GROUP EXHIBITION

Auras: Portraits Of Women By British Artists Lévy Gorvy Dayan 6 March–8 June 2025 London

Press Release

LONDON—Lévy Gorvy Dayan presents Auras, an exhibition exploring connections and divergences between two generations of figurative painters working in Britain. Central to each of the artists on display is the portrayal of women. Among the works included are images of friends and lovers, models and muses, empowered individuals and anonymous enigmas—articulated in ways that range from forceful realism to the symbolic and allegorical.

Starting with the 20th century School of London, the exhibition will show paintings by Frank Auerbach, Lucian Freud, David Hockney, R. B. Kitaj, and Leon Kossoff. In the postwar period, the practices of these artists radically reformulated approaches to the human figure, foregrounding personal connections and an immediacy of sensation. Adjacent to this grouping, Paula Rego championed a painterly mode suffused with literary allusion and storytelling, paralleling developments in feminist thought and theory in the 1970s and ‘80s.

Also spotlighted is a selection of contemporary artists coming of age in the 1990s and early 2000s—Jenny Saville, Alison Watt, and Lynette Yiadom-Boakye. Maintaining dialogues with their School of London predecessors, these painters simultaneously engage and question traditional tropes and images. Each in their distinct style demonstrates that depicting the human figure—and, in particular, women’s bodies and identities—remains an important and enthralling project, at once timeless and inherently anchored in the present moment.

With Auras, Lévy Gorvy Dayan celebrates a diverse grouping of artists connected through their visual reinventions of the human figure and incisive portrayals of women. This theme will correspond to the exhibition The Human Situation: Marcia Marcus, Alice Neel, and Sylvia Sleigh, opening in New York in April 2025. Also on display at Lévy Gorvy Dayan in London from March 6 will be a presentation of new works by Alison Watt.

ABOUT LÉVY GORVY DAYAN Lévy Gorvy Dayan exists to be a trusted and supportive home to artists, estates, and the creative conversation. Helmed by Dominique Lévy, Brett Gorvy, and Amalia Dayan, the gallery aims to use its platform and programming to enhance and extend the reach of artists, and to strengthen their legacies. Lévy Gorvy Dayan strives to use its expertise and influence to make all aspects of art accessible—and to connect artists, museums, institutions, and collectors. Through a tailored approach, the gallery strives to offer outstanding service to our collaborative partners and clients. Founded in art historical study, and informed by the contemporary moment, our exhibitions and publications endeavor to contribute to artists’ practices and connoisseurship. In addition to an international presence in Geneva, Hong Kong, Milan, and Paris, Lévy Gorvy Dayan’s spaces in New York and London serve as destinations for engagement, discovery, and inspiration for artists, the public, and clients—embracing the possibility and power of transformation through art.

PRESS CONTACT

Jacklyn van der Colff

jvandercolff@levygorvydayan.com

+1 646 656 8992