4 Artists 10 Works @ Josh Lilley

Contemporary and Old Art Reviews

4 Artists 10 Works @ Josh Lilley

Postby CAP » Wed Jun 18, 2014 12:32 pm

6th June – 4th July 2014

Another interesting little group show at Lilley, I seem to remember singling out one from around this time last year as well. I don’t know why that should be, maybe something to do with the location, straying in the summer lull perhaps. Anyway this one is of paintings – 4 Artists 10 Works – features Nick Goss (the only artist represented by the gallery) Hurvin Anderson, Norbert Schwontkowski and Ryan Mosley. There are four large paintings by Goss – he’s pretty much my pick of the Lilley stable just now, so a push is understandable – two by Anderson, Mosley and Schwontkowski. They fill what is a modest space, after all.

It’s an unlikely combination on the face of it. Schwontkowski, a German, who died last year at 64, had been on the fringe of even the German scene for some time – but used to show with Contemporary Fine Art (CFA) Berlin, one of my favourite Berlin galleries. Anderson, probably the highest profile of the four, is 49, a generation younger than Schwontkowski and shows with Thomas Dane and Michael Werner, while Goss and Mosley are 33 and 34 respectively, a younger generation again. Mosley has shown with Lilley but now with Alison Jacques and Eigen+Art in Berlin, I understand. So this is not one of those stock room shows, just thrown together over the summer recess – a certain amount of wrangling involved – and again, hats off to Josh!

Just what ties them together is difficult to pinpoint, but fun. There’s some washy layering to Goss and Anderson, a flattening or planar quality to Schwontkowski and Mosley, a little bit of architecture going on in Goss, Anderson and Schwontkowski and text in Goss and Schwontkowski adds to the flattening. Beyond that, a certain lightness of touch, maybe, a wistfulness possibly recommends itself. Mosley seems the odd man out for his more intense colour, not so much wistful as wilful or whimsical but overall there is something there, I get it.

For once this is a curated show not over-burdened with pompous social programme and tedious citation. Lilley has an eye, makes connections, backs his judgement. Bravo. The show will probably attract a handful of summer wanderers, but it’s exactly the kind of show painters will have fun with, just because the affinities are both obvious or visible, yet tricky to put a label on. 8-)
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