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ArchiveExhibition

WHAT DO YOU SEE, YOU PEOPLE, GAZING AT ME

16 Nov 2021-29 Jan 2022
PV 16 Nov 2021, 5-7pm

Sadie Coles HQ, Kingly Street
London W1B 5QN
Installation view, WHAT DO YOU SEE, YOU PEOPLE, GAZING AT ME, 16 November 2021 – 29 January 2022, 62 Kingly Street W1. Credit: Photography by Robert Glowacki

Overview

Natalie Ball
Kevin Beasley
Georgia Gardner Gray
Tau Lewis
Jonathan Lyndon Chase
Simphiwe Ndzube
Agata Słowak
Frieda Toranzo Jaeger

Each of the eight artists in this exhibition engage both two and three dimensional media to manifest the body and express its capacity for action; in turn conjuring an interrelational dialogue with the viewer’s own sense of self. Figuration has often been used as a visual record of history, a depiction of a particular subject in a particular time and place. For the artists in this exhibition, figuration extends beyond documentation, it is a potent tool of expression, a testimony of a new perspective. Works confronting inequalities of power via race or gender are presented alongside those which redirect our assumptions about histories and the hierarchies they established. These works are disrupting expectations about which bodies warrant representation, and why.

One of the strongest arguments for figuration’s enduring appeal is its capacity to use a universally relatable form: the human body, to evoke an emotional response in the viewer. We recognise pain and suffering with the same immediacy as joy and contentment. Even when a figure is foreign in shape or style, when it bears no formal resemblance to the viewer, when there is no shared history or understanding, the common language of the body can elicit sympathy or solace, it can attract or repel. Figuration is powerful and persistent, and the re-engagement in its potential for imagining and documenting change is a true expression of the potency of our new century. 

 

Selected works

Agata Słowak: Self-portrait with salt in the wounds, 2020, oil on canvas. Credit: © Agata Słowak. Courtesy Foksal Gallery Foundation and Sadie Coles HQ, London. Photo: Robert Glowacki
Agata Słowak, not yet titled, 2021, soft textile sculpture. Credit: © Agata Słowak. Courtesy Foksal Gallery Foundation and Sadie Coles HQ, London. Photo: Robert Glowacki
Kevin Beasley: District, 2021, polyurethane resin, raw Virginia cotton, dyesublimation t-shirts, shirts, du-rags. Credit: © Kevin Beasley, courtesy Casey Kaplan, New York, and Sadie Coles HQ, London. Photo: Robert Glowacki
Kevin Beasley: Status (a body), 2021, polyurethane resin, polyurethane foam, raw Virginia cotton, t-shirts, altered t-shirts, confetti t-shirts and work gloves, epoxy adhesive. Credit: © Kevin Beasley, courtesy Casey Kaplan, New York, and Sadie Coles HQ, London. Photo: Robert Glowacki
Georgia Gardner Gray: The Box, 2021. Credit: © Georgia Gardner Gray. Courtesy Croy Nielsen, Vienna, and Sadie Coles HQ, London. Photo: Gunter Lepkowski
Georgia Gardner Gray: Supermarket, 2021, oil on canvas. Credit: © Georgia Gardner Gray. Courtesy Croy Nielsen, Vienna, and Sadie Coles HQ, London. Photo: Gunter Lepkowski
Georgia Gardner Gray: Gustav (Push Ups), 2021, foam mannequin, streetwear, heat transfer on jersey. Credit: © Georgia Gardner Gray. Courtesy Croy Nielsen, Vienna, and Sadie Coles HQ, London. Photo: Robert Glowacki
Jonathan Lyndon Chase: 3 heads 2 nipples, 2021, materials spray paint acrylic paint marker glitter oil stick pastel earring on muslin. Credit: © Jonathan Lyndon Chase. Courtesy Company Gallery, New York, and Sadie Coles HQ, London. Photo: Chase Barnes
Natalie Ball: Deer Woman's new Certificate-of-Indian-Blood-skin, 2021, textiles, chenille, beads, deer and porcupine hair, sagebrush, river willow, lodgepole pine, rope. Credit: © Natalie Ball. Courtesy The Artist and Sadie Coles HQ, London. Photo: Robert Glowacki
Simphiwe Ndzube: Courtship, 2021, acrylic, oilstick, and duct tape on canvas. Credit: © Simphiwe Ndzube. Courtesy The Artist and Sadie Coles HQ, London. Photo: Esteban Schimpf
Simphiwe Ndzube: Hunter, 2021, metal, fabric, resin, epoxy, chicken wire, glass eyes, false eyelashes, silicone. Credit: © Simphiwe Ndzube. Courtesy The Artist and Sadie Coles HQ, London. Photo: Esteban Schimpf
Frieda Toranzo Jaeger: The island of Lesbos, 2021. Credit: © Frieda Toranzo Jaeger. Courtesy Arcadia Missa, London, and Sadie Coles HQ, London. Photo: Robert Glowacki
Frieda Toranzo Jaeger: The island of Lesbos, 2021. Credit: © Frieda Toranzo Jaeger. Courtesy Arcadia Missa, London, and Sadie Coles HQ, London. Photo: Robert Glowacki
Tau Lewis Mutasis: Moon, 2021, Recycled leather, seashells, sand dollars, acrylic paint, PVC pipe, galvanised steel, muslin, recycled poly fibres. Credit: © Tau Lewis. Courtesy Stephen Friedman Gallery, London, and Sadie Coles HQ, London. Photo: Pierre Le Hors
Tau Lewis: fetus ex angelus (Liberation of the planetary ovum), 2021, Recycled leather, wood, suede, recycled fabrics, acrylic paint. Credit: © Tau Lewis. Courtesy Stephen Friedman Gallery, London, and Sadie Coles HQ, London. Photo: Pierre Le Hors

