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Showing posts with label gagosian gallery. Show all posts
Showing posts with label gagosian gallery. Show all posts

Friday, 18 August 2023

Artlyst: A World In Common: Contemporary African Photography - Tate Modern

My latest exhibition review for Artlyst is on ‘A World In Common: Contemporary African Photography’ at Tate Modern:

'‘A World In Common: Contemporary African Photography’ at Tate Modern draws on the theories of Cameroonian philosopher Achille Mbembe (born 1957) by inviting us to imagine “a world in common”. To do this, Mbembe claims, we must “think the world from Africa”. ‘A World In Common’ explores Africa’s past, present and future to create a more expansive and inclusive narrative of humanity. It suggests that to conceive “a world in common” is to imagine a future of possibility. Unfolding across three chapters – Identity and Tradition, Counter Histories and Imagined Futures – the exhibition charts the dialogue between photography and contemporary perspectives on cultural heritage, spirituality, urbanisation, and climate change to reveal shared artistic visions that reclaim Africa’s histories and reimagine its place in the world.'

For recent exhibitions exploring similar themes, see my reviews of In The Black Fantastic at the Hayward Gallery and Rites of Passage at the Gagosian Gallery.

My other pieces for Artlyst are:

Interviews -
Monthly diary articles -

Articles/Reviews -
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Jide Chord - Gospel Vibes.
Posted by Jonathan Evens at 20:37 0 comments
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Friday, 14 April 2023

Art review: Rites of Passage at Gagosian, Britannia Street, London

My latest review for Church Times is on Rites of Passage at Gagosian, Britannia Street:

'The underlying idea explored through the exhibition is that of the three stages of liminal space — separation, transition, and return — while also examining tradition, spirituality and space ...

The rites of passage which these artists explore enable them individually to navigate the experience of migration, but, as such rituals transcend cultural boundaries, their individual experience also becomes a collective communal experience, particularly in the context of this exhibition.'

Other of my pieces for Church Times can be found here. My writing for ArtWay can be found here. My pieces for Artlyst are here and those for Art+Christianity are here. 

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Posted by Jonathan Evens at 09:07 0 comments
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Thursday, 1 December 2022

Artlyst: Lucian Freud And His Circle Surveyed In Two London Exhibitions

My latest exhibition review for Artlyst is of: Lucian Freud: New Perspectives; Friends and Relations: Lucian Freud, Francis Bacon, Frank Auerbach, Michael Andrews; and Bruce Bernard: Portraits of Friends.

'The exhibitions explore aspects of the camaraderie and interrelationships of these four painters whilst also highlighting the intimate relationships between artist and sitter, including artist and lover, partner, and offspring.

While figuration, existentialism, and portraiture remain significant strands within their work, the critical debate between them, within their works, seems to have been about distortion versus clarity and fine versus broad brushstrokes. Freud moves from his crisp, clear early style, which shows a debt to Neo-Romanticism, to a much more expressive use of broad brushstrokes, presumably somewhat influenced by Bacon’s distortions, Auerbach’s layers and Andrews’ mix of loose and tight passages of paint.

Bacon distorts his portraits to reveal the underlying existential angst found within, while Auerbach’s layers serve to suggest the subject’s presence more than their features. Both operate primarily in the liminal hinterland between figuration and abstraction. Andrews and Freud, while using abstract passages, remain more fundamentally figurative artists. Andrews’ use of looser and more tightly painted passages within the same painting is a way of indicating focus and creating atmosphere. Freud, who spoke of “wanting the paint to work as flesh does,” increasingly comes to paint flesh and how flesh forms and fails us as human beings.'

My other pieces for Artlyst are:

Interviews -
Monthly diary articles -
Articles/Reviews -
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Michael McDermott - Hit Me Back.
Posted by Jonathan Evens at 19:44 0 comments
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Tuesday, 29 March 2022

Artlyst: Damien Hirst The Visceral Reality Of Death

My latest review for Artlyst is of Damien Hirst: Natural History at Gagosian Brittania Street:

'God Alone Knows, Our Father Who Art In Heaven, and The Incomplete Truth have been grouped to form a crucifixion tableau with the dove of the Spirit above the central crucified sheep while a shorn sheep clutching a rosary and the Book of Common Prayer between its hooves kneels in the place of the grieving Mary or John at the foot of the cross. Exhibited separately, these are works that have sometimes been called profane and which can be understood in relation to themes other than the strictly religious ... Grouped together, as is the case here, these works exhibit a greatly increased sense of the hope that Christians see in the violent sacrificial death of God. Hirst once said, to Sean O’Hagan, the afterlife is a ‘phenomenal idea’. However, for me, it is the poignancy of expression on these crucified creatures that reminds of the once-for-all nature of Christ’s sacrifice, the sense that our violent actions and intentions are shown to be self-defeating – a literal dead-end – because by scapegoating and crucifying the Son of God there is nowhere else that our violent natures can possibly take us.'

My other pieces for Artlyst are:

Interviews -
Articles -
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Posted by Jonathan Evens at 22:08 0 comments
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Friday, 18 February 2022

Church Times - Rachel Feinstein: Mirror at Gagosian Gallery, Davies Street, London

My latest review for Church Times is of 'Rachel Feinstein: Mirror' at Gagosian Gallery:

'After 9/11, Feinstein found solace in Old Master works of Jesus and Mary feeling their own pain, especially Matthias Grünewald’s Deposition paintings. The potential to empathise with the Gospel characters which is opened by Feinstein’s “Mirror” paintings, through eyes that reflect our features, enables the viewer to find solace similarly.'

For more on Rachel Feinstein, see my February Diary piece for Artlyst here.

Other of my pieces for Church Times can be found here.

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The Velvet Underground - I'll Be Your Mirror.
Posted by Jonathan Evens at 07:28 0 comments
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