visit and be inspired from. These paintings especially, the abstract formations spark such interest in me, I want to create more work using colour and form.
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Berlinische Galerie
The Berlinische Galerie is one of the newest museums in the German capital and collects art from Berlin dating from 1870 to the present day – with both a local and international focus. Through this gallery i sought out the pieces that had influence from geometric abstraction, texture and range of materiality. The frames that are painted to match the image are so amazing, I love the idea of merging the work with the structure holding it.
London Gallery Visits
V&A Gallery
Images throughout the V&A museum, focusing on the interior rather than the art its self, where the architecture is the in the limelight. With my current work I am taking the part of the place that holds art and turning that into the art, we ignore the space that holds but now it is the main subject. The way the light hits each corner, shape and angle differently creates pieces of art that inspire me the most. The domestic space, the everyday and the spaces we overlook.
The Saatchi Gallery
My favourite pieces from the gallery, these 10ft plus canvas materials that hung so lifelessly made every passer by stop and stare. The disjointed and random limbs that were combined together worked so well. It is a piece that is to be read. To understand you must give it you time. The subject of the body is strong and the delicateness of the lines that fill the skin's texture adds a sense of realism. The split between the sheets of canvas are due to size however it divides up the space you look at, the way you view the pictorial plane and let the image work in your head. It add another dimension to it.
This piece was amazing. Trench coats lined up against the ceiling, bent with wire to stay put and projected on top is a woman touching her chest and breasts. The composition is so unique.
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Clay cows, larger than life size but still with every detail in proportion. Sculpture is something I've always been interested in; along with the scale that amplifies the effect it has, audience interaction is a must.
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Above: acrylics on canvas, absolutely incredible, this art work I was convinced, that it were posters. The skill and detail was so clever and exact. Below: the two show stoppers, the cotton real and ball, bronze statues that were magnificent in size.
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The intricacy of this piece, the multiple layers that build up the image like a clock, the 3D aspect is something that makes the image, it jumps out at you and invites you in to understand the piece more. To dissect it.
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So modern art! Slow cookers taking center stage. This is so well arranged with the tube lighting following the shape of the cooker, the colour palette is delicate and all links with the next.
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More patterns, these prints cover over a wall, so vivid and bright, such a simple idea yet so effective. The negative space that is left is what makes the viewer interested, like a broken wall paper.
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The National Portrait Gallery
A few of my favourite images at the National Portrait Gallery, each one of these has a style that links to mine, from abstract to figurative and drawing to painting. These works of arts have always stood out for me. The way the paint is applied is varied but all has similarities to one another, there is a sense of freedom in the images, in the action of painting itself, a freedom. The looseness of the stroke or line that adds such character to the piece. It is a gallery of original portraits, such portraits to consist as far as possible of those persons who are most honourably commemorated in British history as warriors or as statesmen, or in arts, in literature or in science. Where a portrait has great value other than price.
The National Portrait Gallery
Giacometti Exhibition
Alberto Giacometti is widely regarded as one of the most important and distinctive artists of the 20th century. A restless innovator, he explored a range of styles and subjects, however his portraiture remained continuous. His exhibition in the portrait gallery shows his important works; sculptures, paintings, and drawings which illuminates his obsessive evocation of a human presence, and his ever changing perceptions. Alot of his works are portrayed as nervously linear, frontal figures emerging out of a push-pull of scratchy marks in a restricted palette: solitary, almost dematerialised presences framed within a dense abstract ground. Sculpted or painted, Giacometti’s single figures suspended in empty space, connecting with nothing, represent, he said, “that precious point at which human beings are confronted with the most irreducible fact: the loneliness of being exactly equivalent to all others.” They are extraordinary paintings and sculptures. In each is a profoundly moving connection between one person and another; this show captures that unique bond beautifully.
