Curator at Large: Four artists to look out for this February

Curator at Large: Four artists to look out for this February

Here are four artists who our Curator suggests trying to keep an eye out for, and wherever you can see their operate this month.

By Phin Jennings | 01 Feb 2023

With hundreds of art exhibitions opening each individual thirty day period and thousands of artists building do the job, it can be effortless to pass up something superb. Below are four artists who our Curator suggests retaining an eye out for, and the place you can see their do the job this thirty day period.

 

When I first visited Harriet Gillett’s studio in 2021, I was drawn to a small canvas. It contained a crowd of anonymous heads painted in murky greys and purples. Looking out at the viewer, her head turned 90 degrees absent from her companions, was a neon pink lady with a confront only just discernible by the glow that she emitted. Some months afterwards, Gillett had developed a larger sized version of the very same painting, Aurora, for a group exhibition titled Emergence at our Soho gallery. The subsequent 12 months I encountered the pink lady yet again, this time painted into Deeper Knowledge, an even bigger portray that was portion of Gillett’s MFA degree exhibit presentation at City & Guilds of London Art College. In the decades concerning these encounters, Gillett’s practice has made and her audience has developed massively – her get the job done has been shown at the Saatchi Gallery and Soho Revue between other locations – but the neon pink hughes and loosely prompt figures keep on being. As a substitute of revealing them, her paintings are inclined to conceal their topics, their fifty percent-rendered faces bringing a perception of mystery and intrigue.

You can see her operate in ‘The Picture’ at Brooke Bennington and ‘when i was going for walks on the edge of a teacup’ at Roman Road.

  • Brooke Bennington, 76 Cleveland Avenue, London, W1T 6NB |  25 Jan – 25 Feb
  • Roman Road, 50 Goldborne Road, London, W10 5PR | 19 Jan – 17 Feb 17

Installation check out: The Photograph (courtesy of Brooke Bennington)

 

Sabrina Shah was also featured in Emergence. Her blended media portray Bananas depicted a team of 3 ambivalent-hunting painted creatures apprehending a collage of outsized bunches of fruit. Food and faces on a regular basis appear in Shah’s work, not generally the place or how we would be expecting them to a puppy eating its have tail, a jack-in-the box putting on a glum expression and a team of creatures who look to be ingesting from a pot labelled “bucket list” all function in the artist’s earth. Like Gillett, her get the job done leaves me with far more queries than responses – but this time, it’s not “who?” but “why?”. It is a question that quite a few have identified powerful, Shah getting received the Castlegate Prize, made the John Moores shortlist, and experienced her get the job done demonstrated with Indigo+Madder and Thorp Stavri among the other individuals. To me, her perform pokes exciting at the a lot of bizarre (and sometime hazardous) traditions and customs that we unquestioningly engage in ourselves.

You can see her get the job done in ‘Inside’ at Two Temple Put, organised by Thorp Stavri.

Two Temple Area, London, WC2R 3BD | 28 Jan – 26 Feb

Bananas, 2021, oil, paper and acrylic on canvas, 140 x 120cm, by Sabrina Shah

 

Haroun Hayward

Is Haroun Hayward an abstract painter? Hunting at his work, which tends to consist of modular constructions of color, condition and texture in oil paint and pastel, it could possibly appear to be like the respond to is sure. But when you get started to read into the artist’s influences and sources of inspiration, it gets significantly less distinct. Hayward’s paintings attribute references to his favorite DJ’s and producers, the 20th Century British artists who inspire him and his mother’s assortment of South Asian and West African textiles. In other terms, his get the job done – however much from currently being portraiture – signifies the artist himself in a fuller sense than any figurative perform could. To me, Hayward’s functions are something but summary. Significantly from currently being non-representational, they are maps of the artist’s life – created up of visits to artwork galleries, nightclubs and his spouse and children residence. Following an remarkable solo exhibition at Indigo+Madder in 2021, he lately acquired representation with Hales Gallery, where by he will have his to start with solo exhibition in March.

You can see his operate in ‘Abstract Colour’ at Marlborough Gallery and The Moth And The Thunderclap at Present day Art.

Haroun Hayward in the studio (courtesy of Indigo+Madder and Matthew Coles)

 

Alice Macdonald

Alice Macdonald’s apply spans printmaking, ceramics and portray, depicting folks in the course of silent, contemplative moments in a entire world where it usually appears to be dusk. Seldom do her people express a great deal emotion they have a tendency to search forward – at, or from time to time past – their companions or the viewer, shed in considered. The scenes that she results in experience like fond recollections, their colours a little bit washed out and their edges softened by time. I not long ago organised an exhibition at Drake’s on Savile Row, which integrated Macdonald’s paintings of her topics looking at on the seaside, strolling in the woods and feeding on at the table. Since finishing the prestigious postgraduate diploma at The Royal Drawing School in 2017, the artist has considering that shown her do the job with V.O. Curations, Aleph Contemporary and Oliver Initiatives amongst many others and is at the moment doing the job in direction of her MFA at Metropolis & Guilds Artwork University. With her peaceful way of depicting the entire world in intellect, I’m looking forward to viewing how her work suits into a group exhibition centred all-around depictions of the sword.

You can see her function in ‘Who holds the sword?’ at Hypha Studios.

Hypha Studios, 50 Celebration Avenue, London, E20 1DB | 27 Jan – 10 Mar

Reading On The Seashore, 2021, watercolour on paper, by Alice Macdonald (courtesy of the artist)