LAF RECOMMENDS: REFLECTION

Welcome in July with a fantastic collection of exhibitions taking place across this month. 

In this edition of LAF Recommends, the artists invite the viewer to consider the notion of self through relationships, re-imaged states, digital worlds and the action of reflecting.

Explore group shows from Zuleika Gallery, Nathalie Karg Gallery, Eve Leibe Gallery and The Photographers’ Gallery; alongside solo presentations from Jealous Gallery and Dundee Contemporary Gallery

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Nigel Hall, 1874, 2020, Courtesy of Zuleika Gallery

ZULEIKA GALLERY

NIGEL HALL RA & MANIJEH YADEGAR HALL

16 JUNE- 19 JULY

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Rafael Trelles, Dambalah, 2018. Photograph: John Betancourt. Courtesy the Artist and October Gallery, London

OCTOBER GALLERY

RAFAEL TRELLES: AXIS MUNDI

17 JUNE – 24 JULY

Rafael Trelles’ presents oil paintings which explore humankind’s ever-changing relationship with the natural world and the intricate web of interdependencies humans share with the plants and animals of their surrounding environment.

Every painting in the Axis Mundi series was realised in a two-step process adapted from a technique popularised by the Spanish Cubist, Oscar Dominguez. Known as decalcomania, the technique was adopted by Surrealist artists such as Max Ernst and André Breton, who were interested in letting the unconscious manifest in their works by using spontaneous or automatic techniques.

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Ilona Szwarc, An image of a forgotten experience, 2019. Courtesy of the artist [Detail]

NATHALIE KARG GALLERY

MIRROR, MIRROR

ILONA SZWARC, PAUL SEPUYA, WHITNEY HUBBS, TOMMY KHA

8 JUNE - 27 AUGUST

Mirror, Mirror is a group exhibition featuring new and recent works of self-portraiture exploring themes of self-presentation as self-creation in the social media age.

 To be seen, literally and figuratively (“I see you”), is not only confirmation of one’s existence and value, but also a necessary performance of self that must be staged again and again. Hubbs, Kha, Sepuya, and Szwarc harness this cultural phenomenon by exposing, exploiting, and subverting the selfie’s narcissistic gaze.

Tom Poelmans, Portrait de l'Artiste, 2020. Courtesy of Eve Leibe Gallery

EVE LEIBE GALLERY

REGNUM LUMINIS

CASEY JEX SMITH, GIULIO MALINVERNI, HAYLEY ARJONA, JOSIAH ELLNER, LORENZO BONECHI, LORINCZ ARON, MATTHEW BAINBRIDGE, TOM POELMANS, VALERIE SAVCHITS

21 JUNE - 14 SEPTEMBER

A virtual group exhibition co-curated by Domenico de Chirico presents a esoteric journey focusing on the power of light and symbolism.


The aesthetic of Regno Luminis clearly references Étienne-Louis Boullée, a French architect theorist of the neoclassical period, whose projects consist of elementary volumes, monolithic and colossal scale. Based essentially on two fundamental stylistic terms, that favour the establishment of a direct relationship between nature and architecture and the accurate play of light and shadow.

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Greenham Common protester. Roger Tooth, 1982. Courtesy of Guardian News & Media Archive. [Detail]

THE PHOTOGRAPHER'S GALLERY

THE PHOTOGRAPHERS’ GALLERY IN COLLABORATION WITH THE GUARDIAN FOUNDATION: THE PICTURE LIBRARY

25 JUNE– 26 SEPTEMBER

Delve into the legendary Guardian picture library and explore photojournalism across the 20th Century through over 200 vintage images elaborating on themes such as feminism, nationalism, post-colonialism, racism.

Featuring over 200 images, the exhibition mirrors the non-hierarchical nature of the library itself. Images are filed according to ‘subject’ and ‘personality’; individual photographers are accorded no particular status and images once deemed significant or newsworthy are filed alongside the obscure and forgotten. It also offers unique insights into the daily workings of a traditional picture editor,  and features rarely seen working press prints, contact sheets, editing notes and other newspaper ephemera.

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Stanley Donwood, And Earth, And Air, And Rain, 2021. Courtesy of Jealous Gallery

JEALOUS

THE UNCANNY SCENERY OF A DREAM

STANLEY DONWOOD

24 JUNE - 18 JULY

Award winning artist, Stanley Donwood, presents his latest body of work which comprises of a series of prints re-imagining the scenes of Thomas Hardy’s poetry, taking viewers on a journey through landscapes, forgotten places, and melancholic vistas.

Taking motivation from the spectacular scenery and countryside landscapes described in Hardy’s work, Donwood travelled to the areas in Dorset that inspired the author’s poetry, creating a series of sketches on scraps of paper, old envelopes, maps and torn pages from yellowing books. In appreciation of the strong abiding affection Hardy felt to the lands of Dorset, Donwood immersed himself in the romantic landscape and rendered atmospheric layered drawings, providing a new way of visualising Hardy’s Wessex.

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Emma Talbot, Ghost Calls Installation View. Courtesy of Dundee Contemporary Arts

DUNDEE CONTEMPORARY ARTS

EMMA TALBOT: GHOST CALLS

1 JULY - 8 AUGUST

A major exhibition debuts a new series of works developed specifically for DCA by British artist, Emma Talbot, drawing together the diverse facets of her practice to create a new, painterly world in the gallery for audiences to step into.

At a time when our world is more uncertain than ever, Emma Talbot’s largest exhibition to date at DCA imagines future environments where humankind has been flung out of a capitalist-driven society of technology and consumption.

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