Celia Paul’s art stems from a deep connection with subject matter and is quiet, contemplative and ultimately moving in its profound attention to detail and deeply-felt spirituality. She is renowned for her intimate depictions of people and places she knows well, especially her sister Kate–as seen in Kate in White, Spring, 2018. Paul has produced a number of evocative self-portraits over the course of her career. Works such as Self-Portrait in a Narrow Mirror, 2019, open up a painterly and conceptual dialogue between the dual role of subject and artist– caught between self-possession and self-scrutiny– as well as offering an extended consideration of the essential dualities of the medium– its ability to capture qualities of form, light and atmosphere, and its material presence. While markedly different in character to her portraits, Paul’s seascapes, such as Seachange: Daybreak, 2017, take the idea of portraiture in a more elemental direction and are permeated by a sense of mortality, of matter becoming dissolute and consciousness shifting into pure energy.
Hernan Bas’ painting Supercut (look 9), 2019, is titled after a popular chain of hair salons in the US. Referring to the work, the artist comments ‘When I was assembling the portraits into a grid, I was immediately reminded of the photo’s framed on the wall of Supercuts– those standard model headshots from which you selected the look you want from your stylist.’ Loaded with codes and double–meanings, the work further points to the intricacies of self-identity, while celebrating moments of transformation– the ordinary becoming extraordinary.
Chantal Joffe brings a combination of insight and integrity, as well as psychological and emotional force, to the genre of figurative art. In her large-scale painting Katy, 2019, tensions between the scale of the work and the ease of the scene depicted heighten already complex narratives about connection, perception and representation that, implicit in the relationship between artist and subject, are extended to the viewer.
Chris Ofili’s Poolside Magic 5, 2012, is drawn from a suite of pastel, charcoal and watercolour works on paper, in which a man in coat-tails serves a naked woman beside a swimming pool. In these richly evocative works, Ofili riffs on themes of sexuality, mutability, magic and the occult, making reference to the vibrant and sensuous landscape and culture of Trinidad, where the artist lives and works. Source material for the series includes a photograph of Trinidadian artist Boscoe Holder (1921–2007) at work in his Port of Spain studio.
Tal R’s House Red, 2018, depicts a red clapboard house in a rolling landscape, separated from the viewer by a sharp picket fence. Here, the viewer is invited to consider various thresholds–actual and imagined–as well as who or what might exist on either side, as noted in Lund Humphries’ recent monograph on the artist by Martin Herbert, who comments ‘The windows are deep blue and opaque; something is behind them. We do not know what it is, or even when it is, but we suspect the artist…’ As such, House Red is an open invitation for the viewer to engage in the free play of imagination.
