Francesca Alaimo, Gender Translucence and Other Stories at Farsight Gallery, September 2024 – “This exhibition, the Ruskin Prize shortlisted artist’s largest solo presentation in London to date, takes its name from the perception of gender as a semi-transparent screen behind which silhouettes are visible yet unrecognisable”

It is a shadowy space, not the greatest lighting in terms of viewing art in the evening, it does however add a certain atmosphere (if not the quality of the photographs), we’ve been to this relatively new art space a number of times this year now, that Marc Almond exhibition, the rather ‘interesting’ Anne Pigalle show, the gallery at the far end of Denmark Street seems to have finally settled on a name now, it would be fair to say things have been a little vague so far, good to see it all coming together

These are brave paintings, big paintings, big in terms of what they say, in terms of how they say it, these are positively inspiring paintings and yes, you can sense people responding in here, there’s all kinds of interesting snippets of conversations to be overheard as you stand there quietly looking. I imagine this took courage, it takes strength to put these painting up there, to bare all on these gallery walls –  “My art lets out that part of me that wants to be loud and defiant, which is sometimes hard to do in real life, especially when one has been brought up to protect others before oneself, but last night I felt seen and understood. I thought to myself, if I ever wonder where I am going with this (which I do sometimes as everything seems pointless on certain days) yesterday I had a very clear reminder that the reason is to exist unapologetically and in that, encouraging others to do the same” – 

This is an excellent exhibitions for so many reasons, this is a great show before you even get to the subject matter, before you even consider what it being said, this is a great show just for the quality of the paint, the work, the way the marks are made, the application, I love Francesca’s style, that way the paintings come together, the line, the paint’s texture, the colour, and then you stop and look at what Francesca Alaimo is actually painting, you stand there and look at them all together, you finally have a chance to see more than a couple of pieces in a group show and yes!. Yes, this is good, this strong, this is right. they’re painted in a very different way but there are some of the same feelings here that there are standing in Tracey Emin’s current White Cube show – not the worry though, not the concern, Francesca Alaimo’s paintings don’t have you worrying  about the artist, they feel strong, they feel defiant, they feel almost proud, if not proud then certainly “yes”. Yes is the key word here. it feels like some kind of, I don’t know, some kind of inspiring positive, it just feels like something that matters some kind of victory, art as a positive, art as a force for good. Just a really good show and for so so many reasons… (sw)       

Farsight is a decent sized (if somewhat obscure and lacking in terms of communication or basic information or woring out what the space is actually called this week!) art space at the far end of Denmark Street, just off Charing Cross Road (not far from The Astoria if only the Astoria was still standing) 

The actual Farsight address is 34 Flitcroft Street, London, WC2H 8DJ. The Gallery is open midday until 6pm daily. Gender Translucence and Other Stories at Farsight Gallery is on until to 29th September 2024

As always do click on an image to see the whole thing or to run the slide show