Neo-Geo Icon Ashley Bickerton Joins Gagosian
Other artists joining new galleries this month include Anna Weyant, Philip Colbert, Lauren Quin, Ouattara Watts, Fiona Rae, and James Siena.
Ashley Bickerton, Seascape: floating costume to drift for eternity II (1992). Cowboy suit, glass, aluminium, wood, caulk, fibreglass, enamel and canvas webbing. 55.8 x 233.6 x 205.7 cm. Courtesy the artist and Gagosian.
Bali-based mixed media artist Ashley Bickerton is now exclusively represented by mega-gallery Gagosian, which has 19 locations worldwide.
The Barbados-born artist emerged on the New York Art Scene in the late 1980s alongside Neo-Geo (short for neo-geometric conceptualism) artists like Jeff Koons and Peter Halley.
Moving to Bali in 1993, Bickerton sought to escape his neo-conceptual roots by exploring Western exotic fantasies of living in Southeast Asia.
Bickerton's recent oeuvre synthesises past interests. His 'Flotsam paintings' (2021) repurpose detritus from the sea in vibrant, textured paintings that examine the human impact on the environment. Bickerton also recreates cross-sections of that environment three-dimensionally in his 'Ocean Chunks' (2021-2022), which includes augmented reality works recently shown by Lehmann Maupin on NFT platform Nifty Gateway.
As well as Lehmann Maupin, Bickerton previously showed at Gajah Gallery and STPI – Creative Workshop & Gallery. His first solo show with Gagosian will open next year.
Gagosian also recently announced the representation of up-and-coming painter Anna Weyant. Weyant, who is one of the youngest artists ever signed by the gallery, has reportedly been dating founder Larry Gagosian for the past year.
Weyant's floral still-life Josephine (2020) sold at a Sotheby's Hong Kong auction last month for half a million US dollars, ten times the pre-sale estimate.
Weyant was previously represented by Blum & Poe, who announced this month that they are taking on local L.A. artist Lauren Quin. Quin's colourful, pulsating, electric abstractions incorporate twisting tubular forms, inspired by French Cubist Fernand Léger.
In February, Quin featured alongside other local artists at Blum & Poe's Frieze Los Angeles booth. Her first solo show with Blum & Poe, Pulse Train Howl, opened on 14 May and will continue until 25 June.
Another notable move announced this month is the representation of Ouattara Watts by Almine Rech. Watts, a lifelong friend and collaborator with Jean-Michel Basquiat, paints vibrant canvases with a Pan-African aesthetic.
Hong Kong and Shanghai-based Pearl Lam Galleries signed British artist Philip Colbert this month. Seen by some as a spiritual successor to Andy Warhol, Colbert infuses the legacy of pop art with surrealism and Europe's Old Masters. Pearl Lam will exhibit new works by Colbert at Art Basel Hong Kong next week.
Other artists joining new galleries in May include: Vietnamese-American artist Tammy Nguyen, who signed with Lehmann Maupin; Norwegian artist Ida Ekblad, who joins Oslo's Peder Lund gallery; Gabriella Boyd, who is now co-represented by Grimm gallery in Amsterdam and San Francisco-based Friends Indeed; and Fiona Rae and James Siena, both of whom signed with Miles McEnery Gallery in New York. —[O]
