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Unit London is thrilled to announce its first solo exhibition with the artist, Damian Elwes. Entitled Where Art Happened: From Klint to Party, the exhibition offers a striking continuation of Elwes’ examination of prominent artists and their creative spaces. Elwes began his artistic career as a graffiti artist in the 1980s, before being convinced to turn to painting by the renowned street and pop artist Keith Haring. The artist’s first paintings were exhibited in 1984 and were hung alongside works by Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring.

Elsa Rouy’s solo exhibition is now open and features as the next presentation in our virtual viewing space, Platform. Our online exhibition programme enables artists to interact with a broad spectrum of current social concerns in a focussed and succinct way. The digital space is open to all and available to a universal audience. In line with the central social beliefs of the programme, 10% of all sales proceeds from each Platform exhibition will be donated to a charity or non-profit organisation nominated by the artist.  

Unit London’s hugely successful group show, The Medium Is The Message, is coming to a close at the end of this week. To celebrate the final days of this powerful exhibition and if you missed the discussion on Instagram Live, we invite you to watch the thought-provoking conversation between Azu Nwagbogu and Barry Yusufu. As both men come from Nigeria, they exchange thoughts on the current socio-political climate in the country and the role of the artist before entering into a Q&A session.

Unit London is thrilled to announce Emily Marie Miller’s upcoming group exhibition, Witch, Cub and Dream Hunter, beginning on Tuesday November 10 at Brownie Project in Shanghai. The show is a collaborative project with Unit London and will also feature the works of artists Yves Sherer and Charlie Goering. The three artists’ work can be appreciated as separate fantastical narratives but will come together to imbue the gallery space with an overarching sense of mystery and wonder.

Unit London is excited to announce a solo exhibition with the artist, Ziping Wang. The show is now open and features as the next instalment in the online exhibitions programme, Platform. During this time, Platform serves as an ever-important means of bringing Ziping’s solo exhibition into people’s homes. The virtual viewing space allows the artist to address and respond to a range of real-world social issues in a concentrated and concise manner. Through Platform, Ziping’s artwork will be accessible to all and brought to the attention of a truly global audience.

Unit London is thrilled to present the largest UK exhibition to date of Philip Colbert’s artistic works at the Saatchi Gallery in London. Colbert, labelled as the successor to Andy Warhol and a self-titled ‘Neo Pop Surrealist’, has garnered global recognition with his immensely vibrant work that blends high art with everyday icons of mass popular culture.

John Madu, born in 1983 in Lagos, is a Nigerian multi-disciplinary artist best known for his figurative and symbolic paintings. His eclectic work derives ideas from a range of influences based in popular culture, personal experiences, African history and art history. Madu’s works are typically dense with symbolism, featuring recurring iconography that conveys a certain meaning or a particular metaphor. Here, Madu talks more about his practice, his artistic beginnings and the work he has presented in The Medium is the Message.

Head over to Unit London's Instagram account at 6pm GMT today to see Azu Nwagbogu (curator of The Medium is the Message) in conversation with Barry Yusufu, one of the most exciting young artists participating in the exhibition. As both men hail from Nigeria, this talk promises to shed some light on the turbulent social climate in the country at the moment. The interview will also be opened up for a Q&A later on, please submit your questions through the sticker on the Unit London story.

Dawn Okoro’s practice began with her interest in fashion illustration, photography, and design. She is a painter, fashion designer, and videographer whose works feature dynamic female figures against gold backdrops. She received her bachelor’s degree in psychology with a minor in fashion design from the University of Texas at Austin, and her Juris Doctor degree from Thurgood Marshall School of Law. Okoro’s solo exhibition “Punk Noir” launched in Austin, Texas, in 2018 and toured through March 2020. Her work has been featured in Architectural Digest, Hyperallergic, Forbes, Artsy, Drawing Magazine, and on BET’s The First Wives Club.

Born in Kaduna in Northern Nigeria, Collins Obijiaku currently lives and works in Suleja, a small town that lies on the outskirts of the country’s capital, Abuja. Obijiaku is currently exhibiting with Unit London as part of the highly successful group show, The Medium Is The Message, which brings together the works of black artists who seek to draw attention to the materiality of artworks.

We're proud to announce the launch of Platform, our online exhibitions programme that focuses on socio-political issues. The programme will begin on 19 October with a solo show by Joshua Hagler. In alignment with the core social principle of the programme, 10% of all sales proceeds from each exhibition will be donated to a charity nominated by the artist and/or curator. For his exhibition, Hagler has nominated the Brady Campaign: an American nonprofit organisation that advocates for gun control and against gun violence.

Manyaku Mashilo was born in 1991 in Limpopo, South Africa and is currently based in Cape Town. Mashilo is a self taught multidisciplinary artist who creates mixed media, paper-based drawings and works. Mashilo is currently exploring the phenomenon of the cartographic portrait: her enmeshed figures are mapped onto the canvas, piecing together dimensions of time, place and space.

