Charles Sandison @ Galerie Forsblom, Helsinki - New installation "Tabula Rasa" Exhibition

Charles Sandison: Tabula Rasa

Galerie Forsblom, Helsinki

June 6 – July 12, 2025

Charles Sandison’s new installation Tabula Rasa depicts words spilling out of open, empty books and moving towards each other in a continuous stream. The title refers to philosopher John Locke’s theory that humans begin life as a ‘blank slate’ onto which experiences and meanings are gradually imprinted. In Sandison’s Tabula Rasa, the blank slate is an ideological battlefield pitting words against each other as they compete to fill the empty pages.

The installation juxtaposes diametric opposites such as good and evil, love and hate. The word streams are controlled by a simple set of algorithms and driven by chance. The outcome of the ideological battle is unpredictable. The words begin to migrate more vigorously as their numbers dwindle, and it can take days for one word to take over all the books. When the process finally reaches its conclusion, the system resets and begins all over again.

Charles Sandison’s artistic practice addresses the themes of memory, linguistic structures and history, exploring cultural heritage and possible futures using contemporary digital technology. Employing generative code as his medium, his content comprises the entirety of our common cultural heritage and the ideological, artistic and philosophical ideas that have shaped contemporary society. The installation raises questions about power, freedom, the nature of knowledge and the process through which meaning is constructed – or deconstructed. Tabula Rasa is at once a visual spectacle, a philosophical commentary and a social allegory.

Scottish-born Charles Sandison (b. 1969) graduated from the Glasgow School of Art in 1993. During a career now spanning over three decades, he has exhibited his work in public spaces around the world. Sandison’s work is held in numerous Finnish and international collections, including Helsinki’s Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, Museo Reina Sofía in Madrid, and art museums in Denver, Montreal, Rome and Bonn. The artist lives and works in Tampere, Finland.

GALERIE FORSBLOM

Yrjönkatu 22, 00120 Helsinki

www.galerieforsblom.com

Charles Jeffrey LOVERBOY Exhibition @ Somerset House, London

Charles Jeffrey LOVERBOY 

Somerset House, London 

8 June – 1 September 2024 

Somerset House presents the first ever UK exhibition of Glaswegian born designer, illustrator, stylist, radical creative, and Somerset House resident Charles Jeffrey – celebrating 10 years of his fashion house LOVERBOY. The exhibition examines Charles Jeffrey’ sensational impact on the global fashion scene, from club to catwalk, and includes the full spectrum of his prolific output, with newly commissioned works.

Charles Jeffrey is one of Somerset House Studios’ original resident artists - whose studio is still based within Somerset House’s community of cultural innovators. He graduated from London’s Central Saint Martins in 2015, founding his own fashion label Charles Jeffrey LOVERBOY shortly thereafter. It was named after the cult club night he had hosted weekly in East London to fund his studies and an internship in the haute couture ateliers of Christian Dior in Paris.

The exhibition is anchored by the collaborative spirit nurtured during Charles Jeffrey’s time at art school and that now sits at the root of his gender-inclusive brand’s narrative. Championing wearability and style for all, with fans including Harry Styles and Tilda Swinton, LOVERBOY has been lauded for ripping up the fashion rule book, and transcending the boundaries of art, design and music. Merging traditional tailoring with a punk ethos, its collections are both distinctly contemporary and yet also grounded in British subcultural traditions. With its colourful and cutting-edge designs, Charles Jeffrey LOVERBOY champions self-expression and artistry – a voice that is threaded throughout his work across mediums and the decade.

The exhibition is displayed across three rooms within Somerset House. It includes artistic collaborations, films, illustration, painting, memorabilia, and never-before-seen material. Through a series of sensorially-led spaces rendered in LOVERBOY’s signature playful style, the exhibition  provides an accessible and engaging insight into creative production and the fashion industry. It also provides the space to celebrate a new generation of young London creatives. 

