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Viewing Nicola Tyson: Holding Pattern

The Wick Culture - Nicola Tyson, Holding Patten. Sadie Coles HQ London

Above Nicola Tyson, Holding Patten. Sadie Coles HQ London

Nicola Tyson: Holding Pattern
1 October — 6 November 2021
Sadie Coles, Davies Street
https://www.sadiecoles.com

Nicola Tyson’s absorbing, psychologically complex paintings are all about the ‘embodied experience’. And nowhere can you see this more clearly than in her new solo show at Sadie Coles in Davies Street. Drawing on artistic forebears as diverse as Maria Lassnig, Francis Bacon and Pablo Picasso, Tyson deftly balances figuration with abstraction to explore the interplay of perception, thought and feeling.

On display are nine new paintings and three groups of graphite drawings. What strikes is Tyson’s bright, clashing colour palette: brilliant reds, vibrant yellows and emerald greens applied in bold segments abound. As do fragmented body parts and ambivalent forms.

Highlights include Self-Portrait Pencil (2021) and Hair piece (2021), featuring an abstract head with a singular recessed eye. In this latest body of work, Tyson continues her investigations into psychology and anatomy, surface and depth, fixity and metamorphosis.

At once recognisable yet peculiar, these compositions intrigue and perplex in equal measure. That’s what Frieze Week is all about, right?

Viewing Mark Rothko: 1968: Clearing Away

The Wick Culture - Mark Rothko, 'Untitled', 1968. Copyright © 2020 by Kate Rothko Prizel and Christopher Rothko. Courtesy Pace Gallery.

Mark Rothko: 1968: Clearing Away
8 October — 13 November 2021
Pace Gallery, Hanover Square
https://www.pacegallery.com/exhibitions/mark-rothko-11/

Inaugurating Pace Gallery’s swanky new home in Hanover Square is a bijou exhibition of works on paper created by Mark Rothko in the late 1960s, a pivotal and prolific period in the artist’s career. Following a bout of ill health, Rothko was forced to reduce the size and scale of his works, and the result, as seen here, is simply mesmerising.

At once contained yet expansive, these intimate works pulsate with energy and demand slow, considered looking. They are rendered in an array of jewel-coloured pigments and feature Rothko’s signature rectangular forms. With his masterful manipulations of colour, light and space, Rothko creates visual tension and the illusion of luminous, infinite space. His ultimate ambition, he once said, was ‘the elimination of all obstacles between the painter and the idea, and between the idea and the observer.’

Before leaving, swing by Torkwase Dyson’s Liquid A Place, a collaborative and sculptural installation presented by Pace Live. Needless to say, Pace’s new space is a must-see this Frieze Week.

Viewing Anicka Yi: In Love With the World

The Wick Culture - Anicka Yi, In Love With the World, Hyundai Commission, Tate Modern

Above Anicka Yi, In Love With the World, Hyundai Commission, Tate Modern

Above Anicka Yi

Above Anicka Yi, In Love With the World, Hyundai Commission, Tate Modern

Above Anicka Yi

Above Anicka Yi, In Love With the World, Hyundai Commission, Tate Modern

Anicka Yi: In Love With the World
12 October 2021 — 16 January 2022
Tate Modern, London
https://www.tate.org.uk

Currently floating around Tate Modern’s cavernous Turbine Hall are Anicka Yi’s family of AI pod creatures, called aerobes. Based on ocean like forms and mushrooms, the translucent helium-filled organisms are programmed to respond to the space and the people around them. Yi hopes her new kind of ecosystem will encourage visitors to think about new ways machines might inhabit the world and to evaluate our connection to our environment.

The New York-based artist, who is best known for her experimental work exploring the merging of technology and biology, has also created unique ‘scentscapes’ which change weekly, with odours linked to a specific time in the history of the area surrounding Tate Modern. Expect the aroma of spices (thought to counteract the Black Death in the 14th century), marine scents from the Precambrian period as well as the smell of ozone and coal smoke from the Industrial Revolution.

In Love With the World is heavy on the concept but provides, as expected, an instant experiential hit. Yi had big shoes to fill but she has more than made her mark.