Talia Ramkilawan was born in Cape Town in 1996. She uses mixed media in order to visualise the complexity of one’s relationship to trauma using various mediums including tapestry, video, performance and installation. The discovery of rug-hooking in her fourth year of university was a breakthrough moment. She immersed herself in this craft and, through this medium, she was able to create an intimacy and honesty that felt refreshing. Ramkilawan describes the process of making these textiles as a process of healing. Her work is inspired by her own family dynamics and her own experience with South Asian identity, culture and trauma.

Katlego Tlabela was born in Pretoria, South Africa in 1993. He has long been concerned with the multi-disciplinary technical processes of painting, sound, photography and sculptural installation. Tlabela’s artistic interests range from the social and political crises in post-apartheid South Africa; the independent African continent; and the political climate in the USA. Resistance, protest and dialogues around race and positive methods of representation of the black body are visualized through text-based and visual works, often revisiting history and relating it back to contemporary events.

Sthenjwa was born in Botha’s Hill, South Africa in 1991. In 2010 he joined the BAT Centre for Visual Art, the classes there familiarised him with the art industry and encouraged him to further explore and develop his creativity. He creates highly intricate, meditative work by carving detailed patterns into wood blocks. His supple figures bend and contort to give a sense of gentle motion.

This week Unit London is thrilled to open two debut solo exhibitions by two coveted American painters; Mauro Martinez and Emily Marie Miller are amongst the youngest and most sought after artists on the gallery roster and we are excited to bring their work to the attention of UK audiences for the very first time.

"Texas-based Mauro C. Martinez has been exploring the human condition by observing and capturing our relationship with technology that both connects us globally and dissociates us from the actual reality. With a focus on our increasingly digital society, he is successfully utilizing metaphor, irony, and dark humor to reveal and critique our affair with contemporary imagery, regardless of how insignificant or mindless it might seem." - Sasha Bogojev

Rex Southwick's second solo exhibition with the gallery has been a huge success. Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end and tomorrow (Friday 29th August) is your last to chance to come and see the show - the gallery shuts at 5pm. We hope you can make it and look forward to seeing you soon!

Rex Southwick is a young British painter. After graduating from Leeds Arts University with a degree in fine art (in which he won the Aeon Community Art Award) Southwick moved to London and began showing his work in group shows at the Old Truman Brewery. In the summer of 2019 Southwick put on Querencia, his debut solo show with Unit London. Purple Lands will be Southwick’s second solo show at Unit London.

Last month we launched Drawn Together, our first ever online charity exhibition. With only a handful of works still up for grabs. We take a look at the two charities who will benefit from 100% of gallery proceeds.

Riikka Hyvönen, born in 1982, is a Finnish artist, based in London and known for her Roller Derby sculptural painting series. She endeavours  to capture the momentary marks, the bruises, from within the subculture of derby players. These bruises are called derby kisses. Hyvonen describes them as "little love bites and badges of honour."

On Monday June 29th, after almost three months of hibernation, the Unit London door will be sliding open to receive visitors again. The gallery will be open Monday to Friday from 11am to 5pm, showing Michael Staniak's solo show Natural Order, alongside our latest group show Alter Ego. The first new exhibition that will commemorate the reopening of our space will be Purple Lands by Rex Southwick, which will open on July 28th.

Cydne Jasmin Coleby is a digital and mixed media collage artist based in Nassau, Bahamas. Self-reflection is intrinsic to her art practice. Interrogating the unfavourable aspects of her personality, she questions their origins, influences, and usefulness. Through her graphic collages she examines personal and collective/ancestral relationships to trauma, and the ways in which these relationships shape our identity.

Zandile Tshabalala was born in Soweto, South Africa in 1999. She is a visual artist and is currently completing her BA(FINA) at the University of the Witwatersrand. The mediums she uses most are acrylic, oil paint and at times infuses the two with some sculptural elements and puts it all on canvas. She tends to revisit and make reference to the works of painters who came before her, and interpret or rework the works in the way she sees fit for her narrative and relatable to her practice.

Kwesi Botchway, is the Founder of worldfaze art studio. He was born in Accra-Ghana and studied Art, at the (Ghanatta College of Art and Design). His Paintings help create an intriguing dialogue between the subject’s message and the viewer. Botchway work compels the viewer to become physically and emotionally invested in the subject’s story. He aims to capture the spirit, essence and heritage of his subjects and use this as an opportunity to lend the world a glance into the lives and struggles of people whose stories are yet to be fully told. 

Sungi Mlengeya is a Tanzanian self-taught artist. She works primarily with acrylic paints on canvas, creating paintings that are free, minimalist and engage with negative space. The works consist of dark figures in minimal shades of black and browns against white backgrounds, with topics varying widely from self-discovery to empowerment - common themes in her work are centred around women, specifically black women.

Cameroonian born Ludovic Nkoth engages in a visual investigation of his native home; his family history; and the cultures, traditions, and ideas of Africa and its diaspora pre-and post-colonialism. These topics are approached with both a  brusqueness and a boldness of color that suggests a passion for discovery. African symbols such as masks, patterns, and other totemes of identity and culture appear throughout his work. We spoke to Ludovic in the lead up to our online group exhibition Drawn Together.

We have taken the decision to postpone the launch of our anticipated online exhibition, Drawn Together, by one week (now opening June 11th). We will spend this week devoting our time, energy, and digital platforms to supporting the Black Lives Matter movement online.