Each room has its own distinctive vision. Presented with an immersive multimedia installation, assembled from the LOVERBOY archive, the exhibition showcases Charles Jeffrey’s creative process across each space. The first room introduces his artistic inspirations, followed by a closer look into the development of his craft and codes, culminating in the final room featuring the brand’s most iconic and extravagant designs. It will be an engrossing insight into Charles Jeffrey’s journey and an opportunity to see his designs up close like never before.

Designer Charles Jeffrey said:

“I’m so excited to have this moment to share my journey in fashion at Somerset House. It's not just about celebrating 10 years of Loverboy; it's about sharing our approach to fashion; being creative, approachable, and not taking ourselves too seriously.”

We're here to shine a light on what we've built and to show that if we can do it, so can you. Visitors can expect to see our journey, our quirks, and have a good laugh along the way. It's about making fashion accessible and fun, reminding everyone that at the end of the day, it's about expressing who you are.”

LOVERBOY is a creative force springing forth from the mind of Scottish Creative Director and Designer, Charles Jeffrey. Based in London – in the catacombs of historic Somerset House, to be exact – LOVERBOY continues to build on its stellar start in the fashion industry, taking on new challenges and reaching new customers year on year. From humble beginnings in Charles’s East London bedroom, LOVERBOY is now an international fashion powerhouse, carried in over 90 stores across the world, and employing a team of ten full-time staff. Drawn to the inherent magic in queerness, Charles and his collaborators create fashion dreamscapes, adding new layers to the brand’s story with each passing season. Together they weave the folkloric thread of Scottish history into the rich tapestry of London’s queer nightlife and music scenes.

A radical sensibility informs all LOVERBOY’s output, and the brand is proudly committed to making clothes that can be worn by anyone, in any conceivable way. With LOVERBOY entering its eighth year, Charles and his team of fashion visionaries are taking this approach to new heights, drawing inspiration from art, music and unconventional sources of queer joy. Renewed connection to nature, the body and notions of queer wellness are all key creative stimuli in LOVERBOY’s current future-facing phase. The brand will also continue to renew its focus on collaboration through partnerships with artists in residence who act as contributors to the design process. 

charlesjeffreyloverboy.com

SOMERSET HOUSE

Strand, London, WC2R 1LA

www.somersethouse.org.uk

Graham Little @ FLAG Art Foundation, NYC - Sixteen gouache and colored-pencil artworks created between 2000 and 2023

Graham Little 

FLAG Art Foundation, New York 

Through May 4, 2024 

The FLAG Art Foundation presents an exhibition of works on paper by GRAHAM LITTLE, marking the Scottish artist’s debut institutional solo presentation in the United States. Created between 2000 and 2023, these sixteen gouache and colored-pencil works are meticulous portals into Graham Little’s complex and mysterious universe. 

Graham Little begins each composition by scouring artist monographs and stacks of weathered spreads in fashion magazines from the 1970s and 1980s. With a reverence for reference, his scenes infuse late-twentieth century advertising aesthetics with lush art-historical motifs, such as in Untitled (Bedroom), 2021, in which decorative flourishes—reminiscent of the late British designer Terence Conran—furnish a mantle beneath a couple depicted in the stiffened style of Etruscan funerary art. Graham Little’s palette radiates warmth, and yet, his exacting handiwork and needlelike ornamentations are also coolly imperceptible, pristine, and smooth. In Graham Little’s world not a hair is out of place; each refined figure is a custodian of the quietly immaculate interiors and exteriors they inhabit.

Layering the aesthetics and ideals of Western advertising culture and art history, Graham Little’s out-of-time characters are positioned with an air of remove. Born out of commercial photography, the men and women inhabiting these uncanny scenes are meant to be looked at and are conscious of it—participants in their own objectification. In Untitled (Ballroom), 2013, a young woman in a backless midnight-blue gown, matching opera gloves, and architectural gold jewelry feigns surprise as if someone has just walked in the room; her attentive gaze causes the viewer to contemplate their own. In offering idealized portrayals of a privileged lifestyle, the artist hints at the fragility of yearning for luxury when none is for sale.   

