The now and again Five Pieces of Art thing feature again. Well why not (again)? Again and again (and again and again), all this art flowing past on various feeds or wrapped up in press releases or jumping off actual gallery walls or wrapping chips or passing on the side of those Whitechapel white vans. So we ask (again) why not five pieces of art every couple of weeks or so alongside everything else that appears on these fractured pages on a daily basis? Can you think of one good reason why not to? Well besides the time involved and the this and the that and the dancing around and the skins on the tins of paint and the man at the door…
Five pieces of art then, a semi regular feature, just five pieces of art that have passed our way in the last few days, nothing more (or less) than that. Nothing really to do with an upcoming show or anything else (although maybe they are), just a simple, semi regular five pieces of art feature. Let’s do it again…
1: Tricia Gilman – Two new pieces from Tricia Gillman, really really like Tricia’s work, good to see these new pieces passing by on her social media this week. A series of ten small works she says she currently has on the go. “Think this one is finished. Time will tell…” she just said of Floating Free. The other piece hasn’t been names yet, hopefully we’re going to see these in the flesh somewhere soon – ” Just finished! (I think!) Muslin, acrylic paint, tracing paper, pastel, glitter. So enjoying using paint again, even if only tiny amounts- and stronger colour. The seasons change and I’m glad to move with them…”. Love the colour, always love Tricia’s subtle use of colour, love the translucency…
2: Suzanne Unrein – do like the rhythm in this painting, af her paintings, do like the energy that the New York based artist has in her work. Her work has gone past on social media feed several times recently, sometimes, very very occasionally the algorithms do work, here’s Suzanne’s links: website / Instagram
3: Evgeny Antufiev – Haven’t caught up Evgeny Antufiev for a few years, was the last time back when Emalin featured his work at Frieze something like three or four years ago? Maybe longer than that? Time does fly – ORGAN THING: Evgeny Antufiev at Emalin, Whoever he is and wherever we were, he has to be one of the artists of 2017… His show at Emalin Gallery was probably the last time the East London gallery really seriously excited us (we do keep taking a look at the shows at the Clerk House and such). Right now Emalin are doing things with Evgeny at Art Basel Miami Beach 2024, Emalin and Soft Opening (also partly based here in East London although neither gallery show much interest in East London’s artists) have teamed up and this is the Evgeny Antufiev image that came with the press release (not that we are going to be anywhere near Miami anytime soon)
“For Art Basel Miami Beach 2024, Emalin and Soft Opening are pleased to present a joint stand with new works by Evgeny Antufiev (Emalin), and Ebun Sodipo (Soft Opening). The project comprises marble mosaics and bronze sculptures by Antufiev and a new series of collage works on Mylar by Sodipo whereby each mines material culture for alternative and critical histories of representation.
Gems, metals, minerals and archives are all stage-setting materials of Antufiev’s work. Part scavenger of detritus, part craftsman, the artist’s laborious treatment and sourcing of materials leaves a tactile trace on the objects, caked with his fingerprints. In critical engagement with mosaics, he explores the entanglements of imagined imperial aesthetics with Soviet identity-building and the violence of contemporary Russia. Through intricate depictions, the artist conjures eerie amalgamations of creatures and landscapes, imbuing the works with a sense of collective memory without reliable referent”.
Here’s a small taste of Evgeny Antufiev from back in 2017
And here’s more of Evgeny’s work
4: Kevin Rouillard – “By hammering, flattening, and welding metal containers, Rouillard transforms “poor” materials into commanding, complex, contemplative works. As he puts it, the medium asserts its own rules and dictates the process”. A shot of Kevin Rouillard’s rather powerful piece, The Great Wall, Palais de Tokyo (2020). “We are delighted to include six works by Kevin in our upcoming exhibition, Material Syntax, which opens this Thursday 21st November (2024)” so said someone from Cork Street’s (London) Kearsey & Gold. Yes, this page isn’t supposed to be about shows, rules are for ignoring though and that Material Syntax show is a rather strong and rather recommended, more about it in a moment, so far two strong shows from the recently opened gallery (well there’s been three, we missed the short sharp first one)
5: Sean Scully and just a delicious shot of some work that’s currently on show in New York that just went past, both Sean Scully’s work and words are admired around these parts, that is no secret and yes, I know the other Sean doesn’t need our support here but Mr Scully always leaves me feeling positive about art and life in general. This from Lisson Gallery, “Continuing in New York, Sean Scully’s exhibition explores his breakthrough bodies of work, incorporating loans of historic pieces from the early 1980s. They include a legendary, 11-panel work entitled Backs and Fronts, which was last exhibited in New York at MoMA PS1 in 1982, a year after it was made. Seven such constructions from this period, all made at the Duane Street studio, are included in this show, marking a significant break from Scully’s earlier, tighter striped canvases, as well as from the strictures of mainstream, hard-edged Minimalist painting of the 1970s. A tripartite work, Araby (1981), named after a short story by James Joyce, represents a midway point between his use of masking-taped lines and the removal of such aids in favour of more fluid gestures, leading Scully to describe this piece as being “in a fight with itself” This move, towards a freer, rougher and more architectural series, enabled him, as the artist has said himself, to slice and cut through the staid field of abstract art and allowed these works to literally “stand up for themselves”. The work is on view through to 1st February 2025 at 504 West 24th Street, New York.
More of this kind of thing in a few days….
Previously
THE ORGAN 