Francesca Mollett: Halves

Francesca Mollett: Halves

Keizersgracht 241 Amsterdam, 1016 EA, The Netherlands Friday, June 2, 2023–Saturday, July 22, 2023 Opening Reception: Friday, June 2, 2023, 4 p.m.–7 p.m.


spokes by francesca mollett

Francesca Mollett

Spokes, 2023

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vanishing backs by francesca mollett

Francesca Mollett

Vanishing backs, 2023

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short cut by francesca mollett

Francesca Mollett

Short cut, 2023

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halves by francesca mollett

Francesca Mollett

Halves, 2023

Sold

Keizersgracht 241
Amsterdam, 1016 EA, The Netherlands

GRIMM is pleased to present a solo exhibition of new works by London-based artist Francesca Mollett on view at the Amsterdam location from 2 June to 22 July, 2023. This is the artist’s first solo exhibition with GRIMM since joining the gallery in 2022. The opening of the exhibition coincides with Amsterdam Art Week (31 May - 4 June). On Saturday, June 3 the artist will have a conversation with poet Ella Duffy at the gallery.

On view in the exhibition are a group of paintings engaged with the elusive nature of reflections, grappling with the visual phenomena that occurs at the meeting point of two surfaces and the ensuant disintegration of their physical boundaries into disembodied, abstract properties. The paintings often take as their starting point site-specific features of Amsterdam’s built and natural environment, for instance, the glossy dark paint adorning the doors of Amsterdam’s town houses, which extends the shimmering flow of water along its tree-lined canals.

These reflective surfaces are sites of exchange, both with one another and also with the city’s inhabitants, acting as physical constants that mirror the fleeting daily routines of passers-by and the rise and fall of light throughout the day.

In her latest body of work, these impressions are given painterly form across a series of canvases varying in scale, tackling the minutiae and the expanse of her subject. Looking beyond any metaphorical or narrative allusion associated with the places depicted, the artist is instead concerned with the visual spectacle that occurs at these intersections – the competing and contradictory qualities of opacity and transparency in the architectural surroundings, where materials take on the qualities of the things around them, such as the glittering movement of sunlight on the surface of water or wood, merged into cascading, weightless light and shape. This inherent duality of appearance and concealment is hinted at in the exhibition’s title, Halves, connoting the doubling or splitting quality of reflection.

The title of the exhibition originates from a poem by Ella Duffy, Halves, from her collection New Hunger (2020). A new poem from Duffy titled Surfacing has been written in response to this exhibition.

The paintings on view in Amsterdam continue a preoccupation within Mollett’s practice of responding to a place as a way to organise ideas about painting, finding subjects that serve as visual metaphors for what painting can do. The question of what to extract from an image begins with Mollett making charcoal drawings. She follows by drawing with charcoal directly onto the canvas, adding fluid washes of acrylic paint that define a territory for an initial composition. Multiple layers of oil paint are applied in varying consistencies to create depth and texture, using brushes, a palette knife and cloth, to create passages that form a precise language and atmosphere. During this process, adherence to the source image is often left behind, as the painting itself presents new openings and possibilities to be explored. As such, the method becomes cyclical and collage-like, drawing upon both external and internal visual stimuli, painting in between the gaps of intention and intuition.

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About the Artist

Francesca Mollett (b. 1991, Bristol, UK) received her MA in Painting from the Royal College of Art, London (UK) in 2020, having previously studied at the Royal Drawing School and Wimbledon College of Art, London (UK). 

Recent solo exhibitions include Low Sun at Micki Meng, San Francisco, CA (US), 2023; The Moth in the Moss at Taymour Grahne Projects, London (UK), 2022; Spiral Walking at Baert Gallery, Los Angeles, CA (US), 2022 and Wild Shade at Informality Gallery, London (UK), 2021. She was included in the group exhibition The Kingfisher’s Wing, curated by Tom Morton at GRIMM, New York, NY (US) in 2022. 

Her work has also been featured in numerous group shows including Considering Female Abstractions, Green Family Art Foundation, Dallas, TX (US); New British Abstraction, CICA, Vancouver (CA), 2023; Sabrina, curated by Russell Tovey, Sim Smith, London (UK); New Romantics, The Artist Room at Lee Eugean Gallery, Seoul (KR); Down in Albion at L.U.P.O. Lorenzelli Projects, Milan, (IT) in 2022; Le coeur encore, The approach, London (UK), 2021; Diaries of a Climate, Baert Gallery, Los Angeles, CA (US), 2021; and London Grads Now, Saatchi Gallery, London (UK), 2020. 

Mollett’s work can be found in the Green Family Art Foundation, Dallas, TX (US); the He Art Museum, Guangdong Province (CN); Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, FL (US); K11 Art Foundation, Hong Kong (HK); Kunstmuseum, The Hague (NL); Pond Society, Shanghai (CN); the Rachofsky Collection, Dallas, TX (US) and The Roberts Institute of Art (RIA), London (UK).

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Photo credit: Jonathan de Waart (Installation view)