Orlanda Broom: Rewild
Grove Square Galleries, London
Until 11 June 2021
Mysterious, exotic and ablaze with brilliant colour, the mesmerising floralscapes of British artist Orlanda Broom draw the eye every which way you look. Her highly-saturated imagined visions combine fictional plantlife with abstract organic forms and seem to exist outside of a specific time or place.
In lockdown Broom focused on the more jubilant aspects of her practice, creating a new series of paintings celebrating the natural world.
‘The connection to nature and aspects of escapism have always been a theme but it’s particularly pertinent now as people’s appreciation of being outdoors has grown,’ she says. ‘I’d like my love of nature to come through and engage people to also think about what the future holds… can our planet rewild?’
Currently on display at Grove Square Galleries in Fitzrovia, these buoyant new works offer a colourful escape from our current — dare we say, still-a-little-frazzled — state of being. Hop to it!
Viewing Frank Walter at David Zwirner, Grafton Street
Above Untitled (Self-portrait on water with red hurricane moving in), n.d.
Above Untitled (Watermelon), n.d.
Above Untitled (McAlister Coat-of-Arms), n.d.
Above Untitled (Self-portrait on water with red hurricane moving in), n.d.
Above Untitled (Watermelon), n.d.
Above Untitled (McAlister Coat-of-Arms), n.d.
Frank Walter
David Zwirner, Grafton Street
Until 22 May 2021
‘Art is a festival in which a narrative is told’ wrote Frank Walter – and his first UK solo show at David Zwirner deserves all the song and dance. The Antiguan artist, writer and polymath produced a prolific body of work across his lifetime, ranging from Romantic landscapes to portraits exploring racial identity.
What’s just as extensive is the variety of materials Walter was working with – from wood, linoleum and the backs of photographs, to oil paint, shellac and glitter. Passionate that art should be universally accessible, his works may be small in scale (they really invite you to look close-up) but they’re big in scope.
Four years after the artist was posthumously honoured at the Venice Biennale, this exhibition comes hot on the heels of the artist’s retrospective at the Museum für Moderne Kunst in Frankfurt. As interest around his work gains momentum, this David Zwirner show brings the colours of his work further to life.
Above Ocean Park, Puerto Rico, 2019
Oil on canvas
80 x 60 inches
Above Ocean Park, Puerto Rico, 2019
Oil on canvas
80 x 60 inches
Enoc Perez: Paradise
Guild Hall, East Hampton, New York
Until 31 May 2021
A key figure in New York’s thriving contemporary art scene, Puerto Rican-born Enoc Perez is best known for his paintings of iconic American and utopian architecture. What strikes in his works is the absence of people.
For this exhibition at the Guild Hall in East Hampton, Perez has created a new body of work centred on natural disasters — notably the devastating impact of the 2017 Hurricane Maria on Puerto Rico. Instead of focusing on the physical destruction of the hurricane, however, Perez has painted a symbol of hope: bent rather than broken palm trees which allude to the possibility of recovery. Alongside these large-scale paintings will be sculpture, drawings and other works yet to be exhibited elsewhere.
‘One of the beauties of being an artist is that you have a voice,’ says Perez in a short video on the museum’s website. ‘[This exhibition] is a great chance to bring awareness to this natural disaster.’