If you missed last week's fantastic Live At Five between Joe Kennedy and Magnus Resch you can watch it here. Both men, looking happy and hirsute from their respective lockdown locations, layed out their thoughts regarding art in the wake of the coronavirus, as well as discussing art world functions more generally.

As today is International Nurses’ Day and our collective attention and admiration remains firmly fixed on the wonderful work undertaken by health care professionals around the world, Unit London is delighted to announce Drawn Together:  not just our first online exhibition, but our first show in which 100% of proceeds will be split between two charities.

"It's strange making work during times like this, the uncertainty of when or how the work will be shown is one of the hurdles I'm dealing with. My work is very personal and reflective of my mental and emotional states at the moment of creation. So I'm trying to challenge myself to make works that will still be important and relevant to me, even if they’re shown a year or two from now, which is something I haven't had to plan for before."

Last week the British painter Darren Coffield published Tales From the Colony Room - an oral biography of Soho’s pre-eminent drinking den. Given our current predicament, returning to the days of Dean Street decadence and debauchery, to the days of Francis Bacon and the wonderfully Dickensian Muriel Belcher, is a much needed tonic. 

Ryan Hewett’s heavy, impasto brushwork appears in stark contrast to the smooth, flat textures divided up across the canvas. His insatiable desire for atistic evolution has brought a semblance of order to a previously chaotic aesthetic. Hewett has had four exhibitions with Unit London and his work can be found in private collections internationally, including collections in South Africa, Dubai, Los Angeles, Zurich, Miami, London, New York and Riyadh. 

Two weeks ago, Banksy beamed an image out to his eight million Instagram followers. It quickly did the rounds, being disseminated to the farthest reaches of the internet in the way only a Banksy image can. The photo - titled “My wife hates it when I work from home” - depicts nine graffiti rats running amok in the artists’ bathroom: a pertinent, trompe l’oeil masterpiece of dynamism and wit.

Duncan Jago began his career as ‘Mr Jago’ in Bristol, as part of the acclaimed graffiti scene of the late 90’s. He was one of the founding participants in the Scrawl movement: a school of street art that took in members based on their ability to manipulate line, capture movement and develop narrative through composition. He was featured in the movement’s seminal, eponymous book Scrawl, published in 1999.

Johan Van Mullem is one of the staples of the Unit London artist roster. Over the last few years Van Mullem's solo shows De Anima (2016/17) and Reverence (2019) have gained much well-deserved attention, and his work continues to be among the most popular with our audience. Here, we continue our How Are U initiative - speaking to creatives in quarantine, finding out their thoughts and gauging their opinions - by checking in with the Belgian artist. 

In this, the second instalment of an in-depth series looking at Unit London artists, we hone in on the career of Jake Wood-Evans; from his inclusion in a group show back in 2015, to major solo shows at the gallery and other cultural institutions. In many ways the story of Jake Wood-Evans is the story of Unit London: the first work the gallery sold was Jake's, and he has risen over the years to become something of a standard bearer for the Unit London roster. We think now is the perfect moment to look back at everything Jake has achieved over the last five years.

In the first of an in-depth series looking at Unit London artists, we chart the course of the inimitable Zhuang Hong Yi; from his debut solo show at the gallery, to the stunning works he is producing today, we trace the progression in both his career and his work, trying to put our finger on the golden thread that runs through everything he has achieved.

As we continue our How Are U series - listening to the experiences of our artists in quarantine - we continue to be fascinated by the insights gained. When faced with unavoidable physical confinement, creativity can allow the mind to soar, breaking the quotidian shackles. Today we check in with the exciting New York based painter Emily Marie Miller.

Continuing our How Are U series - which has thus far featured Joshua Hagler, Charming Baker, Jacky Tsai and Oh de Laval - we check in with the wonderfully loquacious Damian Elwes, to see how he is faring in the Los Angeles Lockdown.

As the global pandemic rages on and we begin to countenance our inexorable duty to stay at home, at Unit London we continue to speak to our artists.  We ask the most basic of questions which, in such turbulent times, takes on a whole new level of meaning and sincerity, it is simply: How are U?

So far our Here For U initiative has shared the work of Qi Lei, Marc Dennis, Adam Lupton, Katelyn Ledford, Clementine Keith-Roach, Pieter Schoolwerth and Hunter Potter. In the spirit of 'keeping on' and continuing to bring U some fantastic work from exciting artists around the world, here is a quick look at the work of Mark Thomas Gibson and Ricardo Passaporte.

In the third instalment of our #HereForU initiative we take a look at the work of Pieter Schoolwerth and Hunter Potter. In support of the artists and creatives that will be critically affected by this crisis, our #HereforU initiative uses our Instagram platform to promote artists that are recommended by U, our audience.

As countries and cities go into lockdown across the world, and social distancing takes a few nauseating steps closer to the norm, it is easy to feel as though we as individuals are cut adrift, left to orbit our friends and family in digital space, unsure of people’s day to day actions and experiences.  Therefore, at this unprecedented time, we have reached out to a selection of our artists to ask simply: How are you?

