<h2>RAFAEL TRELLES<br>AXIS MUNDI<br>17 June - 24 July 2021<br>(returns 3 - 23 August 2021)<h2><h2>RAFAEL TRELLES<br>AXIS MUNDI<br>17 June - 24 July 2021<br>(returns 3 - 23 August 2021)<h2><h2>APART TOGETHER<br> October Gallery Education Exhibition<br>28 – 31 July 2021<h2><h2>RAFAEL TRELLES<br>AXIS MUNDI CATALOGUE</h2>Available From Our Store, £10 + P&P<h2>BENJI REID: LAUGH AT GRAVITY<br>3 September - 8 October 2021</h2><h2>DREAM NO SMALL DREAM: The Story of October Gallery<br>Available from our Book Store, £40 + P&P</h2>304 pages, full colour plates throughout. Edited by Gerard Houghton.
 

CURRENT EXHIBITION

Rafael Trelles: AXIS MUNDI

17 June - 24 July 2021
returns
3 - 23 August 2021
Rafael Trelles, Susúa (Susúa Forest - detail), 2019.
Oil on linen, 183 x 122 cm.
Rafael Trelles, Dambalah, 2018.
Oil on linen, 91.5 x 122 cm.
This first solo exhibition of new works by Rafael Trelles, explores the notion of the Axis Mundi, a mythic tree that represents a portal between this and other worlds.

In 2018, Rafael Trelles exhibited a set of exquisitely hand-drawn works, depicting mysterious, magico-mythical realms, as part of October Gallery’s Portal show. His latest solo exhibition, entitled Axis Mundi, presents a newly completed series of mixed media paintings that develop similar themes in novel and unexpected ways. The exhibition’s title refers to that central ‘world tree’ around which the universe supposedly revolves. This notion, common to many ancient cultures in Africa, the Americas and Europe, situates a giant tree at the centre of some ageless, sacred wood. One example, from the Norse sagas, tells of the great ash tree, Yggdrasil, which from its topmost branches to its deepest roots connects nine different realms, passing from the heavens to earth before plunging down into the underworld below. Trelles’ haunting paintings present themes linking the enchanted forests of his native Puerto Rico with these widespread beliefs that see forests as sites of refuge and transformation in a natural world increasingly challenged by crises of species extinction and climate change.

View Artist Page View Exhibition Page
 

FORTHCOMING EXHIBITION

Apart Together: October Gallery Education Exhibition

28 - 31 July 2021
Works from the 10x10 project.
An individual work from the 10x10 project.
Apart Together, October Gallery Education's exhibition is a celebration of artworks created over the last two years by our OG Youth Collective, our Beacon School partners and the wider education community.

This exhibition features our major lockdown art project 10x10, a huge hanging sculpture, which was made by many hands over the past year and is inspired by the work of El Anatsui. Each square has been created by artists of all ages. On the reverse messages of hope and gratitude written during lockdown can be seen.

OG Youth Collective have also created and curated their own pieces responding to themes of identity, colonialism, repatriation, and the recent events causing the toppling of monuments in the UK and wider world.

Alongside these is a series of works made by local schools and our Beacon Schools who we have worked with online and on site. These are inspired by October Gallery artists and the students' own experiences of lockdown life.

You can find out more about the exhibition and October Education here

 
 

NEWS, EVENTS & RECOMMENDATIONS


As 'mountains of corpses' wash up on Tunisian shores, artist Rachid Koraïchi builds burial site for migrants

Article by James Imam for the Art Newspaper on Rachid Koraïchi's Jardin d'Afrique
Jardin d’Afrique — the Algerian artist Rachid Koraichi’s lavish memorial and burial site for drowned migrants—was unveiled on Wednesday in a ceremony attended by Audrey Azoulay, the director-general of Unesco.

The project is partly intended as a rebuke of global authorities that Koraichi believes are indifferent to migrant deaths. It was inaugurated at a time when more than 800 have died crossing Mediterranean so far this year—compared with 350 a year ago—according to IOM, a Geneva-based UN agency...
Le Jardin d’Afrique, Zarzis, Tunisia.
Read the full article on the Art Newspaper website
Photograph: Rachid Koraïchi.
London and Accra over three decades – in pictures
(The Guardian, 11 March 2021)
James Barnor’s career as a studio portraitist, photojournalist and black lifestyle photographer spans six decades, recording major social and political changes in London, UK, and Accra, Ghana. His forthcoming Serpentine gallery exhibition, Accra/London: A Retrospective, focuses on the period 1950-1980, selected from more than 40,000 available images.
James Barnor: London/Accra – A Retrospective is at the Serpentine, London, from 19 May 2021
(subject to government guidelines)
James Barnor,
AGIP Calendar Model, 1974.
Read more on The Guardian website
Eddy Kamuanga Ilunga named in Apollo Magazine 40 Under 40 Africa
The accolade celebrates artists, thinkers, business leaders and advocates who have pioneered arts from Africa and the Diaspora.

You can view Eddy's artist page here
Eddy Kamuanga Ilunga, Mémoire Fragile 1, 2020.
Acrylic and oil on canvas, 200 x 200 cm
Appollo Magazine Website Article
James Barnor receives Honorary Fellowship from The Royal Photographic Society
James Barnor is amongst the luminaries of the photography world being honoured for their innovation and outstanding contributions to the photographic medium. Now in its 142nd year, the RPS Awards consist of eighteen categories that cover art, science, education, film and publishing.
RPS Awards Website
Photo: Jonathan Greet, 2016.
How El Anatsui Broke the Seal on Contemporary Art
(The New Yorker. 11 Jan 2021)
Read Julian Lucas' piece for the
New Yorker on El Anatsui

"His runaway success began with castaway junk: a bag of bottle caps along the road. Now the Ghanaian sculptor is redefining Africa’s place in the global art scene."

From the touring exhibition Triumphant Scale to Anatsui's studio in Nsukka, Lucas explores the artist's life, process and works in incredible depth
Read on The New Yorker Website
Photo: The New Yorker
 

VISTING OCTOBER GALLERY

Bloomsbury, London

October Gallery has been instrumental in bringing to worldwide attention many of the world’s leading international artists, including El Anatsui, Rachid Koraïchi, Romuald Hazoumè, Nnenna Okore, Laila Shawa and Kenji Yoshida. The Gallery promotes the Transvangarde, the very best in contemporary art from around the planet, as well as maintaining a cultural hub in central London for poets, writers, intellectuals and artists, and hosts talks, performances and seminars, see www.octobergallery.co.uk/events

The rich diversity of art presented is an inspiration to collectors and enthusiasts. Institutions such as the British Museum, London; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf, Germany; Neue Galerie, Kassel, Germany; Setagagya Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan have all collected works from October Gallery.

Founded in 1979, October Gallery is a charitable trust which is supported by sales of art, rental of the Gallery's unique facilities, grants from various funding bodies and the active support of dedicated artists, musicians, writers and many friends from around the world. The Gallery’s Education Department is inclusive of all ages from under 5’s to PGCE student and delivers a wide range of provision, see www.octobergalleryeducation.com

October Gallery is open from 12:30 to 17:30 pm, Tuesday to Saturday.
The Gallery is closed during official holidays and the entire month of August.



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