Our monthly roundup of our favourite London based exhibitions this July, as curated by the BRUSHWRK team…
BRUSHWRK's latest exhibition in collaboration with The Five Points Project
Orí Inú by Aisha Seriki
Until 27th July
Doyle Wham
From the BRUSHWRK community - a solo exhibition from Aisha Seriki. Read our Artist Spotlight interview with Aisha here, where we discussed Orí Inú, her career as a multidisciplinary artist, her thoughts on accessibility to the arts and more.
“Orí Inú takes from the Yoruba Metaphysical conception “Orí’ which translates to the head and refers to one's spiritual destiny. Using the calabash as a metaphor, Orí Inú depicts the artist’s attempts to mend the break between her mind and spirit. It thereby demonstrates how reconnecting with one's inner spirit is both a continuous endeavour and a condition of the human experience.
The project is also an inquiry into the history of photography and its paradoxical attachment to truth and time. By using optical illusions and tricks, Orí Inú questions the camera's historic association as a vessel of truth, which challenges colonial understandings of the black body. Stimulated by this history and considering photographs as haptic objects, a series of photographic bronze comb sculptures (Iyarun) work in conversation with the photographic prints. This is informed by the comb’s relationship with African diasporan histories, where it surpasses functionality to become a cultural symbol of empowerment, ritual and self-care”
Changing The Subject
11 July – 23 August
Annely Juda Fine Art
“Annely Juda Fine Art is delighted to announce 𝘊𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘚𝘶𝘣𝘫𝘦𝘤𝘵, a unique summer exhibition featuring eight young artists at the start of their promising careers, curated by Director of Sales, Holly Braine. Each artist engages with art of the past, adding modern nuances to traditional genre subjects: from hints of twentieth-century fashion to environmental concerns to reflections on mental health and modern love. It is our immense pleasure to be celebrating the extraordinary talent of today’s young creatives and we look forward to welcoming you to our gallery”
Read our interview with Florence Reekie, one of the eight exhibiting artists, here.
Second Home: Exhibition and poetry evening
7th July 2024, 3-10PM
The Africa Center
"For us, individuals of the African & Caribbean diaspora, the idea of 'Home' in the West is often shrouded with uncertainty, confusion and the constant questioning of belonging. We can frequently find ourselves in a perpetual battle to stake our claim for the basics. And let’s face it, that shxt is tiring. In an effort to create a space where, the lingering question of belonging is not raised. We have collaborated with our friends at the Africa Center, to bring you Second Home.
We will have an exhibition featuring some of London's amazing Artist, a pottery workshop (tickets sold separately) and two art workshops (tickets sold separately) and an evening of poetry, games and a general knowledge Black Quiz"
The exhibition features Puretee Philip, one of our fantastic exhibiting artists from our latest exhibition in collaboration with The Five Points Project. Read what went down at May's event here.
Miami Trip 3
Until 20th July
Soup Gallery
“Soup presents the gallery’s eight exhibition, Mitch Vowles’ debut solo exhibition ‘Miami Trip 3’. Vowles (b. 1994) is a British artist living and working in London. He received his BA in Fine Art from Chelsea College of Arts in 2017, and will begin his postgraduate studies at the Royal Academy Schools this September.
Vowels’ multi-disciplinary practice consists of repurposed and recontextualised found or facsimile objects and imagery, presented in settings that allow for a questioning of their innate socio-cultural significance. Playing off the presupposed concepts of status or the unavoidable ingrained associations tied to snooker tables, Levi 501s or coin-operated machines, he is able to elevate the everyday or the overlooked. Developing a deeper dialogue that reflects his own personal preoccupations and societal concerns, Vowles is able to broach broader contemporary conversations surrounding artistic identity, counterculture and the class system. By challenging convention and interrogating the accepted understanding of ‘art’ and ‘the artist’, he is able to draw attention to colloquial spaces, vernacular vocations and demonstrate art’s accessibility and ability to bring people together”
Reprise
Until 27th July
Cristea Roberts Gallery
“Cristea Roberts Gallery is delighted to present Reprise, an exhibition of new prints and paintings by Paul Winstanley (b. 1954). Best-known for his photorealistic paintings of liminal and transitory spaces, Winstanley’s new body of work re-invents early nineteenth-century paintings of mountainous landscapes.
