Flora Yukhnovich has rapidly become one of the darlings of the contemporary art world, with collectors and art enthusiasts bustling to get to her dramatic paintings that filter the language of Rococo through a singular contemporary lens. Just this week, one of her paintings, Tu vas me faire rougir (You’re going to make me blush) (2017), fetched £1.9 million (US $2.5 million) at Christie’s 20/21 Shanghai to London sale — almost eight times its estimate.
Now Victoria Miro, the London gallery that represents the British artist, is staging a solo exhibition of new works, where we see Yukhnovich explore the depictions of Venus. In her signature style that fluctuates between abstraction and figuration, the artist this time turns her attention to a range of influences that span different representations of the Roman goddess, synthesising them into lush canvases full of movement and energy. With her brushstrokes, Yukhnovich unpacks Venus as a symbol of love, maternal care, erotic desire and even violence.
Surrealism Beyond Borders arrived on to Instagram feeds with a splash last week, sending several molten clocks flying and knocking the lobster landline off the wall.
Yet the Tate’s new exhibition aims to reposition the idea of Surrealist thought, expanding the collective consciousness to see the true global scope that birthed the movement. Featuring over 150 works, from paintings to sculpture, photography and films, the show explores the collective interests shared by artists across regions to highlight their interrelated networks. Surrealism has always been a vehicle for change, defying conservative social conventions, and the Tate is aiming to show the world that that’s more than just Magritte’s Time Transfixed (the iconic fireplace train). Among the works that are new to the UK are photographs by Cecilia Porras and Enrique Grau from 1950s Colombia, and paintings by the exiled Spanish artist Eugenio Granell, highlighting how the unique political contexts in which they lived and created influenced the works and by extension the movement.
Featuring over 150 works ranging from painting and photography to sculpture and film, many of which have never been shown in the UK, this exhibition explores the collective interests shared by artists across regions to highlight their interrelated networks. It also considers the conditions under which they worked and how this in turn impacted Surrealism, including the pursuit of independence from colonialism and displacement caused by international conflict. Among the rarely seen works are photographs by Cecilia Porras and Enrique Grau, which defied the conservative social conventions of 1950s Colombia, as well as paintings by exiled Spanish artist Eugenio Granell, whose radical political commitments made him a target for censorship and persecution.
Based on extensive research, this exhibition will reach across the world and span over 50 years, showing how generations of artists have been inspired and united by surrealism – from centres as diverse as Buenos Aires, Cairo, Lisbon, Mexico City, Prague, Seoul, and Tokyo.
