You are here

Under Blue Shade

Type:

City:

Venue:

Categories:

Date: 
Friday, 21 April 2023 to Saturday, 10 June 2023
Opening: 
Thursday, 20 April 2023 - 6:00pm to 8:00pm

Roman Road is delighted to present Under Blue Shade, a multimedia group exhibition curated by Mollie E Barnes, featuring works by five ultra-contemporary artists: Gaia Fugazza, Zoë Marden, Precious Opara, Alina Vergnano and Lian Zhang. Bringing together paintings, ceramics and sculptural works, connected through the universal concept of water, the show explores personal mythologies, dualities of the self, and the fluidity of experience and gender.

Water has been a consistent symbol throughout time, with many cultures and religions viewing water as a sacred, purifying element. Within Chinese culture, it plays a significant and indispensible role in traditional tea ceremonies, which is explored in Lian Zhang's work Shadows in the Water (2023); the delicate wood grain is a stream-like entity, leading the eye to the cup of tea in the foreground. Zhang is fascinated by the significance that viewers place on a symbol through their individual projections and experiences. To the artist, there is a universality in water that transcends these experiences and unites everyone. 

Gaia Fugazza continues an exploration into the origin-properties of water. Her scenes reference the fact that we build societies around water and examine the cycles of life through plant growth and reproduction. Similarly, Zoë Marden's multimedia works continue this exploration of the ocean as the base of all humankind, a necessary safe space and alternate world. Her subaquatic and intimate ceramic pieces are curvaceous, reminiscent of both coral reefs and vulva patterns. Water provides a space for freedom, exploration and truth, of how we are genetically intertwined. 

Precious Opara's works examine the psyche and ways in which the human form interacts with bodies of water. Through her paintings, figures and limbs are merged and distorted with the natural environment, blurring the line between landscape and body, and demonstrating the importance of interaction and climate responsibility. Similarly, Alina Vergnano presents the fluidity and continuation of both time and experience through rhythmic works. Her compositions revolve around the tensions between balance and unbalance, assonance and dissonance. The traces of bodies float through the projected waves, morphing from abstraction into figuration. 

Collectively, the works in Under Blue Shade remind us of our dependence on, and sacredness of, the element, the fact that Mother Earth doesn't need us to survive, and the universality of water itself. With an opening event on Thursday 20 April, from 6 – 8 PM, the exhibition will be on display at Roman Road’s gallery in Notting Hill from 21 April through 10 June 2023.    

Curator :

Venue ( Address ): 

50 Golborne Road

London W10 5PR

Roman Road , London

Other events from Roman Road

view
Zoë Marden: HADAL ZONE
11/11/2023 to 12/01/2023
view
Adam Waymouth: Colour Code
11/15/2023 to 12/09/2023
view
Adam Waymouth: The In-Between
11/03/2023 to 11/05/2023
view
DaddyBears: Shiny Sexy Soft
10/14/2023 to 11/01/2023

Pages

Related Shows This Week in UK

view
Luciano Ventrone | Opera Pittorica | London and New York
03/15/2024 to 04/20/2024
view
Food as Medicine
03/18/2024 to 04/12/2024
view
The Dark and the Light
03/06/2024 to 03/31/2024
view
Claire Cansick: You and I Are Earth
10/14/2023 to 04/14/2024
view
Tim Noble & Sue Webster: Love and Hate at Firstsite
11/09/2023 to 12/31/2024
view
Art and Books Charity Sale at Ben Uri
03/15/2024 to 03/31/2024
view
STORM WARNING
11/18/2023 to 04/13/2024
view
transfeminisms
03/08/2024 to 04/20/2024

Pages