Winstanley’s new work marks a departure from his previous depictions of empty interiors, such as art school studios, modernist corridors and waiting rooms, to appropriate existing paintings of nature. Interested by the aesthetics of the sublime, which inspired artists and writers from the seventeenth century onwards, Winstanley explores how pictures mythologise reality”
Until 26th January
Tate Modern
“Zanele Muholi is one of the most acclaimed photographers working today, and their work has been exhibited all over the world. With over 260 photographs, this exhibition presents the full breadth of their career to date.
Muholi describes themself as a visual activist. From the early 2000s, they have documented and celebrated the lives of South Africa’s Black lesbian, gay, trans, queer and intersex communities.”
Francis Alÿs: Ricochets
Until 1 Sep 2024
Barbican Art Gallery
“A new immersive exhibition celebrating the universality and ingenuity of play: Ricochets is the largest institutional show in the UK by internationally renowned artist Francis Alÿs in almost 15 years.
For the past two decades, Alÿs has travelled around the world to film the critically acclaimed series Children’s Games: from ‘musical chairs’ in Mexico, to ‘leapfrog’ in Iraq, ‘jump rope’ in Hong Kong, and ‘wolf and lamb’ in Afghanistan.
Ricochets transforms our gallery into a cinematic playground: throughout the exhibition, visitors will be immersed in multi-screen film installations focussing on children’s games. Since 1999, Alÿs has recorded children at play in different contexts and environments around the globe. Alongside the first presentation of Children’s Games in the UK, the exhibition debuts a new body of animated films depicting both traditional and lesser-known hand games played by children and adults alike”
Tropical Modernism: Architecture and Independence
Until 22nd September 2024
V&A South Kensington
“Tropical Modernism was an architectural style developed in the hot, humid conditions of West Africa in the 1940s. After independence, India and Ghana adopted the style as a symbol of modernity and progressiveness, distinct from colonial culture”
Beyond Fashion
Until 8th September
Saatchi Gallery
“Beyond Fashion showcases the work of acclaimed fashion photographers from around the world. The works demonstrate how fashion photography has moved past the simple presentation of product lines to reflect on the reality of our lives, to explore our aspirations and to push at the boundaries of creativity.
Including works by Nick Knight, Peter Lindbergh, Viviane Sassen, Paolo Roversi, Miles Aldridge, and Ellen von Unwerth – as well as an exciting new generation of fashion photographers – Beyond Fashion celebrates the vision and creativity of these artists and image-makers, and documents how fashion photography has become a new and exciting visual language”
Gavin Jantjes: To be Free! A Retrospective (1970 - 2023)
Until 1st September
Whitechapel gallery
"This timely retrospective of Oxfordshire-based South African painter and printmaker Gavin Jantjes (b. 1948, South Africa) is his largest solo presentation in the UK to date. It brings together more than five decades of the artist’s diverse and distinctive practice.
Through over 100 prints, drawings, and paintings, as well as archival material, the exhibition celebrates Jantjes as a significant and critical agent of change while tracing his development as a painter, printmaker, writer, curator and activist”
Sergio Strizzi: The Perfect Moment
Until 8th September
Estorick Collection
“Sergio Strizzi (1931-2004) was a still photographer who worked on some of the most important film sets both in Italy and abroad from the 1950s to the early 2000s.
Passionate about photography from an early age, he began his career working as a reporter for Italy’s Publifoto agency before receiving his first movie-related commission in 1952. He would go on to document such iconic films as The Gold of Naples, directed by Vittorio De Sica, and The River Girl, starring Sophia Loren”
If you enjoyed this article, make sure to check out our other blog posts including Artist Spotlight interviews and more over on https://www.brushwrk.co.uk/blog and whilst you’re there, why not have a look through all of the fantastic art we have for sale from emerging artists? Pop into the website to see what catches your eye…
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