The intimate scale of Graham Little’s work further reinforces its conceptual foundations; as if peering through the window of a miniature model, viewers are encouraged to physically lean in and absorb the nuance of each detail. Despite their physicality, the ambiguous contexts of his subjects inspire endless curiosity: What is the man in the wine-colored robe and slippers reading while he sips his morning coffee? Who is the woman in an elaborate white and red-hearted apron—which matches her tablecloth and starched napkins—entertaining for tea? How did the mangy fox die? Graham Little’s compositions are keepers of their secrets, endlessly flexible to viewers’ imaginations.

A commissioned text by Hettie Judah, chief art critic at the British daily paper The i, accompanies Graham Little’s exhibition.

GRAHAM LITTLE (b. 1972, Dundee, Scotland) is an artist living and working in London, United Kingdom. Graham Little earned an BA in Fine Art from Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design, Dundee, in 1995, an MA in Fine Art from Goldsmiths College, London, in 1997, and was a research associate at Goldsmiths College, London, in 1998. Recent solo exhibitions include dépendance, Brussels, Belgium (2023); Taka Ishii Gallery, Tokyo, Japan (2022); and Alison Jacques, London (2021); among others. Graham Little’s work has been included in numerous group exhibitions, including at the Hayward Gallery, London, UK (2021); V&A, Dundee, Scotland (2020); Manifesta 11, Zurich, Switzerland (2016); among others. Graham Little’s works are part of the permanent collections of institutions including the British Council Art Collection, UK; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA; and the Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY. 

FLAG ART FOUNDATION

545 West 25th Street, New York, NY 10001

www.flagartfoundation.org

Graham Little @ FLAG, NYC - February 23 - May 4, 2024

Photojournalist Harry Benson Exhibition @ Southampton Arts Center -SAC - A Moment in Time: Iconic Images by Harry Benson - Curated by Sally Martin Katz

A Moment in Time

Iconic Images by Harry Benson

Southampton Arts Center

Opening May 6, 2023

Southampton Arts Center (SAC) presents the second exhibition of its 10th anniversary year. A Moment in Time: Iconic Images by Harry Benson, curated by Sally Martin Katz, is a presentation of the photographer’s impressive collection of images documenting civil rights figures, politicians, musicians, celebrities, and athletes. Harry Benson’s iconic work is an embodiment of some of the most significant moments captured in the 20th and 21st centuries. 

“Harry Benson has captured some of the most iconic moments in history in a way that tells a compelling story,” shares SAC executive director Christina Mossaides Strassfield. “The exhibition is about so much more than photography — it’s about the man behind the camera, his experiences with some of the most notable people, places, and events in a generation. Harry Benson is a true documentarian, and we’re honored to present his story and his work.”

An award-winning Scottish photojournalist, HARRY BENSON began his career at the weekly newspaper Hamilton Advertiser before moving to the Daily Sketch after his infamous and exclusive interviews in prison with Scottish mass murderer Peter Manual. In 1964, he traveled to the United States with the Beatles, and never looked back. He was under contract with LIFE magazine for 30 years, and has photographed for other major magazines including TIME, Vanity Fair, Newsweek, French Vogue, Quest, Paris Match, Forbes, Town & Country, Architectural Digest, People, and The London Sunday Times Magazine.

“I am looking forward to having my photographs at the esteemed Southampton Arts Center,” shares Harry Benson. “It is a challenge to choose photographs from my 75-year career, which hopefully will surprise, delight, and engage the viewer, and lead to animated discussions of memorable times past. It is a challenge I accept.”

“I am thrilled to have the opportunity to curate an exhibition of a photographer whose work I have long admired and who is a legendary figure within the photography world,” shares Sally Martin Katz. “Benson’s work is notable for his ability to be at the right place at the right time and to create images that capture the ethos of their era. His photographs provide insight into the watershed events of his lifetime and into the characters of the people who have shaped our culture and our history.”