The Flowers Gallery
Bernard Cohen
Private view & Talk
'I will not begin the painting until something I have never seen or considered before comes into my mind's eye, and then I will focus on it and the means I shall use to bring it to life on the canvas.' This exhibition of his latest works show a complex pictorial language, in which densely interwoven lattices of line, shape, pattern and colour are explored as a way of processing and recording experience. They are linear pathways and segments, intricate networks of lines, dots, planes of colour, and symbols. They are so hard to look at, but harder to look away from. He spoke about his life and career, from a young age at art school right up to the paintings that were around us. Each one takes 7-12 months, every last detail is formed perfectly, only focusing on painting at a time. In the 1960s he took place in the Venice Biennale, in the British pavilion. Telling us stories about all the artists he's had the pleasure of knowing. He says, art becomes a way of life because of the way you experience it. When describing his work in the gallery he spoke about paintings having to have something in them that you don't predict. The greatest structures should become more wayward. No control, you shouldn't tell someone how to read a painting, you should just make it readable. The works have themes of Op art, cubism and abstract expressionism. Bernard's paintings echo so many things. With so much intelligence, whirring and humming, the paintings resist being decorative or aesthetic. In terms of subject, they have something in common with conceptual art’s obsession with systems, but staying within the field of painting Bernard has created pictures of overlapping systems that explode into multiplicity. There is so much going on in his paintings and the viewer is forced to find a way through. Ultimately his paintings can’t be looked at aesthetically at all. They have to be decoded, deciphered, experienced, read and walked through. Bernard is 82 years old, even so he spoke so profoundly. It was a great experience and very polite to speak to. I asked what were his golden moments through out his career, and his answer was simple, every time his wife Genie would come and visit him in the studio!
The Residence Gallery
Robert Hawkins
Private View
The ceramic versions of his best loved works, but this time in 3D. There is an explosion of creativity and amusing collection of work that has a narrative behind it. He strolled through the gallery, which was very small, in a gold shirt that matched his gold earrings and gold teeth, in such a manor you knew right away he was the artist in question. I didn't have much to say about his works apart from they have a lot of character as did he, he is more interesting than the art it seems. He is best known for his "ferocious" style of realism and also for his avoidance of fame as a visual artist despite his critical acclaim, one critic said, ."Robert Hawkins is not a big famous artist because he has resisted all attempts to make him that. And, up to a point, that was necessary and right. But now that he has a large, madcap, ferociously witty, and startlingly original body of work behind him; now that he has gone through his self-crucifixion phase and resurrected himself from the dead; now that he has allowed the smile to follow quickly the scowl; now, I think, it's time he can relax and enjoy making artwork on his own roving, druidical, picaroon, anarchic, swashbuckling terms."
The Ordovas Gallery
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Hauser & Wirth Gallery
Anj Smith
Anj Smith – Phosphor on the Palms
The surrealist paintings that sit on the walls of the gallery have such fine detail right down to a single hair. A three yearlong project that shows this body of work, there is such rich detail, texture and diverse range of sources. Nature and psychological state layer these paintings each in a different manor. The meaning of the title, ‘phosphor on the palms’ is from a poem by Wallace Stevens, called ‘Fabilau of Florida’ which tells the story of natural elements morphing into new configurations. These paintings explore shifting boundaries and disintegration, encompassing death and desire, sexuality and language. Rather than the traditional sense of portraiture she uses the figure to explore identity, there is a sense of mystery and surrealism in each piece. I was drawn to this with my interests and project following this genre. Each painting has a different narrative behind it that draws you in, as the audience you want to know what the meaning behind each one is, the women seem vulnerable and shy. All her images are deceptive. Upon closer look do you only realise the extravagantness of the image, with monkeys and creatures all curled up they are so well painted you have to stop and stare. It is a stain on an image almost, where you have to look harder to understand it. She says, ‘’ there’s something about its constantly evolving instability that fascinates me, the precarious fragility of it. Because paintings death has been so trumpeted and yet it limps so widely to seduce- it’s another reason why it’s an apt medium for working now.’’ It is all very contemporary surrealist artwork full of complexities and intricate design. She also shows her inspirations in a separate room in the gallery, with her books that she read, some for sale and image of her studio, it is a lovely touch that adds to the exhibition.
