Opening a new space in 44 Lexington Street, with so much history, it seemed irresistible not to use the title of George Shaw’s painting Futures and Pasts for the first exhibition.
The building originally built in 1719, with mid 19th century alterations, is still miraculously unmodernised and very much part of the old soho now slowly disappearing. With Andrew Edmunds Prints & Drawings on the ground floor (since 1974) it seemed a must to include a print from this venerable place. William Hogarth’s Tailpiece, or The Bathos from 1764 is one of the last prints he made. Similarly, Dag Erik Elgin’s work La Collection Moderne (Manet Vase of White Lilacs and Roses 1883), refers to Édouard Manet’s last fully finished painting, which is part of Elgin’s series of museum label paintings and ongoing investigation into provenance. Manet’s last painting, being unfinished, was on his easel at the time of his death. Paul Housley filters the world through the prism of the studio. Asleep in The Dream Factory reflects the artist as dreamer, always searching for something just out of reach, disappointment and triumph working hand in hand. Angela de la Cruz’s Half Hurdle (Pearl Blue) is an off cut from a larger painting transformed into a work in its own right - the title suggesting a difficulty or struggle. Similarly, Amikam Toren in his Armchair Paintings series repurposes purchased junk shop paintings making them into his own works by cutting out phrases into the surface. In this instance the rest is history. A K Dolven’s one day moreis part of an ongoing series of small paintings with the same phrase which originated during Covid that both marks time and looks forward. In George Shaw’s painting Futures and Pasts, two mature trees stand in the distance. In the foreground a sapling, recently planted and its offshoot have come to a premature end. Future and past come together in the present. Philip and Feargal brings together and juxtaposes two sketches by Elizabeth Magill of Philip IV of Spain by Velasquez and Feargal Sharkey, one of Northern Ireland’s iconic figures from punk times. An unlikely parallel/pairing. Marcin Maciejowski’s Party Building (Budynek Partii) marks a past history of civil disobedience. Artistic activity as a form of resistance. Bob & Roberta Smith’s work I’ve not had an exhibition…, on an empty cat food package, refers to his travails in the art world and negotiating gallery representation summing up the hopes and disappointments of being an artist. And as Matthew Higgs work says so succinctly Art Always Changes.