SOUTHAMPTON ARTS CENTER

25 Jobs Lane, Southampton, New York 11968

southamptonartscenter.org

Ken Currie @ Flowers Gallery, London - Black Boat

Ken Currie: Black Boat

Flowers Gallery, London

16 September - 5 November 2022

KEN CURRIE

Black Boat, (triptych), 2020 

Oil on canvas, 214 x 642 cm

© Ken Currie, Courtesy of Flowers Gallery

KEN CURRIE

Storm Petrel, 2022 

Oil on canvas, 215 x 337 cm

© Ken Currie, Courtesy of Flowers Gallery

Flowers Gallery presents an exhibition of paintings by Scottish artist KEN CURRIE, featuring a new body of work connecting stories through the sea. In these paintings, narratives from Ancient Greece interlock with contemporary seafaring tales from the Outer Hebrides, while their vast horizons stretch to traverse the passages in between.

Large-scale paintings such as The Argonauts depict ideas of conquest, featuring scenes of brutality and a sky dramatically lit by the trails of falling missiles. Widening out across all three panels of the triptych, the painting resembles a stage set, in which each group of characters engage in symbolic actions with references to both the Argonautic voyage and the Oresteia. The narrative, however, is disrupted by shifts in the alignment of the scene where the panels meet, splicing apart the continuity of time and space as though referring to a cinematic jump cut. These glitches point us towards the dreamlike qualities of Ken Currie’s paintings, in which the ambiguity of their storytelling leaves room for the viewer to read their own interpretation of the opposing acts of creation and destruction.

The painting Black Boat refers to the poem by Scottish Gaelic poet Sorley MacLean of the same name. In this triptych, the middle panel depicts a scene of distress, in which a crew of modern-day fishermen suffer alongside their haul on rough waters. The flanking panels portray solemn shrouded female figures, recalling the Fates (from Greek mythology), who appear to signal the loss of life on the sea. The curve of the hull of the boat here is repeated in all three panels of the triptych, creating a rolling waveform that amplifies a sense of nausea; meanwhile, the rhythm of the painting is firmly anchored by the jagged path of fishing lines, their structural vectors suggesting a constellation by which to navigate.

The works in Black Boat appear themselves to have been subjected to the ravages of the coastal Hebridean environment through the intricate and highly controlled manipulation of their painterly surfaces. A bloom often emerges as though the paintings have been patinated by the elements or illuminated by the spectral glow of phosphorescence. The resulting sensation of the passage of time echoes the hardships of a landscape Ken Currie describes as “steeped in tragedy.” He says, “This contrast between beauty and tragedy is there all the time."

KEN CURRIE 

Ken Currie was born in 1960, and studied at the Glasgow School of Art from 1978 - 1983. He rose to attention as one of the New Glasgow Boys along with Peter Howson, Adrian Wisniewski and the late Steven Campbell who studied together at the Glasgow School of Art. Currie is renowned for his unsettling portrayal of the human figure, often created as a response to brutality and suffering in contemporary society. He is well known for his public murals commissioned for the People’s Palace in Glasgow, as well as his enduringly popular artwork from the Scottish National Portrait Gallery Collection Three Oncologists, representing a life-long study of the fragility of the human condition. His large-scale portrait of preeminent forensic anthropologist Professor Dame Sue Black went on view at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery in May 2021. Ken Currie has exhibited widely internationally, including a solo exhibition at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery; and has been selected for numerous group shows including The Scottish Endarkenment: Art and Unreason, 1945 to Present at Dovecot Gallery, Edinburgh, 2016; Reality, Modern & Contemporary British Painting at The Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, Norwich and Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool; and Drawing Breath, a touring exhibition marking ten years of the Jerwood Drawing Prize. His work is in the collections of Yale Centre for British Art, Connecticut; Tate, London; Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh; New York Public Library; Imperial War Museum, London; Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon; Campbelltown City Bicentennial Art Gallery, Australia; British Council, London; Boston Museum of Fine Art; and ARKEN, Museum of Modern Art, Copenhagen.

