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Viewing ‘Me, You and the Sunset: Joel Mesler’ at Château La Coste

If your summer travels take you to the South of France, Château La Coste is a must, a breathtaking spot only 20 minutes from Aix-en-Provence. In a region rich with art history and cultural heritage, as well as excellent wines (Château La Coste sits amidst its own sumptuous vineyards) Château La Coste offers fine dining and exceptional contemporary art across art spaces designed by the likes of Tadao Ando and Oscar Niemeyer.

This summer season offers an exhibition by Joel Mesler, the celebrated Californian artist, known for lush, large, colourful canvases with bold leaf motifs that play with typography and image. Mesler’s exhibition “Me, you and the sunset” is a new body of work inspired by Provence: its sunsets, iridescence and the shifting light over the verdant landscapes that surround Château La Coste.

Alongside the paintings, Mesler presents a ‘beach ball’ sculpture, cast in bronze. Like Mesler’s paintings, what at first appears to be breezy and joyful, the quintessence of summer, often then surprise with more difficult and knotty emotions, reflecting for example on our complicated relationship with nature, or moments in the artist’s own personal life journey.

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Dates
07 July 2024 — 08 September 2024
William Hogarth’s series of eight satirical paintings, A Rake’s Progress, produced between 1732 and 1734 tell the story of the heir of a rich merchant, Tom Rakewell, who wastes all his money on gambling, prostitutes and loose living in London and winds up in Fleet Prison, and eventually, an asylum. The paintings were purchased by Sir John Soane’s wife originally for display at Pitzhanger, but they were moved to Lincoln’s Inn Fields when the family relocated there.

More than two centuries on, six large-scale tapestries by Grayson Perry inspired by A Rake’s Progress, will hang at Pitzhanger, bringing history full circle. The Vanity of Small Differences offers offer a contemporary take on the Hogarth riches to rags tale, depicting a fable of class, decorum and taste, via protagonist Tim Rakewell, with characters and objects drawn from Perry’s experiences while filming his TV series All in the Best Possible Taste with Grayson Perry in various locations across the UK.

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Dates
10 July 2024 — 08 December 2024

Viewing Tender pencil portraits of Black men by Curtis Holder capture intimate moments 

Rising star Curtis Holder – former winner of the Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year – unveiled a large new body of work at Guildford House Gallery this week. Portraits of Brotherhood features Holder’s multi-layered pencil portraits that seek to capture intimate moments in the lives of his subjects, delving into their shared history and experiences.

Each artwork is born from personal conversations between the artist and his subjects, who come from all works of life, and are all Black men. Presented together they explore the multifaceted nature of identity and contemporary masculinity, in contrast with pervasive societal stereotypes that often negatively impact Black men.

Art historian Kathleen Soriano sees Holder as “a bright, pulsing light. He brings a freshness and there’s something really new and exciting about what he’s producing.” We agree – watch this space for Holder’s work at The Wick soon.

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Dates
06 July 2024 — 28 September 2024
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The Wick Culture - Viewing Tender pencil portraits of Black men by Curtis Holder capture intimate moments 
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