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We’re into Frieze Week now, that doesn’t mean we’re just going to focus on artists showing at the fair, far from it, you know that Organ has always been about the alternatives, the new blood, the ones to watch out for. I do like a studio visit, I do like to look behind the curtain of an artist, an artist’s studio is a very private very personal space, a studio is where the proper sense of an artist is really found – the commitment, the reality, the sense of an artist’s movement, the drips of paint, the flights, the flaws, the blood sweat and tears.
I like that there’s an attention-demanding spec of red paint on one of Yasmin Grant’s boots, she’s probably unaware of it, it is things like the paint on an artist’s boot that you see when you’re allowed inside a space like this. I love the details, the smells, that intoxicating smell of oil paint, of work in progress, the fresh endeavour. I love the smell of an artist’s studio, I like that her palette is right there on her table alive with intense yellow paint, waiting for me to go so she can get on with it.
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It really is about the textures in Yasmin Grant’s work, the rich layers of texture, the almost sculptural nature of the paintings, that and the rich sense of colour. There’s a strong use of colour in here, something that enables the many conversations across the room that the pieces are having with each other. It is important to let paintings and sculptures talk to each other and yes, It is stating the obvious to say that you can’t really get a proper sense, that real sense of texture, when you’re looking at an artist’s work on line – something particularly so with an artist who works like Yasmin Grant does. She really is all about the thick think layers of texture, her canvases are rich in colour, they look physically heavy, at times almost collaged..
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It isn’t the same on a studio open day where everything has been cleaned up and presented for public view and it certainly isn’t like going to an artist’s exhibition where everything is hung and ready, everything precise, boots polished, best dress on rather than the glorious paint encrusted work top she’s wearing today. Yasmin Grant is an exciting painter. an artist with that vitally important sense of identity, that finger print, that soul, that heart, a journey of expression as well as experimentation. emotions communicated and often in a rather visceral way. It feels exciting in here, it feels alive, it feels like a privilege to be in the privacy of her room and to see the work and talk to her about it like this. And yes, it does feel like every stroke of her brush or application in terms of her mixed media is a deliberate act, a controlled act, that she is in total control of her paint and not, as is so often the case, the other way around. These layers feel meticulously built, her textures never accidental, every mark precise, you do really want to reach out and touch.
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Yasmin Grant is a rather strong, rather empowered, rather exciting artist. We haven’t seen too much of her on the London art scene yet, she is London based, indeed the next time we shall see her art is at November’s Wimbledon Art Fair at Wimbledon Art Studios, 16th to 19th November. Hopefully we’re going to see a lot more of her art in te coming months. Watch this space (sw)
As always, do please click on an image to enlarge and to see the whole thing, or t orun the slide. Some og the photos are from today’s studio visit, some from Yasmin’s own Instagram feed
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