Archives: Exhibitions

KALEIDOSCOPE is an exhibition featuring the work of 9 international contemporary artists working across a variety of mediums, including Laura Buckley’s interactive large-scale kaleidoscope Fata Morgana.

The immersive piece will be making its first major public appearance as a part of the exhibition. Dazzling and disorienting, Buckley’s hexagonal walk-in installation invites the audience to be absorbed into the work through its mirrored walls, changing imagery and audio. It examines the distortion of human perception, moving from normal domestic spaces, to turbulent nautical vistas and eventually complete abstraction. From the disruptive work of Mia Feuer, who addresses the post-natural landscape and our effect on it, to Pierre Carreau’s emotionally charged depictions of waves, the diverse media on display form a kaleidoscopic representation of the world, revealing a constantly changing sequence of elements and mediums.

The exhibition presents an exciting mixture of contemporary artists from around the world. Other featured artists include Tillman Kaiser whose dynamic paintings and sculptural works are meditations of history, style and form; Whitney Bedford whose tempestuous seascapes act as motifs for connecting the past and the present, and the young painter Florence Hutchings who will be presenting a series of vivid still-life paintings inspired by everyday life.

Presented by Vigo Gallery.

The works in Jenny Watson: A Horses Tale were made in January and February of this year while Jenny Watson was on residency at the American Academy in Rome as a recipient of the Mordant Family/Australia Council Affiliated Fellowship. The spotted fabrics, in dress lengths that are common to each, were acquired in Japan. Real objects first appeared in Watson’s work Scrabble (1982), a studio wall installation that combined ballerina tutu alongside texts, images, and other found objects, and established the field for her future work. False horsetails, the other common element, normally used as an accessory for riding competitions, first appeared in the exhibition “Paintings with Veils and False Tails,” where Watson was the first female to represent Australia at the Venice Biennale in 1993. The use of text and image is a recurrent theme that has been employed in various ways over the course of Watson’s career. Each fabric prompts an image that captures observations, dreams and emotional states. Associated texts may or may not relate to the image they are paired with.

Other solo exhibitions include The Fabric of Fantasy at the Museum of Contemporary Art Sydney (2017) and Heide Museum of Modern Art (2018) and Here, There, and Everywhere at the Museum of Art Melbourne (2012).

About Vigo Gallery

Vigo represents emerging and established international artists, curating shows in both the public and private arenas. We advise several residencies and enjoy good relations with many Museums and Foundations from the TATE to the British Museum, MOMA, The Sharjah Art Foundation, The Metropolitan Museum and the Saatchi Gallery, and have placed more than twenty historic and contemporary works into the collections of prominent museums over the past three years. We have a particular interest in the African diaspora (Ibrahim El Salahi) and African American artists (Derrick Adams, Leonardo Drew) although our program is truly international working with artists and estates from Belgium, Russia, America and Japan alongside our British contingent.

In addition to our contemporary focus and primary program, the gallery also shines light on historically significant yet often undervalued artists with strong museum and curatorial followings.

Notable exhibitions are listed on our website and include: Bram Bogart, Derrick Adams, Leonardo Drew, Ibrahim El Salahi, Boyle Family, Marcus Harvey, Gavin Turk, Masaaki Yamada, Kadar Brock, Nika Neelova and Daniel Crews-Chubb.”

Ara Güler was born in Istanbul 1928. Throughout his life he was a significant global representative of Turkey’s creative photography. He worked as Near East photojournalist for Time Life in 1956, Paris Match in 1958 and Stern magazine. Magnum Photos also published Ara Güler’s photos globally and in 1961, he had become the first Turkish member of the American Society of Magazine Photographers (ASMP).

In 1962, he was awarded the Master of Leica title in Germany and featured in a special issue of Swiss Camera magazine, one of the world’s leading photography publications. Güler also photographed the images for Lord Kinross’ Hagia Sophia Book published in 1971 and the cover photo on “Picasso: Métamorphose et Unité”, published by Skira Books to celebrate Picasso’s 90th birthday.

His images on art and art history were published by Time Life, Horizon, Newsweek and Skira Publishing House.

Güler’s photographs of Architect Sinan’s buildings were published in a book titled “Sinan: Architect of Séleyman the Magnificent” in France in 1992 by Edition Arthaud Publications and in the US and UK by Thames & Hudson Publications.

In 2002, he was awarded “the Légion d’honneur: Officier des Arts et des Lettres” by the French government, and in 2009 “La Médaille de la Ville de Paris” by Paris Municipality.