Installation views

Installation view, WHAT DO YOU SEE, YOU PEOPLE, GAZING AT ME, Sadie Coles HQ, London, 16 November 2021 - 29 January 2022. Credit: Credit: © The Artist/s, courtesy Sadie Coles HQ, London. Photo: Robert Glowacki
Installation view, WHAT DO YOU SEE, YOU PEOPLE, GAZING AT ME, Sadie Coles HQ, London, 16 November 2021 - 29 January 2022. Credit: Credit: © The Artist/s, courtesy Sadie Coles HQ, London. Photo: Robert Glowacki
Installation view, WHAT DO YOU SEE, YOU PEOPLE, GAZING AT ME, Sadie Coles HQ, London, 16 November 2021 - 29 January 2022. Credit: Credit: © The Artist/s, courtesy Sadie Coles HQ, London. Photo: Robert Glowacki
Installation view, WHAT DO YOU SEE, YOU PEOPLE, GAZING AT ME, Sadie Coles HQ, London, 16 November 2021 - 29 January 2022. Credit: Credit: © The Artist/s, courtesy Sadie Coles HQ, London. Photo: Robert Glowacki
Installation view, WHAT DO YOU SEE, YOU PEOPLE, GAZING AT ME, Sadie Coles HQ, London, 16 November 2021 - 29 January 2022. Credit: Credit: © The Artist/s, courtesy Sadie Coles HQ, London. Photo: Robert Glowacki
Installation view, WHAT DO YOU SEE, YOU PEOPLE, GAZING AT ME, Sadie Coles HQ, London, 16 November 2021 - 29 January 2022. Credit: Credit: © The Artist/s, courtesy Sadie Coles HQ, London. Photo: Robert Glowacki
Installation view, WHAT DO YOU SEE, YOU PEOPLE, GAZING AT ME, Sadie Coles HQ, London, 16 November 2021 - 29 January 2022. Credit: Credit: © The Artist/s, courtesy Sadie Coles HQ, London. Photo: Robert Glowacki
Installation view, WHAT DO YOU SEE, YOU PEOPLE, GAZING AT ME, Sadie Coles HQ, London, 16 November 2021 - 29 January 2022. Credit: Credit: © The Artist/s, courtesy Sadie Coles HQ, London. Photo: Robert Glowacki
Installation view, WHAT DO YOU SEE, YOU PEOPLE, GAZING AT ME, Sadie Coles HQ, London, 16 November 2021 - 29 January 2022. Credit: Credit: © The Artist/s, courtesy Sadie Coles HQ, London. Photo: Robert Glowacki
Installation view, WHAT DO YOU SEE, YOU PEOPLE, GAZING AT ME, Sadie Coles HQ, London, 16 November 2021 - 29 January 2022. Credit: Credit: © The Artist/s, courtesy Sadie Coles HQ, London. Photo: Robert Glowacki
Installation view, WHAT DO YOU SEE, YOU PEOPLE, GAZING AT ME, Sadie Coles HQ, London, 16 November 2021 - 29 January 2022. Credit: Credit: © The Artist/s, courtesy Sadie Coles HQ, London. Photo: Robert Glowacki

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