Cork Street Galleries announces its spring 2024 programme

Cork Street Galleries takes great pleasure in announcing its forthcoming programme of exhibitions and events for the spring 2024 season. The street’s permanent roster of galleries – including Frieze No.9 Cork Street, Alison Jacques, Alon Zakaim Fine Art, Flowers Gallery, Goodman Gallery, Holtermann Fine Art, MASSIMODECARLO, Messums London, Nahmad Projects, Pilar Corrias, Stephen Friedman, Tiwani Contemporary and Waddington Custot – together present twenty exciting exhibitions for the coming months.

FRIEZE NO.9 CORK STREET (9 Cork Street) presents a number of exciting spring exhibitions at No.9 Cork Street, the art organisation’s Mayfair gallery space. March will see Matt Carey-Williams’ new eponymous London-based venture take over the entire building with its debut group exhibition, while April will feature a cohort of galleries from the Asia-Pacific, including Ames Yavuz (Singapore and Sydney), The Page Gallery (Seoul) and Seojung Art (Seoul and Busan), each with a group show.

Selvi May Akyildiz (Director, No.9 Cork Street) said: “No.9 Cork Street provides a fitting home for a raft of galleries this season, including the launch of Matt Carey-Williams’ new endeavour, as well as a strong Australasian presence. I look forward to discovering some of the new talent ‘Bump’ will bring together, which promise to offer an insightful look into contemporary painting. Moving into April, I am greatly anticipating the shows from Ames Yavuz, The Page Gallery and Seojung Art, which will unite rising talents from Sydney to Seoul under one roof in London. The breadth of our spring exhibitions promises to bring an exciting moment to the heart of Mayfair.”

The season will open on 7 March with ‘Episode I: Bump’, an exhibition surveying contemporary painting through the work of 21 artists from across the world, including Ana Benaroya, Savannah Harris, Glen Pudvine, Christian Rex van Minnen, Clare Woods and Flora Yukhnovich. The expansive exhibition will be the first group show presented by the new curatorial project Matt Carey-Williams launched this year. ‘Bump’ will run alongside a presentation at 12 Porchester Place of works on paper by ten of the featured artists and be accompanied by an essay by Carey-Williams on the state of contemporary painting.

From 4 – 20 April, No.9 Cork Street will host three galleries spanning Australia, Singapore and South Korea. Ames Yavuz, making its UK debut, will draw two pairs of artists together in dialogue about corporeality. The first of these, ‘Holding Ceremony’, will feature Brook Andrew and Pinaree Sanpitak, who explore the body as both a vessel for memory and a ceremonial site. The second, ‘POV’, will showcase works by Alvin Ong and Julia Trybala, each mining the question of how we inhabit our bodies and the search for intimacy in the self.

The Page Gallery will concurrently show three artists who highlight the essence of the Korean approach to minimalism, distinguished by its use of natural elements and the visible integration of the time and labour involved in artmaking. The exhibition will showcase the Accumulation sculpture series and canvas compositions by Park Suk Won, a leading figure of the Korean Abstract Sculpture movement; Choi In Soo’s drawing series visualising the five senses; and Yoon Sang Yeul’s Silence series, mixed media works combining digital printing and mechanical pencil lead.

The exhibition season is rounded out by SEOJUNG ART, which will present a group exhibition curated by Byunghun Jun Chae, Associate Curator of the 30th anniversary exhibition celebrating the Korean Pavilion at the Venice Biennale. Accordant with The Page Gallery, the show will spotlight the strength of Korean contemporary art with names including Seong Joon Hong, Hong Soun, Sunyoung Hwang and Chounhwan Lee. ‘APRICITY’ will draw on a core concept of East traditional naturalism from the contemporary viewpoint – 물아일체, mulailche – representing a state of harmony with one’s surroundings, with all four artists working from a deep appreciation of both the visible and invisible aspects of their environment.

ALISON JACQUES (22 Cork Street) presents the second solo exhibition of the late American artist Betty Parsons (b.1900 New York, NY – d.1982 Southold, NY) this spring. This exhibition showcases over thirty years of Parsons’ practice, including paintings on canvas and paper and sculptures dating from 1950 to 1980, marking the first time an overview of the breadth of Parsons’ practice has been shown in London. In keeping with the ambition of Alison Jacques’ programme to showcase the works of artists that were under appreciated during their lifetime, this exhibition presents Parsons first and foremost as an artist, rather than contextualising her legacy based on her position as a gallerist.

“I knew about painting because I was a painter,” Parsons once remarked of her career as one of New York’s leading gallerists. Parsons’ prowess as founder and director of Betty Parsons Gallery (1946-1983) has long obscured an appreciation of her own artistic endeavours. While her discerning eye helped launch the careers of many notable artists, including Agnes Martin and Jackson Pollock, Parsons maintained a rigorous commitment to her own practice. “When I’m not at the gallery, my own art is my relaxation,” she once said. “That’s my greatest joy… I would give up my gallery in a second if the world would accept me as an artist.”

The exhibition runs from 20 March – 27 April 2024.