In this, the second instalment of our #HereForU initiative, we take a look at the wonderful work of Katelyn Ledford and Clementine Keith-Roach. In support of the young artists and creatives that will be critically affected by this crisis, our #HereforU initiative uses our Instagram platform to promote young artists that are recommended by U, our audience. If you would like to propose any artists, please visit our Instagram page and send us a DM with the username of the artist you would like us to support. 

In support of the young artists and creatives that will be critically affected by this crisis, we have launched our #HereforU initiative: using our Instagram platform to promote young artists that are recommended by U, our audience. If you would like to propose any artists, please visit our Instagram page and send us a DM with the username of the artist you would like us to support. We will be posting a new artist every day. Here’s a closer look at the first three artists we have chosen: Qi Lei, Marc Dennis and Adam Lupton

As you may know, for the past couple of weeks Unit London has been towing the Government’s line on trading, keeping our doors open and conducting business as usual. However, given the heightened trajectory of the situation regarding Covid-19, we no longer deem it safe or responsible to remain open at this time. The health and safety of our staff and the general public is our number one priority, we have therefore taken the difficult decision to temporarily close the gallery to the public, and operate on an appointment only basis, effective from Monday 16th March. 

We would like to thank everyone who attended yesterday's Private View for Natural Order: Michael Staniak's debut solo show at Unit London. After receiving the green light from the prime minister and his chief scientific advisor, the show rolled on with all the unflappable verve and good humuor that has become synonymous with Unit London. At a time of genuine public concern, it was lovely to see so many familliar faces, bumping elbows before some wonderful artwork. 

This in-depth conversation with Michael Staniak sees the artist elaborate on his practice, the theory behind his new show at Unit London, and the developing relationship between art and science. 

Zoe Buckman is an exciting young artist who uses a range of media to explore themes of feminism, mortality and equality. It could be claimed that Buckman's artistic career really began to take off in 2015 when her solo show Present Life took place at Garis and Hahn in New York. The show looked at the temporal nature  of mortality through the lens of childbirth. Buckman's plastinated placenta - encased in marble after the near fatal birth of her daughter - appeared in the show.

We are delighted to announce that Michael Staniak’s debut solo show at Unit London will be running from March 10th, with a Private View on Thursday 12th. In Natural Order, the Australian artist notes technology’s capacity for organising and deciphering data, examining the subsequent effect the wide-spread adoption of such technologies has had on the human condition.

Transcend, Tom French’s retrospective at Unit London, will close at 7pm on Saturday March 7th - it has been a truly exceptional show, drawing in art lovers from around the world. As the show closes, so too will the Justgiving page we set up for Tom’s family; the kindness and generosity shown by members of the Unit London community thus far has been truly incredible, we would like to thank you all for your donations and messages.

The Armory Show is one of New York’s leading art fairs, offering visitors the chance to view and purchase some of the world’s most important 20th and 21st Century art. As well as the main roster of galleries, The Armory Show includes the Perspectives, Focus, Presents, Platform and Not-For-Profit spaces, all culminating in a truly diverse and impressive fair. Here are four artists worth seeing at Pier 90 this weekend. 

Last Wednesday our director and co-founder Joe Kennedy joined LAPADA CEO Freya Simms and What's Up curator Lawrence Van Hagen for a panel discussion regarding art collecting. The panel, chaired by The Art Newspaper's Anna Brady, touched on topics ranging from gallery etiquette for first time buyers to the perils of investing in young, on-trend artists.

We are delighted to announce Alter Ego: our new group show. Alter Ego brings together seven exciting young painters who are re-energising and re-calibrating the contemporary painterly voice; amidst the din of an increasingly varied artistic landscape painters are having to adapt their practices and thought processes in order to stay relevant. 

On Tuesday February 25th, Uncanny Valley: Being Human in the Age of AI will open to the public at the de Young Museum in San Francisco. Thirteen artists will delve into the darker side of Artificial Intelligence, cementing their technological anxieties with a new visual vocabulary.

This weekend, 1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair returns to La Mamounia in Marrakech for its third consecutive year. Touria El Glaoui founded 1:54 in London in 2013, before expanding to New York two years later; in 2018 the third arm of the fair was established in Marrakech, El Glaoui has spoken about the importance of the fair having a physical presence in Africa, reconnecting the art to its continental homeland.

Over the last decade the Barcelona symposium has established itself as a seminal platform for art world debate. This year, Joe Kennedy - the co-director of Unit London - appeared alongside Artsy’s Alexander Forbes, Bureau Schachenmann’s Claudia Schachenmann, Volta NYC and Pule Miami's Kamiar Maleki. The panel, mediated by Art Net’s Tim Schneider, discussed the relationship between millennials and the art market.

We sat down with Jacky Tsai to discuss the potential of augmented reality within the art world. This is a topic that has preoccupied the Shanghai born artist for some time and he covers the subject with the requisite knowledge and enthusiasm. The full interview and video will be released in due course.

This Friday, the second instalment of Frieze LA will take place at Paramount Pictures Studios. Victoria Siddall - the Global Director of Frieze Fairs - has said they “will welcome major new galleries to the fair, from Brussels to Cape Town, Mexico City to New York, as well as a host of exceptional curators creating ground-breaking programming.”

