This exhibition introduces four international artists to the UK for the first time: Ruby Oyinyechi Amanze, Douglas Rodrigo Rada, Helo Sanvoy and Shoshanna Weinberger have all exhibited frequently across the globe and this summer will present their work in London at .
Mutations is a showcase of works on paper, all diverse in technique, scale and imagery but sharing an interest in pushing the boundaries of drawing as a medium. The artists ask essential questions around fixed categories of forms and identities, following distinct conceptual trajectories and approaches to drawing.
To draw a line is to define a threshold and yet the works in this show concentrate on the hybrid, the liminal, the fragmented and the de-centered as fundamental elements of the human experience and as devices to probe the possibilities inherent in drawing. They posit it as a vehicle to explore ideas around shifting identities, hybridity and alterity and their works feature a variety of cultures, societies and realities.
Hailing from Nigeria, Bolivia, Brazil and Jamaica, many of the pieces display a sense of 鈥渙therness鈥 and displacement, investigating narratives around self-discovery and cultural hybridity. Amanze鈥檚 works include an alien alter ego whose alterity reflects the diasporic experience and echoes amanze鈥檚 own experience of (non)-belonging, while Rada鈥檚 Metamorphosis studies the impossibility of a unified self and questions perceptions of the human body.
Sanvoy鈥檚 work often features linear patterns, highlighting the relatonship between drawing and writing and bearing similiarities to Leonardo de Vinci and Andreas Vesalius and Weinberger鈥檚 gouaches explore the cultural contingency of beauty and 鈥渙therness鈥 in relation to race and gender.
Various artists, Mutations, until 5 July, Tiwani Contemporary, 16 Little Portland Sheet, London, W1W 8BP, .
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Credit:
1. Shoshanna Weinberger, Forever Yours (2013) Gouache/mixed media on paper, 59.6 x 43.8 cm. Courtesy of Tiwani Contemporary.