FLOWERS GALLERY

82 Kingsland Road, London E2 8DP

www.flowersgallery.com

Kenny Hunter @ Aberdeen Art Gallery - Sculpture Court Exhibition

Kenny Hunter - Sculpture Court 

Aberdeen Art Gallery 

11 December 2021 - 30 October 2022 

Aberdeen Art Gallery presents a new exhibition by sculptor Kenny Hunter. Sculpture Court, which is displayed in the Art Gallery’s grand central gallery of the same name, reflects on the changing role of the monument as a public artform.

Kenny Hunter is one of Scotland’s leading contemporary artists. Born in Edinburgh in 1962, Hunter graduated from Glasgow School of Art in 1987 and then studied classical sculpture at the British School in Athens. He is based in Edinburgh and is a lecturer at Edinburgh College of Art, part of the University of Edinburgh.

Kenny Hunter makes elegant sculptures in many materials including wood, plastic, iron and bronze. He exhibits work widely in the UK and internationally and has also created a number of high-profile commissioned works, including Citizen Firefighter (2001), outside Glasgow’s Central Station, Youth With Split Apple (2005) for King’s College, Aberdeen and iGoat (2010) in Spitalfields, London. Feedback Loop (2003) is in the collection of Aberdeen Archives, Gallery & Museums. In 2008 he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from Aberdeen University. Hunter is currently working on a new commission for the Thomas Blake Glover memorial garden in Fraserburgh. He has also been commissioned by the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh to create a memorial to healthcare workers for their tireless efforts throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

Kenny Hunter describes his practice as a sculptor as an ongoing effort to deconstruct the monument as a permanent symbol of political and historic progress and instead re-present it as a form in flux, open to varied interpretation. This has been expressed through inverting traditional monumental values and certainties with unexpected uses of scale, material and subject matter, opening up questions for the viewer rather than providing answers.

Kenny Hunter said: “For this new exhibition, Sculpture Court, I was drawn to the idea that today, the original power and purpose of the monument can seem incongruous. Recently we’ve all become much more aware of the failings, fragility, and fallibility of this public artform. I’m presenting this group of artworks here against the magnificent backdrop of Aberdeen Art Gallery’s classically-inspired Sculpture Court as ambiguous and open to varied interpretation. I hope that visitors to the exhibition will consider both the future role of the monument and its legacy, thinking about questions such as - what they are for, what do they represent and who do they serve?”

Councillor Marie Boulton, Aberdeen City Council’s culture spokesperson said: “Kenny Hunter has enjoyed a relationship with Aberdeen over many years, specifically with Aberdeen Art Gallery, Peacock Visual Arts and Aberdeen University. His sculpture Feedback Loop is already a firm favourite with visitors to the Art Gallery. For people who know Kenny’s work from other locations such as at Aberdeen University, elsewhere in Scotland and the UK, I hope that they will take the opportunity to visit Aberdeen Art Gallery over the coming months and discover this wonderful new exhibition by one of Scotland’s leading contemporary artists.”

ABERDEEN ART GALLERY

Schoolhill, Aberdeen AB10 1FQ

www.aagm.co.uk

www.kenny-hunter.com

Instagram @realkennyhunter

ABERDEEN CITY COUNCIL

www.aberdeencity.gov.uk

Projects 88: Lucy McKenzie, MoMA, NYC

Projects 88: Lucy McKenzie 

Museum of Modern Art, New York

September 10 - December 1, 2008 

For Projects 88: Lucy McKenzie, the Museum of Modern Art presents a site-specific installation of newly acquired paintings and prints by artist LUCY McKENZIE (Scottish, b. 1977) as part of its ongoing Elaine Dannheisser Projects Series. McKenzie’s work questions the politics of representation, among other topics, and confronts the ways in which women have historically been portrayed in the media. Her practice incorporates painting, printmaking, drawing, and public performances such as concerts and poetry readings that reference historical models of artist clubs or salons. In 2007, Lucy McKenzie started the interior decoration company Atelier with illustrator Bernie Reid (Scottish, b. 1972) and fashion designer Beca Lipscombe (Scottish, b. 1973) to collaborate on designing public and private social spaces. For this exhibition, their first commission for a museum, Atelier has created an installation that emulates the décor of a turn-of-the-century library. Mural paintings recreating walls paneled in dark wood take their inspiration from Art Nouveau architect Paul Hankar, while the stenciled carpet on the floor derives from design motifs by Gothic Revival architect Augustus Pugin.

