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EDDY KAMUANGA ILUNGA: Nature Morte<br>
14 November, 2024 – 25 January, 2025
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EDDY KAMUANGA ILUNGA: Nature Morte<br>
14 November, 2024 – 25 January, 2025
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<h2>
EDDY KAMUANGA ILUNGA: Nature Morte<br>
14 November, 2024 – 25 January, 2025
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<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.<h2>EDDY KAMUANGA ILLUNGA<br>Available from our Book Store, £45.95 + P&P</h2>248 pages, 200 full colour plates throughout. Published by Rizzoli.
 

CURRENT EXHIBITION

14 November, 2024 – 25 January, 2025
Eddy Kamuanga Ilunga, Energie red (Red Energy), 2024. Acrylic on canvas. 188 cm x 203 cm.
Eddy Kamuanga Ilunga, Ces êtres à part (Those Other People), 2024. Oil and acrylic on canvas, 180 x 207 cm.
October Gallery presents Nature Morte, a new solo exhibition by Eddy Kamuanga Ilunga, one of the most exciting contemporary artists from the Democratic Republic of Congo. In Kamuanga’s fourth solo show at October Gallery, his striking paintings explore the hidden consequences of the toxic waste-matter that is poisoning the environment upon which local Congolese communities are dependent for survival and the basic necessities of life.

This latest series is a masterful blend of storytelling and symbolism, where each canvas helps to develop a shared narrative that uncovers a distinctly modern predicament. The almost surreal drama playing out before our eyes brings DRC’s traumatic history of exploitation by foreign powers right up to the present moment. The artist’s attention has moved beyond the horrific histories of Belgian colonial control to the contemporary situation where the neo-colonial powers have once again asserted control over the lives of ordinary Congolese people. To fulfil the insatiable demands of the computer industry and “green” battery production facilities, international companies are currently engaged in the rapid extraction of the Congo’s rich mineral resources, in particularly cobalt, copper, and coltan.

For many years, disturbing reports of deforestation, land pollution by wastewater spillages, contamination of drinking water and the restriction of local populations’ movements have become increasingly common. The harmful impacts of industrial mining processes on food production, human health and local biodiversity have been well-documented, particularly in Katanga in the Central part of the DRC, to where Kamuanga’s father and mother both trace their origins.

The paintings detail the awful cost in human life that our incessant demands for modern technology impose upon the unseen victims caught up in the consequences of industrial scale mining that takes little account of environmental destruction and human degradation. Burdened by the crushing weight of history, Kamuanga’s iconic figures bear the scars of a nation struggling to navigate the treacherous waters of neo-colonial exploitation, together with the erosion of a cultural heritage incapable of protecting the natural environment that, previously, had nurtured and sustained it.
 

 

RECENT EXHIBITIONS

3 October – 9 November 2024
Alexis Peskine, Sé & Jↄtↄ, 2024.
White and black paint, archival varnish,
Mint, basil, lithopone white pigment, lacquer paint, 24 carat gold leaf and nails on wood, 360 x 113 cm.
Alexis Peskine, Kékéréké, 2024.
White and black paint, archival varnish, 24k gold leaf and nails on wood, 150 x 110 cm.
October Gallery presents Forest Figures, a much-anticipated solo exhibition of new works by Alexis Peskine. This, the artist’s third show at October Gallery, will intersect with the 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair, taking place at Somerset House, in London, from 10th – 13th October.

Forest Figures delves into the rich, healing powers inherent in ancestral African spirituality; exploring deeper aspects of interiorised abundance and wellbeing found amongst the individual figures he portrays to represent the diversity of the African diaspora. Peskine’s large-scale mixed media ‘portraits’ are rendered by hammering nails of different gauge, with pin-point accuracy, into wooden ‘canvases’. Inspired by Afro-Brazilian spirituality, Peskine draws upon attributes and aspects of the Orishas – or spirits – which act as a conceptual framework underpinning these recent works.

