Victoria Miro is delighted to participate in Art Basel (Stand R7). Artists presented include Njideka Akunyili Crosby, Secundino Hernández, Chantal Joffe, Yayoi Kusama, Alice Neel, Celia Paul, Grayson Perry and Adriana Varejão.
A room dedicated to portraiture provides a focal point for one half of the presentation. Works include a new painting by Njideka Akunyili Crosby, whose densely layered compositions draw on art historical, political and personal references, harnessing the complexity of contemporary experience. Akunyili Crosby’s first solo exhibition in Europe will be of new work made especially for Victoria Miro, London in October this year. Also on display is a typically intense 1963 portrait of US writer Aram Saroyan by Alice Neel; Brunette in a Trench Coat, a new painting by Chantal Joffe; Transvestite Looking in Mirror, a work of self-reflection by Grayson Perry; and an enigmatic and beautiful new painting, Alice, by Celia Paul, who will have a show of new work at Victoria Miro Mayfair this September.
In contrast, the gallery will present three resonant abstract works by Adriana Varejão. The cracked tile has been a recurring motif in Varejão’s work since early in her career, and in these visceral monochromatic works she draws particularly on the history of Portuguese Azulejo tilework and the legacy of Brazil’s colonial past. One of the most original voices in contemporary Brazilian art, Varejão has completed a major commission for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, where a fabric reproduction of her important tile mural for the Inhotim Institute in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais will envelope the Aquatic Stadium.
A new bronze pumpkin sculpture by Yayoi Kusama impressed with a pattern of black circles within its mirror-polished surface will be presented, integrating many key aspects of Kusama’s practice: the reflectivity of the mirror, the repeating pattern of dots, a juxtaposition of light and dark, connotations of growth and fertility and the almost-mythical status of the pumpkin in her art. Examples of Kusama’s sublime Infinity Nets will also be on display, while a brand new self-portrait will provide a link between the abstract and figurative elements of the presentation. Kusama’s largest exhibition with Victoria Miro, London is on display at all three gallery locations until 30 July.
Additionally Victoria Miro will have works available to view by Jules de Balincourt, Verne Dawson, Peter Doig, William Eggleston, Chris Ofili and Kara Walker, amongst others.
Unlimited 2016
Stan Douglas’s Luanda-Kinshasa Victoria Miro is pleased to co-present with David Zwirner (New York / London) Stan Douglas’s Luanda-Kinshasa, 2013, as part of Unlimited. Douglas’s six-hour film expands upon his interest in the African origins of the early 1970s New York music scene, while exploring notions of migration and the synthesis of cultural histories.