Güler was presented the Presidency of the Republic of Turkey Culture and Arts Grand Award in 2005, the Republic of Turkey Ministry of Culture and Tourism Culture and Arts Service Award in 2008, Turkish Grand National Assembly Superior Service Award in 2009, US Lucie Awards Lifetime Achievement Award in 2009 and the Republic of Turkey Ministry of Culture and Tourism Culture and Arts Grand Award in 2011.

He was also bestowed upon an “Honorary Doctorate” by the Yildiz Technical University in 2004, Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University in 2013 and Boğaziçi University in 2014.

Ara Güler Photography Exhibition has been curated by the Presidency of the Republic of Turkey in collaboration with Dogus Group Ara Güler Museum, Archives and Research Centre. Following the exhibition in London, Güler’s work will be exhibited in Paris, Kyoto, New York, Rome and Mogashishu.

Exhibition Schedule
April 2019 – LONDON, SAATCHI GALLERY
May 2019 – PARIS, POLKA GALLERY
June 2019 – KYOTO, TOFUKUJI TEMPLE
September 2019 – NEW YORK, SMITHSONIAN NATIONAL MUSEUM OF THE AMERICAN INDIAN
January 2020 – ROME, TRASTEVERE MUSEUM
April 2020 – MOGADISHU, TURKISH EMBASSY

We live in an Ocean of Air is a virtual reality experience where the invisible connection between plant and human is revealed through breath. In a 20 minute experience cutting-edge technology illuminates the invisible- but fundamental- connections between human and natural worlds. You’ll be transported to an ancient forest and witness the majestic power of the largest organism to ever exist – the giant Sequoia tree..
Visitors are invited to step through the canvas to explore a magical world where the invisible exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide is beautifully brought to life. Untethered virtual reality, breath and heart sensors will track your real-time breathing and encourage you to reflect on our dependence and responsibility to the organisms we share our planet with.

We live in an Ocean of Air can be experienced both individually and collectively; experience prioritised over passive contemplation. The wider gallery allows multiple tiers of immersion, with large projection screens welcoming audiences into the heart of the environment, before expanding to reveal the scale of the digital forest that lies ahead.

Guests must be a minimum of 48 inches (1.20 m) tall and at least 10 years old to participate. If you are pregnant or have any medical condition which may impair your balance, please refer to our FAQ’s before booking.

About Marshmallow Laser Feast

Marshmallow Laser Feast (MLF) is a London based experiential collective that create immersive experiences, expanding perception and exploring our connection with the natural world. Fusing architectural tools, contemporary imaging techniques and performance with tactile forms, MLF sculpt spaces that lay dormant until animated by curiosity and exploration. Informed as much by playfulness as research, MLF break the boundaries to worlds beyond our senses.

throe on throe presents a major survey of works by acclaimed British artist Johnnie Cooper.

The exhibition comes at a time of heightened interest in the artist. In 2018, as part of its initiative to re-evaluate key twentieth and twenty-first-century artists, art publisher Black Dog Press produced a monograph documenting Cooper’s 50-year career; and this eagerly-awaited presentation – his first in London in three decades – will be complemented by further shows in the U.K. and America.
Displayed across two galleries, the show is comprised of more than 50 paintings and sculptures, including works from the 1970s – a time when Cooper appeared alongside Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth with his own solo exhibition to mark the Wakefield Silver Jubilee Festival – and culminates with his most recent atmospheric large-scale oil and acrylic paintings.

Cooper describes his approach to painting as three dimensional; accordingly, this exhibition begins with a collection of his early sculptural works. Chained to the Nest (1974), which depicts a newly-hatched bird struggling to extricate itself from a womb or nest, illustrates his attraction to, in his own words, ‘the physicality of the surface’, a quality evident in all his paintings.

Since the late 1980s, Cooper has tirelessly investigated the formal limits of painting, experimenting in many genres at his rural Worcestershire studio. throe on throe tracks this progression with examples primarily drawn from five bodies of work: Longdon Marsh (1996 – 2006), A Long Series Of Events (2014), Continuums (2011 – 2016), The Levant Series (2018 – 2019) – up to the present day, with a suite of spectacular paintings entitled The Listener Series realised between 2018 – 2019, works that display broad gestural brush strokes and reflect his love for the natural landscape.

Says Peter Murray, founder and executive director of Yorkshire Sculpture Park: ‘Cooper has devoted himself to the investigation of painting through colour, texture and gesture. At times his paintings have seemed to be an extension of his love of the English landscape with the flavour of English artists such as Ivon Hitchens. At other times, the influence of American Abstract Expressionists and Colour Field artists can be sensed, but always his work has an independent and expressive power of its own.’ (Johnnie Cooper: Sunset Strip, Black Dog Press, 2018) “

Says Saatchi Gallery Director Philippa Adams: ‘While this exhibition looks to the future, embracing a new chapter in Cooper’s journey, it also reasserts him alongside his peers as an important British artist.’

