'Travels always insist on the unfamiliar against the familiar, the foreign against that which is known and comfortable,' says American abstract artist Robert Kelly, on the inspiration behind his paintings on view at Sophia Contemporary Gallery, London — his first solo exhibition in the UK.
The New York-based artist’s love of travel is clear in the carefully collaged layers of postcards, prints, letters and posters he has collected and assembled on canvas, in a painstaking process that can take up to several weeks to complete. He then paints briskly and confidently with oil using a trowel on top of this compilation of ephemera. The subtle effect of this technique suggests the traces of memory embedded in a surface – as in a palimpsest, or even in the skin.
What appear at first to be exercises in geometric abstraction are then disrupted by the narrative of what lies beneath. 'The dislocation and freshness of new contours in travel provoke us to find stability within sets of new relations. These paintings continually apply this will towards "terra firma" within the ambiguities of abstraction,' Kelly explains.
'Tropos IV', 2006. Courtesy of the artist and Sophia Contemporary Gallery
Kelly’s last solo exhibition was in Rio de Janeiro, where the Neo-Concrete art movement of the early 1960's 'struck me to the core sympathetically', and informs in part the grand yet sparse monochrome paintings of Black on Bone. Here, Kelly says he confronts various visual questions he has been grappling with for more than a decade, such as 'the constant intrusion of the decorative' – attempting to resolve them through the 'cipher of Constructivism, or some deeply set architectonic logic'.
His work has often been considered in relation to Russian Constructivism and the Dutch De Stijl movement, and at its booth at Frieze London this week Sophia Contemporary will materialise these connections, showing works from Kelly’s Nocturne series alongside rare works by Malevich and Mondrian. 'I never tire of looking at Mondrian and his will toward formal resoluteness, yet equally am moved by the constant humanism and mythic play in Malevich's work along with what seems to be such an organic connection between its iconic imagery and the cultural aspirations to transcend boundaries.'
Luchino's Nocturne II, 2014 (left) and Mimesis CIII, 2008.
INFORMATION
’Robert Kelly: Black on Bone – Selected Works’ is on view until 28 October 2016. For more information, visit the Sophia Contemporary Gallery website
ADDRESS
11 Grosvenor St
London W1K 4QB
-
'A creative explosion' in the West End: Sarabande Foundation takes residency at SelfridgesSarabande Foundation's ‘House of Bandits’ takes up residence with gusto in Selfridges for nine weeks
-
Yves Béhar describes his approach to design, built around a core of sustainable processes and positive social impactYves Béhar is the Swiss-born American founder of Fuseproject, a San Francisco-based multidisciplinary design studio with an outpost in Lisbon. Béhar's work is held in collections at both MoMA and SFMoMA and includes everything from mobility design to medical technology, robotics and high tech start-ups
-
Photographing free time in South Korea: rare days off captured in new bookFree time is hard-earned in South Korea. In Seunggu Kim's new photography book 'Better Days,' he captures the beauty of the country at play
-
When galleries become protest sites – a new exhibition explores the art of disruptionIn a new exhibition at London's Auto Italia, Alex Margo Arden explores the recent spate of art attacks and the 'tricky' discourse they provoke
-
'It's a metaphor for life': rising star and 'Queer' poster artist Jake Grewal on his new London exhibitionBritish artist Jake Grewal speaks to Simon Chilvers about 'Under the Same Sky' as it opens at Studio Voltaire in London
-
Wallpaper* Design Awards 2025: Tate Modern’s cultural shapeshifting takes the art prizeWe sing the praises of Tate Modern for celebrating the artists that are drawn to other worlds
-
Inside the distorted world of artist George RouyFrequently drawing comparisons with Francis Bacon, painter George Rouy is gaining peer points for his use of classic techniques to distort the human form
-
‘I'm endlessly fascinated by the nude’: Somaya Critchlow’s intimate and confident drawings are on show in London‘Triple Threat’ at Maximillian William gallery in London is British artist Somaya Critchlow’s first show dedicated solely to drawing
-
Surrealism as feminist resistance: artists against fascism in Leeds‘The Traumatic Surreal’ at the Henry Moore Institute, unpacks the generational trauma left by Nazism for postwar women
-
Looking forward to Tate Modern’s 25th anniversary partyFrom 9-12 May 2025, Tate Modern, one of London’s most adored art museums, will celebrate its 25th anniversary with a lively weekend of festivities
-
Out of office: what the Wallpaper* editors have been doing this weekA week in the world of Wallpaper*. Here's how our editors have been entertaining themselves in the run up to Christmas