Peskine’s new works show an expansion of his creative process, employing the natural forms of tree trunks, leaf patterns and shells. Some of these works adopt the form and white colour of the cowrie shell – an integral part of the iFá divination ritual – symbolising the prophetic ‘mouth of the Orisha’. Although considered a spiritual object, the cowrie has many historical links to trade and currency. White is also a colour traditionally linked to peace, spiritual cleansing and renewal. Various aspects of Peskine’s sustained investigation of the Black Experience can be seen in his selection of materials and colours: for instance, his use of Indigo pigment is a direct reference to its production by enslaved Caribbean labourers.

Based in Paris, Peskine continues to pursue various artist residencies around the world, most recently in Brazil and Cameroon. His sensitive portraits of the people he meets inform the rich diversity of subjects adorning his sculptural pieces. Peskine’s acute observations of people from many places and all walks of life have led him to the conclusion that today, more than ever, we live in a time that requires us to come together in ‘oneness’.
 
5 – 28 September 2024
LR Vandy, Resistance, 2024.
Manilla rope, wood and metal 128.6 x 32 x 29 cm.
Golnaz Fathi, When the rain comes we can be thankful, 2021.
Acrylic, ink and spray paint on canvas 170 x 130 cm.
October Gallery presents Vital Force, an exhibition that includes striking works by El Anatsui, Kenji Yoshida, LR Vandy, Romuald Hazoumè, Golnaz Fathi, Jukhee Kwon, William S. Burroughs, Brion Gysin, Govinda Sah ‘Azad’ and Elisabeth Lalouschek amongst others. Vital Force gives space for the innate energies of each unique artwork to manifest before bringing them together in a powerful drama of luminous interactive forms.

Highlights include Kenji Yoshida’s magnificent large-scale work, La Vie (Life), 1993, which employs an elliptical language of coloured forms rendered in gold and silver leaf. This extraordinary piece marries modernist abstraction with the delicate gilding techniques of Japanese tradition. This large-scale panelled work will be juxtaposed with a shimmering wall-hanging by El Anatsui. Created from recycled bottle-tops, intricately stitched together, the work will be hung in such a way as to allow the viewer to explore the range and composition of colours on both sides of the mesmerising metallic installation.

Romuald Hazoumè will be represented by one of his signature masks. These provocative works, assembled from found objects, operate as impromptu portraits of individuals, highlighting the artist’s astute social commentary. Adopting the ubiquitous plastic petrol cannister as his iconic signature, Hazoumè’s work is deeply rooted in the political and cultural context of Benin and its interactions with the wider globalised world beyond. Taken from her Hulls series, LR Vandy’s Resistance is an impressive large-scale wooden work that incorporates manilla rope tied into knots set delicately into its frame. These knots evoke the clenched fist, a symbolic nod to the Black power salute, the feminist movement of the 80s and the braided African hairstyle of Bantu Knots. Vandy’s use of hulls and knotted rope allude to the complex histories of transatlantic trade, and, more specifically, to the transport of migrants as commodities.

Jukhee Kwon creates her intricate sculptures out of unused and abandoned books. By skilful slicing and cutting, she transforms these tomes into sculptures bursting from the books’ spines, streaming out in cascading waterfalls, to explore ambient surface areas. While Govinda Sah’s latest canvas comprises subtly interwoven layers of acrylic marks and traces. Sah is fascinated by the universes within and beyond our earth-bound vision. Similarly, Iranian artist Golnaz Fathi’s bold gestural work, When the rain comes, we can be thankful, 2021, presents interwoven layers of enigmatic meanings.

Also on display will be Nierica - Caressed By Fire, a vibrant work by Elisabeth Lalouschek painted in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Lost to sight for thirty years, the painting will be shown for the first time since 1990. Finally, ink and spray paint works by artist and author, William S. Burroughs, are exhibited in conversation with longtime collaborator and fellow artist Brion Gysin’s work De la Cité des Arts..., an abstract ink on paper, depicting the artist’s unique perspective from the window from which his studio overlooked the Ile Saint Louis in Paris.