ALON ZAKAIM FINE ART (27 Cork Street) presents an exciting exhibition revolving around one of the finest collections of privately owned Marc Chagall works in the United Kingdom. ‘Marc Chagall: Love and Luminosity’, through its 32 works spanning from 1938 to 1984, is a retrospective that showcases the deep connection between Chagall’s use of luminous colour and his most recognisable motifs. The show also investigates the effects that love had on Chagall’s artworks, be it the love for his first wife Bella Rosenfeld, his second wife ‘Vava’ Brodsky, or the deep affection that he carried for his home city of Vitebsk and his adoptive home in Paris.

Owner and Director of the gallery, Alon Zakaim, explained: “All of the Chagall works on display in our exhibition pivot around love, light and colour, but these are not separate entities in his art. Colour for Chagall conveyed movement and emotion, forming the perfect medium through which love could be expressed.”

The exhibition runs until 22 March 2024.

FLOWERS GALLERY (21 Cork Street) presents ‘Edward Burtynsky – New Works’. The solo exhibition coincides with Saatchi Gallery’s major 2024 retrospective, ‘BURTYNSKY: EXTRACTION / ABSTRACTION’, the largest exhibition ever mounted in Edward Burtynsky’s 40+ year career.

Edward Burtynsky – New Works offers a compelling journey into the intersection of nature and industry, capturing the awe-inspiring beauty and the environmental consequences of human industrial activities. This exhibition brings together a selection of Burtynsky’s recent works, focusing on three geological themes: Coast Mountains in British Columbia, Canada; erosion in Türkiye; and the coal mines in Australia.

The exhibition runs until 6 April 2024.

GOODMAN GALLERY (26 Cork Street) presents ‘Let’s go on singing!’, the first solo exhibition with the gallery for British Franco-Algerian artist Zineb Sedira, as well as marking the artist’s first London show since her commended 2009 INIVA exhibition.

The exhibition coincides with Sedira’s highly anticipated solo at the Whitechapel Gallery where the artist will present the UK debut of her ground-breaking project and film Dreams Have No Titles, originally conceived for the French Pavilion at the 59th Venice Biennale in 2022. Following Whitechapel Gallery, the work will tour to Cultural Foundation Abu Dhabi in October 2024.

Let’s go on singing! presents new and existing work in which Sedira expands on her exploration of cinema as a tool for joyful resistance and draws on the archive as a device to expose, reconsider and challenge history.

The exhibition runs until 16 March 2024.

Following, the gallery presents a group exhibition featuring the work of Kudzanai Chiurai, Nolan Oswald Dennis, Ravelle Pillay, Faith Ringgold, Tavares Strachan, Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum, Hank Willis Thomas and Carrie Mae Weems.

‘Standing in the Gap’ marks the first IN CONTEXT exhibition hosted by Goodman Gallery London – a curatorial strand in the gallery programme which considers the dynamics and tensions of place, with particular connection to the African Continent and its Diaspora. The series has introduced international artists from Joël Andrianomearisoa to Kader Attia, Wangechi Mutu to Mickalene Thomas to South African audiences and memorably included ‘Africans in America’ (2016) co-curated by Hank Willis Thomas and Liza Essers, held concurrently with the Johannesburg iteration of the renowned international conference series BLACK PORTRAITURE[S].

The exhibition runs from 27 March – 8 May 2024.

HOLTERMANN FINE ART (30 Cork Street) presents Olivia Bax’s second exhibition with the gallery.

Bax unveils exciting developments to her practice in the form of mobile, dynamic works. A new body of table sculptures is presented on custom-built furniture, alongside three wall works including the sculpture after which the exhibition is titled: Floss. The word refers to the act of behaving in a way intended to attract attention. The sculptures are exhibited in a (candy) floss pink gallery.

Through her whimsical repertoire of tubular and pocket-like forms some sculptures are adorned with rolling components. This new body of work playfully pivots around the intrinsic lack of function of the sculptural medium, questioning its very nature.

MASSIMODECARLO (16 Clifford Street) presents ‘Love Between a Fish and a Bird’ by Chinese artist Yan Ping, marking her second solo exhibition with the gallery, and her debut exhibition in London. Ping is one of the pivotal figures among contemporary Chinese female painters. Rooted in the socio-historical context of 1970s China, Ping navigated through a period characterised by societal evolution and personal struggle. However, central to Ping’s allure is her resilience, epitomised by an unwavering optimism and a receptiveness to life’s myriad challenges – an ethos that informs her artistic oeuvre too.

The exhibition runs until 30 March 2024.

MESSUMS LONDON (28 Cork Street) presents ‘Ann Thomson: Time makes change’, an exhibition of work by one of Australia’s most eminent contemporary painters. Thomson is known for her vibrant, expressive compositions. Described by the late Edmund Capon (Director of AGNSW) as “one of the most interesting and intuitive artists in Australia today”, Thomson′s works are not intended to replicate a scene or a landscape, but rather evoke a sense of place. “To paint a specific subject is just not my way of working. I have to be more open.” – Ann Thomson (Artist Profile Magazine, 2016).

The exhibition runs from 20 March – 20 April 2024.

