Friday, June 27, 2014

At the Saatchi




Deborah and I finally got to see the Saatchi Gallery, meaning the previous two times I visited London the gallery had been closed. It has shifted from its original location and now occupies the former Duke of York's Headquarters in Kings Road.

The new gallery is not as large as the previous building but there are multiple levels and the ground floor has the most perfect light in which to exhibit art work. This was such a relief after seeing many of London's museums displaying work in such poor light. But athough this is a conservation concern, it also defeats the purpose of looking at art and appreciating subtleties of tone and colour.

The exhibition we saw was titled Pangaea: New Art from Africa and Latin America. The top picture shows Deborah standing in the first room where the work of Rafael Gomezbarros was on display. It felt like being in Gulliver's Travels but the ants are made in the shape of human skulls which adds another dimension to the reading of the sculptures. In the bottom picture I'm looking at a painting by Ivory Coast artist Aboudia Djoly du Mogba which is the artist's response to the election violence in the city of Abidjan where armies of children terrorised that city.

The exhibition was a mixture of paintings, sculpture and photographs and more information can be found on the Saatchi website HERE