The Brussels-based LUCY McKENZIE recently returned to school in order to master the technique of trompe l’oeil painting seen in this installation. In 2008, she completed a course of traditional study at the Van Der Kelen Institute for decorative painting in Brussels. McKenzie studied for her BA at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design in Scotland from 1995 to 1999 and at Karlsruhe Kunstakademie in Germany in 1998. Her work has been featured at numerous museums and galleries throughout Europe and the U.S., and she has had solo shows at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (2007), the ICA Boston (2004), and Tate Britain, London (2003). Group shows include UCLA Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2004), the Venice Biennale (2003), Kunsthalle Basel (2002), and the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis (2001).

The exhibition is organized by Christophe Cherix, Curator, Department of Prints and Illustrated Books, The Museum of Modern Art, New York. The Projects series is coordinated by Kathy Halbreich, Associate Director, The Museum of Modern Art, New York.

CHRISTOPHE CHERIX joined MoMA as Curator in the Department of Prints and Illustrated Books in July 2007. He was previously the Curator of the Cabinet des estampes in Geneva. Mr. Cherix's specialty is modern and contemporary art, with a particular focus on printed art of the 1960s and 1970s, and artists' books. His recent exhibitions include Book/Shelf (2008) at MoMA, which explored artists' use of the book as an object in contemporary art; a survey of vacuum-formed plastic multiples (2007); and a study of the prints of Henri Matisse (2006), both at the Musée d'art et d'histoire in Geneva. As Commissioner of the 25th Biennale of Graphic Arts in Slovenia in 2003, Christophe Cherix featured artists’ books as well as a range of printed works that expanded traditional definitions of the medium. Among his numerous publications are the catalogues raisonnés of prints by Henri Michaux and Robert Morris.

ABOUT THE ELAINE DANNHEISSER PROJECTS SERIES

Created in 1971 as a forum for emerging artists and new art, the Elaine Dannheisser Projects series plays a vital part in MoMA’s contemporary art programs. With exhibitions organized by curators from all of the Museum’s curatorial departments, the series has presented the work of close to 200 artists to date. 

MUSEUM OF MODERN ART - MoMA

Contemporary Galleries, second floor 

www.moma.org

Chris Evans, Galerie Juliètte Jongma, Amsterdam - The Rock & The Judge

Chris Evans: The Rock & The Judge

Galerie Juliètte Jongma, Amsterdam

15 January – 19 February 2005

The critic and art historian Michael Baxandall once wrote that an artwork 'is the deposit of a social relationship'. Galerie Juliètte Jongma presents 'The Rock and The Judge', the first solo exhibition in The Netherlands of the Scottish artist CHRIS EVANS (Easterington, 1967), curated by Maxine Kopsa.

There's a lot to be remembered here. There's the police force, a judge, the rock, an airbrush, the fraternity and a sculpture park based on Raymond Roussel's Locus Solus. But it all comes together, quite neatly. 'The Rock & The Judge' is like a surreal encounter with a CEO-come-artist-turned-alternative-rock star and a perfectly angelic though somehow demonic muse, like the rabbit in Donnie Darko, who, late at night, too many drinks and too many hours at a random party, all of a sudden find themselves speaking the same language. Who then wake up the next morning wondering if it was all just a dream.

'The Rock & The Judge' consist of three different works (airbrush paintings, lithographs and a sculpture) all connected through their common search for the depiction of power relations. Necessary irony entailed.