Due to popular demand Transcend, Tom French’s retrospective at Unit London, will be extended until the 7th March.  Tom’s work is concerned with art’s potential to confound the senses, to trick the mind by offering a myriad of visual interpretations.

Oh de Laval (born Olga Pothipirom, 1990, Warsaw) is half Polish, half Thai. She creates highly sexualised, ultra-violent scenes that aim to capture our quotidian relationships with luck, love and lust. Her idiosyncratic aesthetic takes from children's fiction to create an interesting tension between subject and style.

Following her successful participation in our group show Beyond Borders, we are delighted to introduce Allison Zuckerman. Strictly speaking, Zuckerman doesn't need much of an 'introduction', she is established on both sides of the Atlantic and is generally thought to be one of the most exciting young artists working today.

Seoul modernised extremely quickly in the second half of the 20th century and its musical, filmic and artistic outputs are now extremely popular worldwide. Ever since Nam June Paik’s pioneering video installation art came to fruition in the 1960’s, Seoul has been an emerging nexus of contemporary art.

BTS are now the biggest boyband in the world, they generate $4.65bn to the South Korean economy every year and have 21.9M Instagram followers and 23.6M Twitter followers. A week ago today they launched their new initiative ‘Connect BTS’ at Chucs Serpentine. Connect BTS is a series of major art projects that will take place in five cities on four continents - artists such as Antony Gormley and Tomas Saraceno will be taking part.

The London Art Fair has stood out to us at Unit London over the past decade for catering to collectors of all levels and igniting creative exchange and collaboration. It celebrates heritage whilst also embracing change and disruption, for that reason Unit London has taken a brief look at four established artists that you’ll want to see this week.

As we take our first tentative steps into the new decade, now is the perfect time to be looking to the future. Unit London has always been a forward thinking institution and we're delighted to start the 20's by announcing affiliations with two exciting artists in their 20's!

As history tells us, when societal restrictions are loosened and mores challenged, creativity and artistic communities begin to flourish. In recent years Taipei has become an increasingly liberal jewel in the South China sea: 2017 saw the government pass legislation to legalise same-sex marriage, which came into effect in May 2019, whilst October saw 200,000 people march in the first pride parade since. We take a brief look at 4 artists under 40 creating exciting work in Taipei.

This January, after the tragic passing of artist and friend Tom French, Unit London will present Transcend - a retrospective of his work. Click through to be added to the guestlist.

At Unit London we like to keep abreast of developments within the Asian art market and the places associated with its meteoric rise to prominence. Therefore, on the eve of the second installation of the Taipei Dangdai art fair, we take a look at five exciting artists whose work will be appearing over the weekend.

Due to popular demand our hit group show Beyond Borders will be extended to the 25th January. Head down to our Mayfair space for a final chance to see the majestic work of Charming Baker, Les Rogers, David Spriggs, Michael Staniak, Jason Seife, Zachary Eastwood-Bloom, Kwang Sung Park, and Aaron Johnson. See U soon!

Ahead of Teiji Hayama's highly anticipated solo show FAME, which opens at Unit London on Thursday evening, we sat down with the Japanse artist to discuss notions of contemporary celebrity across the globe and elucidate the show's conceptual grounding. 

A selection of cities that are noteworthy in their unwavering pursuit of artistic inclusivity and desire to provide a platform for discussion and debate.

Saturday night saw a fantastic Sofar Sounds event take place at our Mayfair space. The show had all the hallmarks that typically make Sofar great: intimacy, fun and a good cause. The lineup included the wonderfully sonorous Teshay Makeda; the lyrical poetry of Stand for Humanity and the infectious brio of Ganda Boys.

At Unit London we believe that art can and must continue to spread awareness of sustainable ways of living, whilst not shying away from critiquing modes of operating that have a deleterious effect on the environment

This January, Joe Kennedy - the co-director of Unit London - will appear alongside Artsy’s Alexander Forbes, Bureau Schachenmann’s Claudia Schachenmann and Art Net’s Tim Schneider to discuss the relationship between millennials and the art market.

Unit London sat down with Jake Wood-Evans to talk about his new show Relic and discuss the artist's shift into a deeper, more contemplative abstraction.

A Sofar gig is an intimate show held in an unique venue, like someone's living room, antique shop or, in this case, a contemporary art gallery. It typically features three artists, playing four songs each. Every lineup is specially curated to give our audiences a diverse show. Click through for tickets!

At Unit London we keep an ever-watchful eye on emerging art trends and the artists who are driving them forward. With the trident of art technology identified by Christie’s as a starting point, we’ve taken a look at some of the artists breaking new ground in each of the three prongs: AI, AR and blockchain.

As long as Josh Raz continues to charm us, we’ll continue to write about him. After his excellent interview with Gary Mansfield - which came a week after Raz spoke on Soho Radio - we explore the HIX award winning artists’ hypothetical group show.

As the weekend of Art Basel Miami draws nearer, and the celebrity voyeurs of the art world exchange rumours about Leonardo DiCaprio’s evening with Kendall Jenner, at Unit London we remain focused on the art. Here are five pieces from Art Basel Miami that we think are particularly noteworthy.