Following, the gallery presents ‘Yan Wang Preston: Three Easier Pieces’. Yan Wang Preston presents new works from her ongoing series ‘six easier pieces’ that seek to restage iconic artworks into different geographical and cultural contexts to explore the complexities and realities of cultural migration. The series includes the photographic and video documentary of the restaging of artworks including ‘To Add a Meter to an Anonymous Mountain, 1995’, ‘Wanderer above the Sea of Fog, 1818’, and ‘Olympia, 1863’, the latter featuring the first detailed botanical study of Manet’s painting.

The exhibition runs from 24 April – 25 May 2024.

Furthermore, Messums London presents an exhibition of work by Laurence Edwards, whose practice has long been preoccupied by the entwining of man, nature and time. One of the few sculptors who casts his own work, he is fascinated by human anatomy and the metamorphosis of form and matter that governs the lost-wax process. The driving force behind his work is bronze, an alloy that physically and metaphorically illustrates entropy, the natural tendency of any system in time to tend towards disorder and chaos. His sculptures express the raw liquid power of bronze, its versatility, mass and evolution, and the variety of process marks he retains tell the story of how and why each work came to be.

The exhibition runs from 29 May – 29 June 2024.

NAHMAD PROJECTS (2 Cork Street) presents ‘ERNST, MIRÓ, BURRI’ showcasing a curated selection of works featuring three pivotal figures from the 20th century: Max Ernst (1891–1976), Joan Miró (1898–1983), and Alberto Burri (1915–1995). Although initially diverse in practice and subject matter, the presented works find unity in their profound connection to the inherent qualities of materials, weaving through the rich tapestry of art history. Elevating each technique to the highest level of virtuosity, the current exhibition orchestrates a captivating interplay between the forces of chance and control.

The exhibition runs until 22 March 2024.

PILAR CORRIAS (2 Savile Row) presents ‘Silent Alarm’, a solo exhibition of new mixed media paintings by American artist Tomashi Jackson.

On the occasion of her first exhibition with the gallery, the artist debuts a body of work that traces a constellation of historic events that took place in Los Angeles and London over nearly a century, examining the underlying connections between riots, patterns of systemic oppression, and community sound systems.

The exhibition runs from 8 March – 6 April 2024.

STEPHEN FRIEDMAN GALLERY (25-28 Old Burlington Street) presents ‘Faith Like a Rock’, the first solo exhibition in the UK by Woody De Othello.

Othello (b.1991, Miami, USA) is best known for a multidisciplinary practice that encompasses sculpture, painting and drawing. Working across a range of mediums – including glazed ceramic, carved wood, bronze, ink and oil paint – Othello transforms everyday objects into anthropomorphic, animistic vessels. His colourful, assembled sculptures appear as animated, sentient objects, while his lush painted landscapes teem with life.

In his debut exhibition at Stephen Friedman Gallery, Othello creates an immersive installation that expands upon earlier motifs and represents a bold evolution in his artistic cosmology. Inspired by the domestic objects, flora and fauna of his immediate surroundings, he recasts them as humanoid characters whose features are as recognisable as they are uncanny.

The exhibition runs from 7 March – 13 April 2024.

TIWANI CONTEMPORARY (24 Cork Street) presents ‘As Feeling Births Idea’, a group show featuring: Virginia Chihota, Rita Alaoui, Ranti Bam, Euridice Zaituna Kala, Paula Do Prado, and Wura-Natasha Ogunji. The exhibition gathers together a reflection on each artist’s poetics of interiority and engagement: the phenomena, live, or recollected encounters that inform and shape the featured works in the show. The title borrows a sentence extracted from African American poet and activist Audre Lorde’s short essay, ‘Poetry Is Not A Luxury’ (1977) which draws together a constellation of thoughts, about the illuminatory power of introspection; the ‘poetry’ of experiences that can instigate action, inspire changes, enlighten our own and other’s perspectives. How do each of the artists interpret and make legible the poetics of their experiences through their materials and methodologies?

The exhibition runs until 6 April 2024.

The gallery follows with its second solo show of Gareth Nyandoro, in which the artist presents a series of new works from 2023/4.

Nyandoro is noted for his large works on paper, which often spill out of their two- dimensional format and into installations that include paper scraps and objects found in the markets of Harare, where he lives and works. The artist’s chief source of inspiration is the daily landscape of the city and its residents, both within the local milieu and the larger cultural panorama of Zimbabwe. Inspired by his training as a printmaker, and derived from etching, the artist’s distinctive technique, Kucheka cheka, is named after the infinitive and present tense declinations of the Shona verb cheka, which means ‘to cut’.

The exhibition runs from 23 April – 1 June 2024.

WADDINGTON CUSTOT (11-12 Cork Street) presents ‘Peter Blake: Sculpture and Other Matters’, the first exhibition in twenty years to be dedicated to Peter Blake’s sculpture. The exhibition reveals a less familiar aspect to the work of one of the best loved and most iconic British artists, spotlighting sculptures that are by turns quirky, endearing or engaged with conceptual concerns. These works function not only as art objects, but offer starting points for imagined narratives, each with a glimmer of Blake’s typically gentle, English sense of humour.

The exhibition runs until 13 April 2024.