Exhibitions round-up

London's commercial galleries currently have high profile exhibitions featuring many of the major figures in later Modern Art.

Throughout the autumn, Hauser & Wirth is devoting all three of its London galleries to a presentation of works from the collection of Reinhard Onnasch. A celebration of Onnasch’s longstanding passion for art and collecting, ‘Re-View: Onnasch Collection,’ the exhibition focuses on the period between 1950 and 1970, which saw the birth of some of the most important artistic movements of the 20th century. It features significant works including iconic examples of Pop Art, Fluxus, Colorfield, Assemblage, Minimalism and Abstract Expressionism from the New York School of Art, many of which have never been presented before in London.

Raw Truth: Auerbach-Rembrandt is at Ordovas and brings together a striking group of landscapes and portraits by the 17th century Dutch painter, Rembrandt Harmensz van Rijn, and Frank Auerbach, the renowned British artist. This is the first collaborative exhibition to be presented by the newly renovated Rijksmuseum and Frank Auerbach is the first contemporary artist ever to show alongside works from their collection.

Candy, at Blain|Southern, is the first time that paintings from Hirst’s Visual Candy series have been presented together exclusively, and candy spill works by Felix Gonzalez-Torres serve as a counterpoint to the paintings. The exhibition showcases the ways in which each artist used the signifier of candy during the early 1990s, exploring questions of pure aesthetics and identity.

Amidst all these well known names I was also interested to discover P.J. Crook at Alpha Gallery. Brian Sinefeld cites Balthus and Magritte as artists who have worked within a similar framework as PJ Crook. These artists 'whose surrealistic works of static, quirky realism belie a powerful mysticism lying below the surface' are akin in their sense of mystery to P J Crook. Cressida Connolly writes: "There is mystery at the heart of these paintings, as if something momentous might be about to take place; or as if a seismic event has already happened, perhaps still unbeknown to the people in the picture. The viewer may be lost within this world of the artist’s devising, or impose a narrative of their own.  Like the silent white owls which swoop though some of the night-time paintings, PJ Crook always invites the imagination to take flight."

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King Crimson - The Power To Believe.