About the Artist:

Johnnie Cooper (b.1950, Wolverhampton) spent his early years in Saint-Eustache, a suburban town near Montreal, Quebec, where he was immersed in Native American visual culture, before returning to the UK in 1960. In 1970, he undertook studies at Staffordshire College of Art, advancing to the inaugural sculpture course, which was convened by the renowned cosmopolitan sculptor, Stuart Osbourne. Further postgraduate study followed at Bretton Hall, Yorkshire, where from 1976 onwards he was mentored by Peter Murray, Principal Lecturer in Art. Murray, now Chief Executive of Yorkshire Sculpture Park, organised for Cooper to exhibit works at the college in conjunction with the 1976 inaugural exhibition of Yorkshire Sculpture Park (located on the grounds of Bretton Hall). The following year, Murray invited Cooper to organise a solo exhibition of work to coincide with the 1977 Wakefield Silver Jubilee Festival, which featured sculpture by Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth. This opportunity led to media exposure and served to launch his career.

An intense period of formal experimentation ensued, leading Cooper to turn to painting in 1984. His first paintings were exhibited at the Crucial Gallery in Notting Hill, London.

Cooper has worked in art education throughout his career, appointed as Head of Art at Bredon School, Gloucestershire and lecturing at Oxford Tutorial College. In 2004, he was invited to lecture on European Romanticism for the Art History department at Kellogg College, Oxford University. In 2007, Cooper spent three months in Shanghai working as artist in residence and cultural ambassador for Oxford International College.

Cooper has shown work in Dallas and Shanghai. He has exhibited with the Free Painters and Sculptors Society, at the Manchester Academy of Fine Art, The Mall Galleries, and at the Royal Academy. His work features extensively in private collections. Cooper continues to investigate the formal and conceptual limits of painting, developing new processes that reprise motifs of his early sculptural practice and reflect his love for the natural landscape.

8070 Beverly Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90048
17 February – 11 March 2019

BRITISH POP ARTIST PHILIP COLBERT’S FIRST U.S. SOLO SHOW ‘HUNT PAINTINGS’ AT SAATCHI GALLERY’S FIRST POP-UP EXHIBITION SPACE IN LOS ANGELES

Saatchi Gallery announce British artist Philip Colbert’s Hunt Paintings, presented by Unit London, and part of the Frieze Los Angeles Collateral programming. The exhibition is the London-based pop artist’s first solo show in America, and Saatchi Gallery’s first temporary gallery space in Los Angeles. The exhibition, curated by Sasha Craddock , will feature a series of large-scale paintings, a series of large scale sculptures, as well as a virtual reality experience, which will allow the audience to immerse themselves with Colbert’s Lobster alter ego in his World of Art. A lobster will be installed on the exterior roof, visible to all passersby on the busy street. The show will also feature a multimedia collaboration titled “Year of the Lobster” between Colbert and renowned auctioneer Simon de Pury. Presented as a satirical Pop Song crossed with an art auction, the video star’s Colbert’s alter ego Lobster. The saturation and layering is consistent with Colbert’s large paintings and reflects the advanced excesses of art, capitalism & technology in contemporary society and serves as an honest reflection of our hyper pop society.

Like British pop artists before him such as David Hockney and Derek Boshier, Colbert’s work is heavily connected to California and American pop culture, light, and landscape, as seen in the young artist’s surreal hyper pop works, which are highly influenced by the time the he spent in Joshua Tree.

The new vibrant canvases on view, including the monumental Hunt Triptych and Lion Hunt, maintain Colbert’s wildly exuberant style, while alluding to the compositions of Colbert’s artistic predecessors. Colbert’s ability to reference the epic narratives and heroic configurations of the Old Masters, from Reubens to Van Dyck, while presenting topical themes around digital media and contemporary consumer imagery, place him in a unique and influential position – from which he is simultaneously able to comment on the world around him, whilst maintaining a connection to the influence of those that have come before him.

The oil paintings challenge and toy with the viewer’s cultural vocabulary, superimposing commonplace banal objects onto painted faces and merging portraiture with popular culture in a Magritte-like fashion. Frequently narrated by the distinctive personality of Colbert’s comical lobster alter ego, he states, “I became an artist when I became a lobster.” A giant lobster figurine will feature in the Saatchi exhibition, alongside a lobster army, bringing to life Colbert’s artistic personality.

