Jan Gatewood, Internal Empire at Rose Easton Gallery, Bethnal Green, East London, May 2026 – It isn’t that easy to (immediately) pin down Jan Gatewood’s latest solo exhibition at Rose Easton’s East London space, that’s no bad thing of course. Do like the way the gallery are using their bigger space at the moment, the hangs have been strong, recent shows meant this one was a must go to on the opening night and well it is a great building to see art in and Jan Gatewood is a rather interesting artist anyway before you start considering the gallery. Where else would you want to go on a Friday evening? Sometimes you just get on a roll with a gallery (just as much as you can get on an oh-I-can’t-be-bothered train of thought with other spaces) and anyway, Rose Easton’s corner is not much of a walk along Cambridge Heath Road from the Organ bunker, down with the brushes for a half an hour, let’s go have a look. It isn’t that I like everything that’s shown at Rose Easton Gallery, the art shown and the statements made do always challenge though, it does engage, the gallery and the art shown does seem to matter a lot more than things matter at some of East London’s art spaces at the moment.
Jan Gatewood breathes in here, last time his work was encountered in London was at Frieze last year where everything is too crowded, too noisy, in here there’s space for it to tease, to intrigue, to entice, to be playful if that’s what you want it to be and it does feel like that decision in as much in your hands as is it in the hands of the artist. It is playful, giant teddy bears sitting on stools, toy animals on the floor, cartoonish rabbits on the wall. Actually the lines, the actual figures, the painterly drawings in there within the pieces, when you really look, those drawings are gorgeous. It could easily just be playful though, when actually there’s so much to read, to unpack, to consider in and amongst the human behaviour of an opening night, human behaviour in general. This is debate, this is art demanding (internal) discussion, these are works that want to question, layers of questions in the layers of rabbits an that very black looking cat, these are works that want you to question them.
Once again The rabbits in Jan Gatewood’s drawings and paintings more that nod towards – well next to Bugs – they nod towards Br’er Rabbit, a figure routed in the handed down stories of the African American slaves of the Southern United States and the Caribbean, he is of course an American artist; “Jan Gatewood (b. 1994, Aurora, CO, USA) works at the intersection of drawing, painting, and collage” – and it is a fine meeting at that intersection, before you start to try and read and find meanings, there is a simple pleasure in just looking at that intersection, just enjoying the layers, the marks made, his decisions made and especially those drawn lines of his pieces. There’s something about the way these pieces are put together (we all love a layer and what might be underneath those layers). You can help but think about (or maybe just enjoy) the process, about his alternatives, his dynamic(s).
Here’s another #43SecondFilm…
This is a show that really does have you wanting to know more about the artist, to have more conversations with his art, to ask questions, to respond to his questions (actually are they questions?), his points maybe? Are they points? Is he making a point here? Is that the point? And that is the thing here, it isn’t that easy to (immediately) pin down Jan Gatewood’s and that is part of the enjoyment here, for it is, as challenging as it all is, as provoking as it is, an enjoyment. This is a really really enjoyable exhibition, there’s some compelling work on those while walls of this old industrial space that, unless you are in the know, you’d never know is currently a rather rewarding art space hiding in plain sight here in East London Another show to go and see if you can, do go (do ring that doorbell, don’t let it intimate you), do go and have conversations with those rabbits… (sw)
Rose Easton is at 223 Cambridge Heath Road, Bethnal Green, London, E2 0EL. The space is open Wednesday until Saturday, midday until 6pm. The Jan Gatewood exhibition is on until 27th June. The door is usually locked, there is no sign and very little clue that there is an art gallery there, do ring the bell though, they’ll just buzz you in and leave you alone to explore it. I don’t know why galleries do this?
Recently at Rose Easton…
As always, do click on an image to see the whole thing or to run the slide show…
THE ORGAN 