Amoako Boafo, who has been picked up by renowned African art collector and gallerist Mariane Ibrahim, will be exhibiting at Art Basel as the artist in residence for the Rubell Family Collection, whose museum opens today. We often like the Rubell’s selections (as evidenced by our love of Allison Zuckerman), and it’s safe to say they have done it again. 

At Unit London we keep an ever-watchful eye on emerging art trends and the artists who are driving them forward. With the trident of art technology identified by Christie’s as a starting point, we’ve taken a look at some of the artists breaking new ground in each of the three prongs: AI, AR and blockchain.

As Josh Raz spoke with such elan on Soho Radio last Thursday, we thought we’d take a closer look at the work he’s created for Unit London’s new group show Beyond Borders. Raz is a young British artist who, since graduating in fine art from Newcastle University, has won the esteemed HIX award and exhibited at Unit Uncovers.

Christie’s Art + Tech summits have gained a reputation for shedding light on emerging art techniques and posing difficult questions about the nature of artistic creation. The inaugural event  ‘Exploring Blockchain’ was hosted in London in 2018; followed a year later by ‘The AI Revolution’ in New York; and finally last week saw the ‘Mixed Reality’ summit take place in Hong Kong - where our very own Jacky Tsai was seen experimenting with augmented reality. 

As the second decade of the 21st Century draws to a close, New York retains it’s seemingly immutable position at the apex of global art. With this in mind, it seems fitting to take a closer look at three artists - soon to be exhibiting at our Beyond Borders group show - who are currently navigating this ever-developing scene.

Last Friday night’s Private View for It’s Her Factory - Helen Beard’s largest solo-exhibition to date – was a vibrant occasion. The show celebrates Beard’s signature graphic depictions of sexual acts and relationships through varied use of bright, bold colours. The combination of scale, colour and content confront audiences, forcing them to engage with notions of female pleasure and sexual empowerment. 

An evening celebrating the latest work from artists Joshua Hagler and Rex Southwick. 'Chimera' centres around American contemporary artist Joshua Hagler's fascination with trying to paint what he recognizes, even when it evades easy definition.  Also exhibiting at Unit London for the first time, we are excited to present the work of emerging British artist Rex Southwick. ‘Querencia’, brings together a new collection of Southwick's highly saturated, bold large-scale paintings. 

Josh Hagler discusses his solo show 'Chimera' with Kurt Snoekx, disecting and peeling back "A furious metabolism. Matter and leftovers. Relics, fragments, and artifacts from bygone eras" within his work. 

This June, we present a new solo exhibition by South African artist, Ryan Hewett. New Paintings centers around Hewett’s late painterly works, which draw on the artist’s captivation with vibrant and abstract portraits, alongside a developing interest and representation of figurative anatomy through distinctive shapes and concentric circles. 

The Private View, which took place on Thursday 23 May,  was an emotive and celebratory occasion, perfectly complementing the atmosphere created in Jake Wood Evans' works. 

Warhol’s early work as a commercial illustrator consisted of light-hearted, whimsical drawings created by pressing fresh sheets of paper onto wet lines to make printed images. This work paved the way for the mass-produced, repetition-oriented techniques that would continue to determine his artistic style throughout his career.

Honoured by the Google Doodle on 30^th April, the Japanese-American artist Ruth Asawa was renowned for her technically delicate sculptures. Despite battling racial and gender discrimination, Asawa became a notable art figure in the West Coast.

Zhuang Hong Yi's second solo show at Unit London kickstarted with a dazzling Private View showcasing his floral masterpieces. 

This May, Unit London presents a new solo exhibition by British artist Jake Wood-Evans, Legacy & Disorder. The highly anticipated show centres around Wood-Evans’ fascination with the coalescence of past and present. The artist’s large-scale oil paintings and drawings convey an altered atmosphere: in his own words, Wood-Evan’s work is “a process of conflict with the ambiguous space between representation and abstraction.”

 

Dylan Gebbia-Richards gains his inspiration from the vastness of the natural world and his artworks explore aesthetics that merge between the microscopic and macroscopic. “I find the enormity of the natural world awe-inspiring,” he explains. In anticipation of his debut solo show at Unit London,  we caught up with Dylan Gebbia Richards in Joshua Tree, where he recently undertook a 6-week residency.

 “I believe in instinct and in feelings, than in intelligence – you can read of course thousands of books and know anything about anything, but I am not sure that this is the most important thing in life.”

The debut of Belgian artist Johan Van Mullem's second solo show at Unit London - a buzzing, vibrant event that marked a perfect start to Spring. 

Keith Haring embodied the essence of 1980s New York with his spontaneous, simplistic illustrations. Haring’s artwork made its debut in New York subway stations, with iconic images such as a barking dog or radiant baby populated across the walls.

Max Beckmann is one of the Greats of 20^th century Germany. A figurative painter with a knack for narrative and vibrant colours, Beckmann’s work is heavily prompted by the violence of the first and second world wars and the political turmoil that followed suit; his works are particularly concentrated on exploring the inner workings of violence. 