Colbert’s multidisciplinary approach, with a focus on oil painting, updates the legacy of pop art collage for the internet age, pushing the boundaries of artistic imagery and immersive experience.

Philip Colbert comments, “I am very excited to be showing for the first time in Los Angeles with Saatchi Gallery and Unit London. The time I spent in Los Angeles and Joshua Tree a few years ago had it a big impact on my creative language, which is very visible in my paintings. My new large-scale works in the show reflect the hyper saturation of our culture and our crazy, ferocious appetite for image consumption.”

Hunt Paintings marks Philip Colbert’s continued relationship with Saatchi Gallery and Unit London. Since his first Saatchi show in London over 2 years ago, Colbert’s intricate and complex works have garnered international acclaim and media coverage. In August 2018 he participated in Unit London’s iconic Looking For U Group Show, and has since held exhibitions at The Power Long Museum in Shanghai, China and MOCA (Museum of Contemporary Art) in Chengdu, China, Galerie Nichido in Tokyo, Japan and the Kasama Nichido Museum of Art in Kasama, Japan.

ABOUT PHILIP COLBERT

Living and working in London. Colbert is known for his multidisciplinary approach, creating a “World of Art”. Deeply entwined with pop theory, Colbert works across the mediums of painting, sculpture, clothing, furniture & design. Described as “the Godson of Andy Warhol” by Andre Leon Talley. Colbert’s large-scale oil paintings push the boundaries of contemporary narrative painting, they follow on from a dialogue established by artists such as Richard Hamilton, James Rosenquist a nd Roy Lichtenstein.

ABOUT UNIT LONDON:

Unit London remains firmly committed to its core principles that art should be celebrated, inclusive and undivided. Founded in 2013, Unit London was born from an innate desire to break down the barriers of elitism and create new innovative pathways into the contemporary art world, recognised for its pioneering approach to digital media and role in expanding and diversifying audiences using new technologies.

Black Mirror features some of the world’s most exciting contemporary artists making work about the world we live in, exposing anxieties our modern obsessions create. Artists featured include Turner prize nominee Richard Billingham, whose photography series of his parents Ray’s A Laugh pioneered “squalid realism” as he confronted the art world with the reality of poverty; Polish artist Aleksandra Mir who parodies newspapers by crudely drawing them with childlike tools – bringing new meaning to “fake news”; and Chilean sculptor Alejandra Prieto, who transforms rejected lumps of coal into a beautiful, desirable object of opulence, confronting class disparity and the commodification of luxury over function.

At a time of collective unease, Black Mirror emphasises the importance of art and satire in dissecting power structures, questioning societal norms, and visualising political unrest, providing light relief to life’s uncertainties.

Paola Ismene from Mexico was named the winner of the Huawei and the Saatchi Gallery’s #SelfExpression competition for her entry Daydream in Blue, which was selected from over 9,000 entries by judges Chris Levine, Rachel Maclean, Russ O’Connell, Simon Roberts and Gillian Wearing, who were joined by former Saatchi Gallery CEO Nigel Hurst.

The #SelfExpression Competition invited artists, photographers, creative individuals and anyone with a smartphone to turn their gaze away from the self to document the world and those around them. The open-entry competition gave everyone over 16 the opportunity to share their most expressive images, and what they find beautiful, interesting or noteworthy, with an international audience.

In addition to Paola, nine additional winners were shortlisted; Bob Ballantyne (United States), Denis Cherim (Spain), Duncan Cunningham-Reid (Australia), Emma Gahan (Portugal), Casey Hennessy (UK), Lola Kay (Ukraine), Nick Owen (UK), Jason Pevey (United States) and Vallas Vincent (France).

Paola Ismene says of her practice: “I construct narratives that negotiate the interaction between the real and the imaginary in pursuit of a collective identity. My work serves as a reminder of what unifies us as human beings: as complex individuals, connected by the same emotions and inhabitants of the same physical plane.”

Philippa Adams, Gallery Director Saatchi Gallery
“Paola’s powerful photography encapsulates the truly creative potential of smartphone cameras. We are thrilled to be giving her the opportunity to show her work at the Saatchi Gallery and continuing the Gallery’s mission to provide a platform for emerging artists.”

Justin Costello, Head of UK Marketing, Huawei Consumer Business Group
“The #SelfExpression competition attracted over 9,000 entries with people displaying incredible levels of creativity and some truly inspiring images. Both Paola’s winning images and the images she has subsequently taken on the P20 Pro are a stunning view into life in her community and totally live up to the founding idea of the competition. We are delighted that Paola’s work will now be shared through the Saatchi Gallery exhibition.”

