Between Before and After

27 Jan-4 Mar 2023

Overview

Cristea Roberts Gallery opens 2023 with an exhibition of new projects – all completed within the last twelve months - by several of the artists with whom we work.

The show takes its name, Between Before and After, from the title of Clare Woods’s recent screenprint in which she portrays the fragility of life through the depiction of flowers. ⁠

Exhibited for the first time are four new pastel stencil editions by David Nash, whose work is based almost exclusively on his observations of nature and the rural landscape around his home in Wales. Two new aquatints by Emma Stibbon, which were made following location-based research and drawing from observation out in the field, will also be on show. Driven by a desire to understand how human activity and the forces of nature shape our surroundings, Stibbon’s prints include a depiction of Chamonix, France, where surrounding glaciers have been receding over the past few years.

Two new woodcuts by Christiane Baumgartner capture sunsets on the Baltic Sea. The Rising Sun, 2022, a colour etching by Ali Banisadr, is inspired by childhood memories and the history of painting and sound.⁠ Prints by Michael Craig-Martin from his new series entitled Past Present, pay homage to one of Craig-Martin’s favourite paintings, Bathers at Asnières, 1884, by Georges Seurat. Craig-Martin reinterprets the scene of working men lounging on the riverbank and bathing in the Seine, in his own distinctive style.

A new work by Yinka Shonibare CBE, entitled Modern Magic (in Pink), 2022, pays homage to African contributions to modernism, by highlighting the importance of African masks on Picasso’s early paintings and sculpture. This new work features Shonibare’s signature wax batik fabric collaged into areas individually hand cut from the prints.

Rhys Coren’s new group of four screenprints, entitled What is Love?, 2022, is inspired by memories of the first album he ever bought. Through his work Coren attempts to use drawing as a means to understand his 30 year relationship with the tracks.

Four new woodcuts by Richard Woods, featuring the artist’s classic wood grain support and densely inked compositions, are inspired by government guidance on the COVID-19 pandemic and refer ironically to the prevalence of bar graphs, line graphs and pie charts to explain social, economic and political trends.

Three new prints by Paul Winstanley take as their subject a modernist stained-glass window inside St. Nicholas’ Church in Hamburg. Once the tallest building in the world, the Lutheran church was almost completely destroyed during the Second World War and rebuilt in a style that has become a symbol of renewal and renovation.

If you would like to receive a complete list of works in the exhibition please contact [email protected]

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Spotlight Talks

Join the artists at the gallery to hear them talk in person about their practice and their new work.

Richard Woods 1pm, Saturday 4 February

Rhys Coren 1pm, Saturday 11 February

Paul Winstanley 1pm, Saturday 18 February

Emma Stibbon 1pm, Saturday 4 March. This talk at the gallery is followed by a visit and introduction by Emma Stibbon to her display Collapsed Whaling Station, Deception Island, Antarctica, on show at the nearby Royal Academy of Arts.

Confirm your attendance via [email protected] are limited and will be allocated on a first come, first served basis.