Ai Wei Wei is a Chinese artist and curator whose artistic pursuits are propelled by an unwavering, provoking activism. Critical of human rights violations on a political and global scale, Weiwei’s controversial works have addressed issues such as China’s corruption and the refugee crisis, among others. His pieces combine the minimalist and conceptual traditions, bearing semblance to the works of David Hammons and Robert Gober.

This February, Unit London and Saatchi gallery brought Philip Colbert's monumental 'Hunt Paintings' to Los Angeles as part of the Frieze LA VIP Programme. We caught up with Philip to talk through his influences, his connection to Los Angeles and his obsession with American signage art.

In December 2018, Philip Colbert's Hunt Paintings, presented by Unit London, featured twenty-five new works at Saatchi Gallery. The exhibition, curated by Sacha Craddock, ran across three galleries and included a virtual reality experience, which allowed visitors to immerse themselves in Colbert’s World of Art.

Peter Gronquist’s practice incorporates painting, sculpture and installation, utilising mediums such as aluminium, ceramic, mirrors and the environment itself. The seventeen pieces on show in Shape Shifter survey Gronquist’s most experimental and innovative works to date.

With a palette of primary-colours, wit, and a mechanised aesthetic, Roy Lichtenstein enlivened the American art scene in the 20th Century and helped establish Pop Art within the canon of Art History. His celebrated style draws on commercial printing material and techniques: relying on crisp black outlines, regularized line weights, and Benday dots – a halftone industrial printing technique.

We were delighted to host the solo exhibition ‘Reincarnation’, featuring new works by eminent Chinese contemporary artist, Jacky Tsai. Tsai works across a range of mediums including installation, sculpture and fashion. His practice unites cultural influences from the East and West, fusing a range of motifs on large-scale vibrant canvases. 

21st Century Women: our autumn group show which opened in tandem with last year's enigmatic Frieze art week in London.

Launched in tandem with Frieze art week in 2018, the show included British artists who examine the role of women in contemporary society; others who are motivated by the body politics surrounding the objectification of the female form; and those who question the fractured sense of being that many contemporary women feel today.

The debut of British artist Will Martyr's brand-new works - a buzzing, vibrant event that marked a perfect end to the summer.

Maritime painting is an enduring and rich subject matter in the world history of art — a fact that contemporary artist Jake Wood-Evans is well-aware of, demonstrated in his latest print, Seascape, an enigmatic and darkly fresh adaptation of the ship painting tradition. 

A prelude to Will Martyr's 2018 solo exhibition, Fathoms, we joined the artist in his Deptford studio, who granted us exclusive access to his space and a sneak peek at his brand new monumental tondo paintings.

The art of Kazuo Shiraga is as much about performance as it is about painting. There is an undeniable energy in Shiraga’s abstract compositions, which puts process at the forefront of its aesthetic. His gestural marks possesses an intense materiality, almost acting as a metaphor for the Shiraga’s exceptionally physical technique, a method utilising the artist’s entire body to execute: “I want to paint as though rushing around a battlefield, exerting myself to collapse from exhaustion.”

Colbert is a London-based artist who works in a wildly exuberant aesthetic that updates the legacy of collage for the internet age, microcosms saturated with the detritus of everyday icons, symbols, and objects — sometimes, narrated by the distinctive personality of his comical lobster alter ego.

The intensely worked surfaces of André Hemer's work combines digital media and painting, exploring the bounds of materiality and appearances. We sat down and interviewed the artist, who illuminated us about his process, influences, and how he is adapting abstraction to a post-internet age.

Joshua Hagler's work fuses tradition with contemporary culture, playing with the idea of conventional painterly representation by imposing the filter of a digital upbringing. Featured in our group exhibition Looking For U, Hagler spoke to us about his influences, personal philosophy, and recent projects.

The title of our show Looking For U is shared with our very first exhibition, held in October 2013 in a pop-up gallery space in Chiswick. #lookingforU went on to become a weekly staple of the gallery’s Instagram account – highlighting and profiling exciting global talent in the art world to our loyal digital audience.

 In anticipation of our upcoming show Looking For U we went to visit Ry David Bradley in his Holborn studio to get a glimpse of his newest works: a series of three Stretched Dye Cotton Tapestries.

Having a background in graphics programming but pursuing painting throughout his life, Gumpinger's interest lies in the interesection between digital simulation and handmaking processes. Read more about his practice as we interview the artist on his concepts and techniques.

Culture Whisper sat down with Unit London directors Joe and Jonny to talk about their vision for the gallery, their journey, social media, and future ambitions.

Michael Staniak's practice is entrenched in the current reality that we exist both physically, and virtually thanks to the internet. We spoke to the artist about his work, as well as his background and influences that have helped shape it.

 How does art respond to an environment where images can be created and distributed instantaneously, ubiquitously, and autonomously via our mass network of online channels? Find out more about the concept behind Looking for U, exploring the relationship between art and digital technology.

The pristine geometric repetitions and optical trickery of Bridget Riley's paintings are instantly recognisable and wholly distinctive. Steering abstraction into the direction of illusions in the name of Optical Art, or Op-Art, Riley uses her oscillating surfaces to to disrupt the eye of the viewer, challenging them to question the nature of visual perception and experience. 