About Paola Ismene

Born and based in Mexico City, Paola Ismene completed her bachelor’s degree in Communication Sciences from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and Photography at Active School of Photography (EAF). She has obtained multiple awards, including first prize in #SelfExpression Competition and winner of the Self-Portrait category in Mobile Photo Awards 2017. Ismene’s work has been exhibited in Mexico on several occasions, the most recent being at the Museum of Mexico City.

From Selfie to Self-Expression

Having opened at the Saatchi Gallery on 31st March 2017, From Selfie to Self-Expression presented by Huawei was the world’s first exhibition exploring the history of the selfie from the old masters to the present day, and celebrated the truly creative potential of a form of expression often derided for its inanity. The show also highlighted the emerging role of the smartphone as an artistic medium for self-expression.

From Selfie to Self-Expression showcased key artworks, many of which feature interactive, digital and user-generated content, by artists as diverse as Christopher Baker, Juno Calypso, Tracey Emin, Van Gogh, Mohau Modisakeng, Rembrandt, Cindy Sherman, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer and, Velazquez. Showing alongside examples of many influential artists’ work were selfies that have quickly become icons of the digital era – from the beautiful and sublime to the mad, bad and downright dangerous.

The exhibition enjoyed an extended run due to its popularity with visitors and was visited by over 750,000 during its six month run.

Huawei’s ongoing partnership with the Saatchi Gallery is a demonstration of its commitment to supporting creative expression through photography everywhere. It follows the launch of the game-changing Huawei P Series smartphones which reinvent smartphone photography by incorporating the world’s first dual-lens camera co-engineered with iconic camera brand Leica.

About Huawei Consumer BG

Huawei’s products and services are available in more than 170 countries, and are used by a third of the world’s population. Fifteen R&D centers have been set up in the United States, Germany, Sweden, Russia, India and China. Huawei Consumer BG is one of Huawei’s three business units and covers smartphones, PC and tablets, wearables and cloud services, etc. Huawei’s global network is built on almost 30 years of expertise in the telecom industry and is dedicated to delivering the latest technological advances to consumers around the world.

For regular updates on Huawei Consumer BG, follow us on:
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Kalibre is delighted to present Full Circle: The Beauty of Inevitability, an exhibition of recent works by the acclaimed Russian artist GeorgII Uvs. This exhibition – his first in the UK – is comprised of four series of oil paintings. Created in Malta between 2014 and 2017, the works, entitled ‘Mesozoic’, ‘Genesis’, ‘Code’ and ‘Wings’, symbolise an immersive panorama of the cycles of life.

Uvs’ vision of the world is grounded in science, notably geology and mathematics. Drawing on these disciplines, he offers the viewer a journey from the Mesozoic era, to Genesis and the creation of life, to the codes that embody intellectual development and knowledge, and, finally, to Wings, which reveals the return to a state of unfettered liberation and freedom. Through his fascination with mathematics, Uvs gives meaning to arithmetic as ‘Renaissance’, algebra as ‘Post-Impressionism’ and to high mathematics as ‘Abstraction’..

This fusion of scientific pursuit and artistic imagination has led Uvs to experiment with different single pigments and mixed ultraviolet reactive pigments. In doing so, he has pioneered a new approach to abstract art, a process that brings phenomenal significance and intense substance to his ever-changing works.

Uvs’ artistic practice has been developed and refined over four decades. His vibrant compositions appear to be created instinctively yet are, paradoxically, meticulously planned. Paint is poured onto un-stretched canvases laid horizontally on the studio floor. Uvs makes no direct contact with the paint but manipulates it with different tools from behind. Once his compositional objectives are achieved, he introduces an element of chance, allowing the artwork to interact with the environment. It is this technique, above all else, that defines Uvs’ artistic vision: the collision of art and nature.

The assembled works (some of which, due to the viscosity of the paint, take up to four years to dry) bring to mind geological formations in some and in others, galactic explosions. When the works are exposed to ultraviolet light, as they will be for this exhibition, they reflect the turbulence of the artist’s emotions and energy through the vivid colours and the physical action of his working process. Ultimately, Uvs’ works strive towards beauty, transmitted through their texture, composition and colour.

Curated and produced by Eva McGaw and Tatiana Palinkasev

Zurab Konstantinovich Tsereteli was born in Tbilisi on 4th January, 1934. He took a strong interest in drawing and painting from childhood, encouraged by his uncle – the artist Giorgi Nijaradze.

Tsereteli is a tireless worker and experimenter, the producer of many innovative works in painting and graphic media, bronze and enamel, tapestry and stained-glass, print and ceramics. At the same time, he has channelled a major part of his creative energy to philanthropy, education and public awareness of the visual arts.