The surrealist paintings that sit on the walls of the gallery have such fine detail right down to a single hair. A three yearlong project that shows this body of work, there is such rich detail, texture and diverse range of sources. Nature and psychological state layer these paintings each in a different manor. The meaning of the title, ‘phosphor on the palms’ is from a poem by Wallace Stevens, called ‘Fabilau of Florida’ which tells the story of natural elements morphing into new configurations. These paintings explore shifting boundaries and disintegration, encompassing death and desire, sexuality and language. Rather than the traditional sense of portraiture she uses the figure to explore identity, there is a sense of mystery and surrealism in each piece. I was drawn to this with my interests and project following this genre. Each painting has a different narrative behind it that draws you in, as the audience you want to know what the meaning behind each one is, the women seem vulnerable and shy. All her images are deceptive. Upon closer look do you only realise the extravagantness of the image, with monkeys and creatures all curled up they are so well painted you have to stop and stare. It is a stain on an image almost, where you have to look harder to understand it. She says, ‘’ there’s something about its constantly evolving instability that fascinates me, the precarious fragility of it. Because paintings death has been so trumpeted and yet it limps so widely to seduce- it’s another reason why it’s an apt medium for working now.’’ It is all very contemporary surrealist artwork full of complexities and intricate design. She also shows her inspirations in a separate room in the gallery, with her books that she read, some for sale and image of her studio, it is a lovely touch that adds to the exhibition.
Hauser & Wirth Gallery
Tetsumi Kudo
Tetsumi Kudo
Throughout kudos sculptures there is a theme of radio activity that crosses with impotence, the grotesque and fragmented body parts. It has a surreal feel to it, with the huge cubes of turf that cover the room wall to wall; the lively coloured shapes and figures that are planted and grow like misshapen twisted trees, it’s like a sci-fi world that you step into and transforms the room into another planet. The work dates back to the first ten years Kudo spent in Paris (1963-1972). It is a garden of the ‘metamorphosis in the space capsule’ that forms the exhibitions focal point, the huge cube is filled with neon flowers and UV light, and it’s so nostalgic. The body is part machine it seems, it’s almost like movie props with the amount of detail. The room is filled with lifeless penis’s that have been chained and squeezed, with pieces of the body scattered amongst the works it is so strange yet so intriguing. It was developed in the context of post war Japan and France, it is dominated by a sense of disillusionment with the modern world. Its blind faith in progress, technological advancement, and humanist ideal. His oeuvre transcends formal categorisation ye this work is consistently universal in its language. His work manifested in the biomorphic sculptures which he sought to expose the limitations of the modernist and humanist values that defined the post war-era. The phallic sculptures represent the unnatural and impotent, a product of a post-apocalyptic world in which the synthetic triumphs over nature. The dice pattern represents the randomness of forces beyond our control that dictate life. Everything is futuristic. Everything has meaning. The acidic yellows and greens that cover the plant like sculptures signify the polluted. What is being cultivated in these mini eco-systems is a grotesque fusion of the biological and mechanical. Kudo believes that with the pollution of nature comes the decomposition of humanity.
Throughout kudos sculptures there is a theme of radio activity that crosses with impotence, the grotesque and fragmented body parts. It has a surreal feel to it, with the huge cubes of turf that cover the room wall to wall; the lively coloured shapes and figures that are planted and grow like misshapen twisted trees, it’s like a sci-fi world that you step into and transforms the room into another planet. The work dates back to the first ten years Kudo spent in Paris (1963-1972). It is a garden of the ‘metamorphosis in the space capsule’ that forms the exhibitions focal point, the huge cube is filled with neon flowers and UV light, and it’s so nostalgic. The body is part machine it seems, it’s almost like movie props with the amount of detail. The room is filled with lifeless penis’s that have been chained and squeezed, with pieces of the body scattered amongst the works it is so strange yet so intriguing. It was developed in the context of post war Japan and France, it is dominated by a sense of disillusionment with the modern world. Its blind faith in progress, technological advancement, and humanist ideal. His oeuvre transcends formal categorisation ye this work is consistently universal in its language. His work manifested in the biomorphic sculptures which he sought to expose the limitations of the modernist and humanist values that defined the post war-era. The phallic sculptures represent the unnatural and impotent, a product of a post-apocalyptic world in which the synthetic triumphs over nature. The dice pattern represents the randomness of forces beyond our control that dictate life. Everything is futuristic. Everything has meaning. The acidic yellows and greens that cover the plant like sculptures signify the polluted. What is being cultivated in these mini eco-systems is a grotesque fusion of the biological and mechanical. Kudo believes that with the pollution of nature comes the decomposition of humanity.