Christie’s recently presented Un/Sense, Next at Christie’s: London 2022, a physical and virtual exhibition of work by the next generation of artists, open to the public from 20 to 29 July at Christie’s London headquarters. The exhibition has been curated by Pia Zeitzen and Sasha Shevchenko, two London-based curators who were selected from an open call, and who met while undertaking the MFA Curating degree at Goldsmiths University.
Bringing together the works of 29 rising talents, Un/Sense addresses the absurdity of contemporary reality by allowing the absurd to take over the exhibition’s artistic and curatorial expression. Entry to Un/Sense will be free and open to all.
“Christie’s is delighted to present Next at Christie’s: London 2022 as a platform for rising talent, in recognition and support of the vibrant art ecosystem in London. This exciting public exhibition, Un/Sense, showcases the talents of the next generation of gifted artists while reaffirming Christie’s King Street headquarters as a location for all to come and engage with and enjoy art in all its glory – we’re thrilled to welcome enthusiasts to visit Christie’s London this July to enjoy the exhibition.”
Anthea Peers, Christie’s President, EMEA
Pia Zeitzen and Sasha Shevchenko, co-curators, Un/Sense, Next at Christie’s: London 2022: “Mimicking the reality of confusion associated with the post-pandemic era, the exhibition constructs its own microcosmos through the diversity of artistic expression. With works drawing on sensory and visual illusions, art-historical canons and their inversion, senses of belonging and estrangement, the exhibition intertwines reality with representation and past with the present.”
Artists selected to participate in the exhibition include Tayo Adekunle, Nikolaos Akritidis, Shadi Al-Atallah, Ece Bayram, Kate Burling, Helen Carr, Hoa Dung Clerget, Shilun Ding, Derrelle Elijah, Lucy Gregory, Maees Hadi, Hugo Harris, Soa J. Hwang, RedBlack D. Lawrence, Emily Lazerwitz, Gal Leshem, Hannah Lim, Darren Lynde Mann, Emma Louise Moore, Samuel Padfield, Anya Palamartschuk, Liberty Quinn, Charlie Russell, Katrina Stamatopoulos, Virginie Tan, Maayan Sophia Weisstub, Tom Connell Wilson, Emily Woolley, and Scott Young.
Highlights of the exhibition include;
Tom Connell Wilson’s The Sunken Liner reimagines the origin of the governmental building Laurence House, in Catford, London. Through the video artwork, the viewer follows the path of the liner (Laurence House) through the Thames and secondary rivers, swept by impulses of the liquid city, and onto the shores of the South Circular, London.
Tayo Adekunle’s Reclamation of Exposition #05 is part of a larger series that explores the commodification and sexualization of the black female body in colonial expositions of the 18th and 19th centuries. Using digital collage, self-portraiture, and drawing from ethnographic photographs, the work explores the relationship between past and present and the manner in which black women’s bodies have been treated.
Mother and Child by Darren Lynde Mann navigate the complex relationship between Mann and his adoptive mother. While depicting both mother and child, the detail of the painting is concentrated on the face of the mother, representing the artist’s journey to detach and grow into their own person.
The Trace (2022) by Hoa Dung Clerget, references the methods of printing in the early 20th century by using carbon paper to evoke the smell of the spirit duplicators, the predecessor to the photocopier. A major component of the solvents used as “inks” in these machines was alcohol, which emitted a sweet aroma, a recognizable feature of school life in that era.
However, the copies from these machines had the disadvantage of being affected by time and the ink was quickly gone. In Clerget’s work, carbon is stuck on the wall, and paper is torn off in a random fashion to reveal negative shapes. The work captures a transitory state where the forms, between appearance and disappearance, coexist with each other, caught in a persistent ambiguity and the transience of time.
The exhibition aims to connect collectors and art enthusiasts with this exciting line-up of next-generation artists through Christie’s non-commercial, physical and virtual exhibition. To celebrate Un/Sense, Christie’s Education will run a program of three courses — Cutting Edge Contemporary Art, The Art of Curating, and From Art School to Art World — offered to the public alongside the exhibition. More information about the public opening and the Christie’s Education courses can be found here.
