Contemporary Figuration: Between Body & Metaphor
Past exhibition
Overview
Group Exhibition featuring; Georgia Dymock, Emily Gillbanks, Andrew Litten, Ayanfe Olarinde, Yann Leto, Celine Ali, Cathy Tabbakh, Richard Wathen, Han Ji Min, Sophie-Yen Bretez, Natalia Ocerin, Tega Tafadzwa, Mark Metcalfe, Erin Holly and Ur Kasin.
The body is a physical and material being. However, it can also reflect a person's spirit, sense of 'self' or embrace metaphors of our contemporary age. This exhibition seeks to bring together the work of contemporary painters who explore the body as material, and as the embodiment of the immaterial, engaging in themes ranging from the notion of 'self', identity, queer theory and the technological body. It also seeks to shed light on the varying ways in which different artistic styles of figuration can engage with the question of how to picture the human subject today?
In an age where questions of embodied experience are continually accentuated by our relationship with cross-cultural exchange, media, new technologies, and socio-political change, the body has come to signify the transcendental. Different painterly styles that range from realism to abstraction, and technologically informed practices, will demonstrate the expansive breadth of contemporary figurative painting and its capacity to tell the stories of diverse bodies and their connotations - the polarised, the 'ideal', the natural, the technological, the liminal, and more - and help situate them within the nuanced frameworks of posthumanism, feminism, Otherness and diasporic memory.
To encourage an open-minded and all-embracing experience of the exhibition, the curatorial premise will be guided by each artist's personal response to 'Body & Metaphor'. Both represented artists from the gallery's roster, and guest artists, are invited to share their thoughts in the catalogue that will accompany the exhibition to champion an artist-centric model of the gallery space and highlight the gallery as platform, rather than mediator.
Works
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Emily Gillbanks, To Have-In, Or To Take-Away?, 2023
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Emily Gillbanks, Portrait of Charlie II, 2022
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Emily Gillbanks, Searching for Things, 2022
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Emily Gillbanks, Small Portrait of Charlie, 2022
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Ur Kasin, Beach Scene, 2023 Sold
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Mark Metcalfe, Melancholia: After Durer, 2023 Sold
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Han Ji Min, Shoulder, 2023
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Richard Wathen, Untitled, 2023
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Natalia Ocerin, Bodies #1, 2023 Sold
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Natalia Ocerin, Bodies #2, 2023
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Celine Ali, The Painter, 2023
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Andrew Litten, True Nature, 2022
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Cathy Tabbakh, Les Couleurs de la Nuit, 2023 Sold
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Cathy Tabbakh, The Shadow of Life, 2023
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Tega Tafadzwa, Varume, 2022
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Sophie-Yen Bretez, « Over there, the shadow of night Is descending over the sea. But within me, There is still the light. - Moon », 2023
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Sophie-Yen Bretez, « Time, I’ll you mine. », 2023
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Sophie-Yen Bretez, « Under the stars of a coming spring, Among the leaves blown by the wind, From the blue night, I will rise, Like the sun does in the skies. In my kingdom by the sea. », 2023
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Sophie-Yen Bretez, « Rays of sun, dew of the sea Come! Come over my land! My surf-tormented shores Made of grains of golden sand, and thousands of silent roars. », 2023
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Ayanfe Olarinde, Aeroplani o’dabo I (the contentment song), 2023 Sold
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Ayanfe Olarinde, Aeroplani o’dabo III (the contentment song), 2023 Sold
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Erin Holly, The Healer, 2023
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Georgia Dymock, Submerged, Chewing Emerald, 2023
Installation Views
Press
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Contemporary Figuration: Between body & Metaphor
Meer, January 16, 2024 -
BBC RADIO LONDON: Gallery director discusses 'Contemporary Figuration: Between Body & Metaphor'
Jumoké Fashola, BBC Radio London, January 7, 2024 -
A Refreshing Take on Figurative Painting at JD Malat Gallery
Lee Sharrock, CULTURALEE, December 18, 2023 -
ART PLUGGED: Contemporary Figuration: Between Body & Metaphor
Art Plugged, December 15, 2023