Undoubtedly one of the most important artists working today, Anish Kapoor has irrevocably shaped the physical and cultural landscape we now live in, inheriting the mantle of prestigious British sculpture from modern 20th-century greats such as Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth. 

Ahead of the exhibition opening, the private view of The Garden took place on Thursday 28 June, a vibrant event attended by over 500 people to glimpse Hewett’s paintings and to visit the impressive space. 

The Beyond: Georgia O’Keeffe & Contemporary Art opened in May 2018 at the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville and features paintings, sculptures, photographs, murals and more by the mother of American Modernism- Georgia O’Keeffe, alongside works from 20 contemporary artists whose work she inspired – including Unit London’s Dylan Gebbia Richards.

Emerging in the 1970s, Cragg’s bold practice has consistently questioned and tested the limits of the materials used in traditional sculpture; bronze, steel, glass, wood and stone. “I’m an absolute materialist, and for me material is exciting and ultimately sublime”, he said. For Cragg, the physicality and composition of his materials are of immense importance and ultimately guide the form of his final artworks. 

Drawing on personal memories from his early life in Canada, his time in Trinidad and imagery sourced from photographs and films, Doig builds dreamlike compositions in oil which exist in a timeless fantastical space; a space which feels both personally nostalgic and universal. 

 Scrawled and scribbled, cartoon-like yet elegant, enigmatic yet engaging; American painter Jean-Michel Basquiat’s artwork has an eccentric brilliance. Almost thirty years after his passing, Jean-Michel Basquiat remains a permanent fixture in the 20^th century art consciousness.

Coined ‘the Warhol of Japan’, Murakami is renowned for his ability to blur the lines between fine art and popular culture; ‘I want to make something new - that means a new communication with fine art and subculture, fine art with the music industry and fine art with entertainment.”

Yves Klein is considered a critical figure in post-war European art. Born in Nice, 1928, Klein’s highly influential practice is often viewed as an inspiration to and a forerunner of Minimalist art; as well as Conceptual art, Pop art and Performance art. Klein is best known for his trademark ultramarine pigment, which he patented as International Klein Blue in 1961, ‘Blue has no dimensions; it is beyond dimensions, whereas the other colours are not... All colours arouse specific associative ideas... while blue suggests at most the sea and sky, and they, after all, are in actual, visible nature what is most abstract.’

Entering her 90th year and still constantly creating artwork, Kusama’s life has taken her from her quiet upbringing in provincial Japan, to New York’s postwar art scene and eventually Tokyo, where she currently resides. Continuously and consciously reinventing her style, Kusama’s artworks have spanned an astonishing range of media including painting, sculpture, performance, installation and film. A longstanding staple of popular culture, she has designed ranges with top fashion houses and created videos for the best musicians in the contemporary pop world.

KAWS is an international cultural phenomenon with a skill-set which extends far beyond the constraints of the art world. Famously medium-agnostic, KAWS’ enormous body of work straddles both the art and design worlds to include street art, product design, toy making and sculpture. His instantly recognisable aesthetic has earned him a loyal and devoted global following over the last twenty-five years.

Francis Bacon created some of the most crucial images of the wounded and traumatised humanity seen in post-war art. With a reputation as the masterful chronicler of the bleak human condition throughout the 20^th century, his canvases remain unmistakable to this day for their chaotically arranged, highly grotesque and contorted depictions of the figure.

Across the course of his sixty-year career, Richter has interrogated the limits of representation – his experiments in abstraction are without comparison, and have greatly contributed to the medium of painting. 

Captivated by the endless aesthetic peculiarities of the malleable human form, Jenny Saville paints the female body with merciless and grotesque exaggeration. Despite her work frequently hailed a political statement against stereotypical idealised images of women in portraiture throughout history, Saville is, in essence, a ‘painter of modern life, and modern bodies’.

Condo’s works are populated by a cast of contorted misshapen characters that bear only partial semblance to the human form. Self-declared as ‘psychological cubism’, George Condo’s style is instantly recognisable - his imaginary subjects have obscenely bulbous facial features, skewed limbs and protruding eyes yet possess an essence which is undeniably human. His figures hint at our own imperfections and act as a hideous yet humorous investigation into the disjointed human psyche - frequently distilling an array of emotional states into a singular face. 

In March 2017, acclaimed Chinese artist Zhuang Hong Yi returned to Unit London for his highly-anticipated second major UK solo exhibition. Following on from the storming success of 'RAW' in 2015, the artist returned with 'RAW II': a breathtaking new body of work which continues to explore themes of nature and the natural world. 

In this insightful footage, the viewer is transported into Johan's world as he guides his visitors through his technique with a small painting exercise. 

Ryan Hewett takes a significant step away from the chaotic process of construction and deconstruction, towards a more confident, mature and considered approach to painting. And the results are fascinating.

News reporter Brenda Emmanus visited the exhibition to talk to gallery co-founder Joe about the ethos of Unit London, and also met with the artist to talk about his experiences as an artist.

A Glimpse inside the studio of British painter Jake Wood-Evans, as he gears up for his first major UK Solo exhibition; Subjection and Discipline; at Unit London.

Watch Joe Kennedy, co-founder of Unit London, talk to the Art Business Conference, 2015. 

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