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Born in Venezuela in 1959, Arturo Herrera is celebrated for his cartoonish collages, felt sculptures and wall paintings that fuse popular cultural imagery, historical source material and elements of abstraction. ‘I am attracted to juxtaposing invented images and readymade images without establishing explicit relations between elements,’ he once said.

This brilliant show, his fourth at Thomas Dane Gallery, brings together new works, immersive wall painting and bookmaking shaped by the lived constraints of isolation. Central to the exhibition is the fine line mural that spans the gallery walls, echoing elements from Herrera’s 2020 hand-made book From this day Forward. It also includes several of his distinctive collages composed of photographic fragments, vibrant figurative strokes, animation and cultural and historical references that chart his continued investigations into modernist legacies and layering.

What strikes is his desire to distort meaning: ‘Can I make something so clear ambiguous? Can I uproot it?’, he asks. His work, particularly his collage, straddles that fluid border between legibility and abstraction — and is all the more entrancing for it.

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Dates
16 March 2021 — 06 June 2021
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Viewing Henry Taylor at Hauser & Wirth Somerset

The American artist Henry Taylor is best known for his sumptuous portraits that interrogate the human condition. ‘I respect these people,’ he’s said of his subjects, encompassing family members, peers and acquaintances. ‘It’s a two-dimensional surface, but they are really three-dimensional beings.’ It’s intriguing then to see sculpture play such a vital role in his inaugural exhibition with Hauser & Wirth.

Taylor’s embrace of standalone sculpture over the past decade has allowed him to reconfigure everyday objects into his own cultural narrative. On display you’ll see familiar motifs such as painted black milk bottles and horse figurines as well as a new series of tabletop sculptures centred on urban planning. Then there’s his first outdoor bronze sculpture, inspired by a conversation he had with his older brother Randy, a founding member of the Ventura County chapter of the Black Panther Party, in the 1980s. Other notable highlights include two new self-portraits created in lockdown.

Taylor’s visual language is shaped by a process of ‘hunting and gathering’, as he puts it. His work draws on many influences, from archival and immediate imagery — notably newspaper clippings and historical photographs — to memory, personal experience and his art historical predecessors.

Born in 1958, the youngest of eight children, Taylor has been the subject of major group exhibitions around the world. In 2017 his work was included in the Whitney Biennial and in 2019 in the 58th Venice Biennale. He counts Francois Pinault and the Rubells among his A-list collectors. Last winter, he was Hauser & Wirth’s artist in residence. Taylor’s profile is on the rise so don’t miss this opportunity to see him in the round. Remember to book a timed ticket — and a table for lunch too!

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Dates
13 April 2021 — 06 June 2021
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Viewing Spencer Sweeney, Queue at Gagosian Davies Street

For more than 20 years, the New York-based artist, musician and DJ Spencer Sweeney has explored the physical and psychological spaces occupied by the body. His depictions of the human figure, ranging from semiabstract reclining nudes to surreal self-portraits, are characterised by his bright palette and distinctive impasto. Described as a ‘Downtown Renaissance’ man, Sweeney is inspired by everything from surrealism to Russian expressionism and jazz.

In 2019, Sweeney had his first solo show at Gagosian in Paris. Now he returns to Gagosian, but this time in London, with an exhibition of new paintings made in his Manhattan studio over the past year. Taking centre stage is the human face, which he has enlarged beyond-life size and reduced, in most cases, to a set of geometric forms and free-flowing lines.

Take a tour and you’ll come face to face with Abraham the Poet, an abstracted visage in blue, and a theatrical mask-like face painted in high contrast with stark crimson shadows. Look closely and you’ll notice certain shapes — such as a triangular nose in vivid red and pink— appear again and again. For this series, Sweeney has pushed the limits of figuration, challenging notions of social identity and individuality. It’ll make you stop and stare.

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Dates
22 February 2021 — 01 May 2021
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