The Artist is Present

7 October - 3 November 2022
  • Press Release Text

    Intimacy, awareness, sexuality and repulsion are tangled together within the second group show at Guts Gallery HQ. Using painting, ‘The Artist is Present’ dissects our perceptions of reality, confronting our preconceived beliefs, ideas and illusions. Visual imagery is introduced as a focal point for sincerity. Vulnerabilities are explored, while modes of escapism and separation from the anticipated, calculated and expected are traversed. 


    Various paintings are dressed with intimate scenes plucked from the heart of unguarded interactions. Cinematic stills anamnestically evoke nostalgia of supposed previous existences, maybe our memories or those of another. Subjects are washed in tones that seem to summon almost synesthetic associations. We clumsily mend the fractured characteristics. Connecting them, we reveal responses that mask the nuances of emotion and the self, the realities of every individual.


    Dreams and nightmares manifest in waking moments; ambivalence dances with contempt, horror and revulsion, delight, pride or perhaps arbitrary indifference reflecting our daily observations that emerge from assumed truths.


    Certainty is not quite persistent; as it steadily emerges like water from a lost-forgotten aquifer, experiences are swept to the foreground. We anticipate immediacy, however, as we are slowly acknowledged by the shifting intensities, thoughts and actions are given the space to converge.


    Noun

    The present, The most immediate moment of your life.


    Verb

    To present, Manifesting imagination through expression.


    Adjective

    Is present, To be at the forefront of your perception.


    Words by Moriah Ogunbiy

  • Artist
  • Díla
    • Adéla Janská Insiders , 2021 Oil and acrylic on canvas 140 x 210 cm 55 1/8 x 82 5/8 in
      Adéla Janská
      Insiders , 2021
      Oil and acrylic on canvas
      140 x 210 cm
      55 1/8 x 82 5/8 in
    • Xiao Wang Portrait, October, 2022 Oil on canvas 104 x 137 cm 41 x 54 in
      Xiao Wang
      Portrait, October, 2022
      Oil on canvas
      104 x 137 cm
      41 x 54 in
    • Jamiu Agboke, Everything Lives, Everything Moves, Everything Corresponds, 2022
      Jamiu Agboke, Everything Lives, Everything Moves, Everything Corresponds, 2022
    • Jamiu Agboke Lamb of God , 2022 Oil on canvas Bespoke walnut tray frame 20 x 25 cm 7 7/8 x 9 7/8 in
      Jamiu Agboke
      Lamb of God , 2022
      Oil on canvas
      Bespoke walnut tray frame
      20 x 25 cm
      7 7/8 x 9 7/8 in
    • Thérèse Mulgrew Set Up , 2022 Oil on canvas 121.92 x 182.88 cm 48 x 72 in
      Thérèse Mulgrew
      Set Up , 2022
      Oil on canvas
      121.92 x 182.88 cm
      48 x 72 in
    • Tom Harker Miracle Grow, 2022 Oil on canvas 110 x 90 cm 43 1/4 x 35 3/8 in
      Tom Harker
      Miracle Grow, 2022
      Oil on canvas
      110 x 90 cm
      43 1/4 x 35 3/8 in
    • Ania Hobson Smoke and Wine, 2020 Oil on canvas 80 x 60 cm 31 1/2 x 23 5/8 in
      Ania Hobson
      Smoke and Wine, 2020
      Oil on canvas
      80 x 60 cm
      31 1/2 x 23 5/8 in
    • Alfie Rouy Symbiotic Oscillation, 2022 Acrylic, graphite on canvas 140 x 170 cm 55 1/8 x 66 7/8 in
      Alfie Rouy
      Symbiotic Oscillation, 2022
      Acrylic, graphite on canvas
      140 x 170 cm
      55 1/8 x 66 7/8 in
    • Elsa Rouy Deliverance of my heart, 2022 Acrylic, pressed flowers on canvas 150 x 120 cm 59 x 47 1/4 in
      Elsa Rouy
      Deliverance of my heart, 2022
      Acrylic, pressed flowers on canvas
      150 x 120 cm
      59 x 47 1/4 in
    • Atusa Jafari Ikea Bed and Fake Uggs, 2021 Oil on canvas 23.6 x 19.7 cm 9 1/4 x 7 3/4 in
      Atusa Jafari
      Ikea Bed and Fake Uggs, 2021
      Oil on canvas
      23.6 x 19.7 cm
      9 1/4 x 7 3/4 in
  • Installation shots