Stephen Friedman Gallery returns to The Armory Show after a sixteen year hiatus. On Pier 94 Booth 500, the gallery presents a selection of artists including Tonico Lemos Auad, Andreas Eriksson, Denzil Forrester, Channing Hansen, Jim Hodges, Ilona Keserü, Ged Quinn, Deborah Roberts, Yinka Shonibare CBE, David Shrigley and Kehinde Wiley.
The gallery presents Denzil Forrester's work for the first time since announcing its representation of the artist last year. Painted in vivid shades of purple and yellow, ‘Stitch Up' (2017) is an autobiographical diorama depicting the Grenada-born artist's family sewing bags when they first moved to London over forty years ago. Forrester's first solo exhibition at Stephen Friedman Gallery will open in April 2019, ahead of the unveiling of a large-scale public artwork for Brixton Underground Station, London by TFL in September later this year.
Also exhibited is a previously unseen series of works on paper by African-American artist Deborah Roberts. As the title's grammatical connotations suggest, Roberts' 'Bullet Points' (2017) act as a visual 'checklist' of the artist's praxis: using the face of a black doll to punctuate each point, issues of beauty, colourism, pop culture, racism and identity are all manifested in the work. Roberts' first solo exhibition at Stephen Friedman Gallery will open in June 2019.
A new pair of portraits by African-American artist Kehinde Wiley is also on display. These continue the artist's exploration of race, identity and gender in the context of post-colonialism. Alluding to the notion of skin as a form of defence, Wiley depicts male and female warriors adorned in medieval armour as if to shield the violence inflicted against the black body.
Other highlights include new paintings by Swedish painter Andreas Eriksson that encompass the artist's longstanding relationship with nature; a monumental painting by British artist Ged Quinn that depicts a pseudo-romantic landscape imbued with historical references; new sculptures by British-Nigerian artist Yinka Shonibare CBE; and an early and important painting from 1972 by Hungarian artist Ilona Keserü, whose work is currently featured in 'Epic Abstraction' at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