Chris Evans' work pattern usually begins with a personal encounter and then develops into a visual re-working, conceptually formed along the way. For instance: years ago, at the academy he met (and immediately disliked -the feelings were mutual) a part time mature student, a police officer, interested in drawing. When the officer was out of the room for a minute, not being able to withhold his curiosity Evans quickly took a look in his sketchbook and saw portrait after portrait of different judges. 'The Rock & the Judge' the work which lends its title to the show, comprises a sculpture and a drawing commissioned by Chris Evans (granted, slightly re-worked by Evans) by detective constable Richard Hill from the Yorkshire police force (not the same). The 'rock' -an autonomous object, a true sculpture- placed as though on trail in front justice's elevated bench, might depict -with enough wit- the win/lose situation involved in much aesthetic discourse and validation.

Three paintings done in airbrush -a technique few people could get away with without it becoming either tattoo-like or tastelessly 80s- are the beginning of a new project called The Fantasist. They portray imaginary outdoor sculptures and are loosely based on Raymond Roussel's surreal novel, Locus Solus (1916). The Fantasist is a self initiated touring exhibition and book of sculpture parks, comprising these and other works as well as commissioned texts by, amongst others, Lucy McKenzie, Liam Gillick, Will Bradley, and Paulina Olowska. The publication is due to come out in the summer of 2005.

Power. The subtle hierarchy that goes along within its precarious relationship, and the law and order prevailing that enables its successful continuance. That's in essence what is happening here. Or, as Will Bradley so aptly put it: 'Evans is deeply concerned with the impossibility of separating the artwork from the social and political conditions in which it exists, but unlike the politically motivated artists of the last generation he doesn't ask that art give up any of its connection with personal, poetic or imaginative investigation.'

GALERIE JULIETTE JONGMA

Gerard Douplein 23, 1073XE Amsterdam

www.juliettejongma.com

Hayley Tompkins, at Andrew Kreps Gallery, NYC

Hayley Tompkins

Andrew Kreps Gallery, New York

October 11 - November 15, 2003

My street's very, very quiet, and no-one brings anyone in here - it's very private.

But there are these motor homes and

20 people in black suits,

standing in the middle of my street, So I pull up.

In my car and I've got my hair pulled back - and he

starts to take pictures. No make-up, no nothing.

So I said, "Fine" I see myself like that every day.

I think I'm very free. On + on.

Once you overcome an obstacle,

You springboard into the future.

Borrow it.

His / her / it's life activity. Conscious life activity.

Find it.

Life is interesting and short

It's not supposed to be easy, and if it is

You're probably just in denial and you're existing here

Like a zombie.

No zombies.

That's what I love about -

-Sue Tompkins

Andrew Kreps Gallery presents an exhibition of new work by Hayley Tompkins. Based in Glasgow, Scotland, Hayley Tompkins has recently participated in exhibitions at Galerie Krinzinger in Vienna, Austria and at The Modern Institute in Glasgow. This is her second solo exhibition at Andrew Kreps Gallery.

The exhibition features Hayley Tompkins' trademark watercolors on paper as well as paintings on wooden board, a new medium for her. Hayley Tompkins sees these paintings on board as an "attempt to retrieve images of other paintings in my mind. Like remembering. The paintings feel aged to me already, like I am making ready-made objects and inserting them into history straight away."

In this exhibition, a number of works are hung on a large cubical structure built in the center of the gallery space. As viewers navigate around the structure, Hayley Tompkins' installation unfolds. The artist sees encountering the structure as "a gestalt, 'unwhole' experience" because only one part of the exhibition is visible at a time. The four walls of the box-structure provide a stage of sorts, where the paintings are installed to express their distinctive qualities. Some of the works contain references to stage or costume design. Hayley Tompkins cites Malevich, Sonia Delaunay and Oskar Schlemmer as influential for their work, as well as for their holistic approaches as artists-cum-stage designers. Other works in the exhibition are hung to emphasize their surreal content.

ANDREW KREPS GALLERY

516 wEST 20th Street, New York City

www.andrewkreps.com