By Kelly Richman
This month, East London meets West as two venues – Griffin Gallery and Charlie Smith – present Young Gods, an “annual showcase of a multi-disciplinary presentation of London’s most exciting graduates from the summer of 2014”.
Spanning stunning works on paper, captivating sculptures and installations, and experimental multimedia pieces, the work featured in Young Gods offers a glimpse into the emerging oeuvres of London’s up-and-coming talents. While each promising artist highlighted in the exhibition is sure to take 2015 by storm, we have selected three particularly exciting individuals we’ve got our eye on.
Specialising in both two and three-dimensional pieces, the work of Gabriele Dini “is focused on the collective behaviour of natural and artificial decentralised phenomena also called 'Swarm Intelligence'”. This fascination with nature is evident in Gabriele’s honeycomb-inspired sculpture, Swarm’s Scale, on view in Young Gods. Excelling in sculpture, drawing, mixed media, and printmaking – his focus while studying at the Royal College of Art – Gabriele is just one artist to watch out for.
Having recently studied Fine Arts at Chelsea College of Art and Design London, Tezz Kamoen is now a resident artist at Griffin Gallery. While she predominantly produces eccentric and undeniably fascinating sketches, New Gods features a colorful, intricately-rendered mixed-media work on paper. Measuring 750 x 320 cm, you can’t miss it!
Intending to “to strip back current affairs by dissecting the hypocrisy of those in power questioning ideas of taboo and shame”, the sculptures of Joshua Raffell evoke an inherent duality; though composed of playful patchwork and reminiscent of traditional marionettes and dolls, his figures are simultaneously sexually-charged and physically disconcerting. “By pushing the boundaries of sexual taboos and images of an erotic nature”, he explains, “the work is intended as a liberation from social correctness around gender and sexual identitie”.
Curated by Zavier Ellis and featuring the work of Gabriele Dini, Russell Hill, Tezz Kamoen, Hilde Krohn Huse, Joshua Raffell, Zhu Tian, and Newton Whitelaw, Young Gods is on view at Griffin Gallery from 8 January – 6 February 2015 and Charlie Smith London from 14 January – 14 February 2015. Don’t miss this exciting annual event!