<h2> TRANSVANGARDE: LUMINOUS MATTER<br> 10 April - 17 May 2025 </h2> <strong>Xu Zhongmin</strong>, <em>Egg shape A Silver, Egg shape B Red, Egg shape E Black</em>, 2024<h2> AUBREY WILLIAMS: ELEMENTAL FORCE<br> 22 May - 26 July 2025 </h2> <em>Quartet No 5, opus 92</em> (<em>Shostakovich</em> series - detail)</em>, 1981. Oil on canvas, 132 x 208 cm.<h2> TRANSVANGARDE: LUMINOUS MATTER<br> 10 April - 17 May 2025 </h2> <strong>Xu Zhongmin</strong>, <em>Egg shape B Red</em>, 2024.<h2> TRANSVANGARDE: LUMINOUS MATTER<br> 10 April - 17 May 2025 </h2> <strong>Huang Xu</strong>, <em>Flower No.2 (Chrysanthemum)</em>, 2011.<br> Giclee print, 120 x 120 cm.<h2> EDDY KAMUANGA ILUNGA<br> EDITION PRINTS AVAILABLE IN OUR STORE </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.<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

TRANSVANGARDE: Luminous Matter

10 April – 17 May 2025
Xu Zhongmin , Egg shape B Red , 2024.
Stainless steel, acrylic, aluminium disc, mechanical transmission, LED, PE resin, alloy, 62 x 40 x 40 cm.
Huang Xu, Flower No.2 (Chrysanthemum), 2011.
Giclee print, 120 x 120 cm.
October Gallery presents Transvangarde: Luminous Matter, an exhibition that investigates the diverse outcomes of a meditative approach to artistic practice. Each of the artists presented was raised in the vitally different milieux of the near and far east. Each brings a fresh perspective to illuminate their experience of the world, as underpinned and enriched by the cultural and philosophical predispositions of places far beyond the western pale.

Central to this theme of interactiv e exchange between worldsare fascinating new works by the Chinese artist, Xu Zhongmin . His most recent Egg Series are dynamic sculptures which radiate with a bewitching luminescence that plays with and challenges the spectators’ understanding of just what it is they are seeing.

Other highlights include ethereal paintings of Kenji Yoshida that consist of gold, silver and precious metals on painted canvases, while paintings by Govinda Sah ‘Azad are reinforced by his fascination with the indeterminate matter of clouds which allows him to meditate upon the more spiritual aspects of Nature.

Renowned for his monochromatic canvases in striking colours, Tian Wei explores the plasticity of the written word and its associated fluidity of meaning. Golnaz Fathi ’s works are paintings with an instinctively bold abstraction informed by her former rigorous training in calligraphy, expressing emotions on canvas that go far beyond the realm of simple words.

Jukhee Kwon creates works from abandoned and disused books. Recently, Kwon has begun working with traditional Korean techniques of folding paper , (jong-i jeobgi) in which a painstakingly precise, almost meditative concentration, is required to fold pages. Also exhibited are arresting large-scale photographic works by Huang Xu from his Flower Series . By using high resolution 3D scanners, he creates subtle effects by compressing the superabundant data down to produce images of haunting luminosity.

*Please note*
Viewers who are photosensitive should be aware that some of the works contain flashing lights.

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FORTHCOMING EXHIBITION

AUBREY WILLIAMS: Elemental Force

22 May – 26 July 2025
Aubrey Williams, Towakaima I, 1965.
Edition of 6, Giclee print, 120 x 120 cm.
Oil on canvas, 122 x 153 cm.
© Estate of Aubrey Williams.
© Estate of Aubrey Williams.
Aubrey Williams, Quartet No 5, opus 92 (Shostakovich series), 1981.
Oil on canvas, 132 x 208 cm.
© Estate of Aubrey Williams.
October Gallery presents a solo exhibition by Aubrey Williams, comprising a selection of significant paintings, spanning the decades between the 1960s and 1980s. This exhibition explores Williams’ painterly techniques, investigating his highly individual approach.

Williams’ work can be viewed as a uniquely evolved expression of abstraction and a powerful contribution to post-war art. In displaying his intuitive grasp of the possibilities open to abstraction, these striking works deploy an entirely original use of colour. The range of paintings underline the breadth of Williams’ interests: ecology, cosmology, music and pre-colonial civilisations.

As the art critic and curator, Mel Gooding noted, ‘These effects of natural dynamics persist in Williams’ work in such a way as to become a characteristic expressive trope that is so utterly personal as to be signature.’ 

Aubrey Williams' distinctive contribution to 20th century British art is now recognised by his increasing prominence in significant international exhibitions. Tate Britain dedicated a room to works by this master of abstraction in their rehang of meaningful examples of British art in 2023 – 2024. Following The Earth Will Open Its Mouth, at the Museum Sztuki in Lodz, Poland, placing Williams’ canvases as a revelatory counterweight to Erna Rosenstein’s surrealist, impressionist art, a major exhibition, Feeling Color: Aubrey Williams and Frank Bowling has recently opened at The Modern Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas, in the United States.  

Last year, Paul Mellon Centre published Aubrey Williams: Art, Histories, Futures, the first major monograph on pioneering modernist Aubrey Williams.

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RECENT EXHIBITIONS

WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS

6 March – 5 April 2025
William S. Burroughs, Burn Unit, 1987.
Paint on Arches paper. 76.2 x 58.4 cm.
© Estate of William S. Burroughs.
© Estate of William S. Burroughs.
William S. Burroughs, The Old Assassin, 1989.
Mixed Media on board, 50.5 x 76.5 cm.
© Estate of William S. Burroughs.
October Gallery presents William S. Burroughs, a solo exhibition of rarely seen works which features paintings and drawings created from a variety of materials. From spray paint, ink and acrylic to markers and gunshots, Burroughs' art is an expedition, identifying portals to unknown worlds and intelligences. His way of seeing is as a creative observer of states of mind. “The pictures constantly change because you are drawn into time travel on a network of associations.” For Burroughs, everything is alive, and his artwork explores this idea, as he did through words in his genre-bending writings. He belongs to no school of art; what he paints expands on the work he has developed throughout his career, in words, multimedia experiments and image-making. 

Now one hundred and eleven years since William S. Burroughs’ birth, the exhibitionhighlights the personal intelligence of his work.

Burroughs was a prolific writer. He also practiced visual art throughout his life. For decades he produced photographs, collages and films. In multimedia collaborations with Brion Gysin, they pioneered incisive tools - ‘cut-ups’- to deconstruct mechanisms of institutionalized control systems that corrupt inborn intelligence. On the death of Gysin in 1986, he became a painter. In 1987, he began painting every day. October Gallery first mounted an exhibition of his art the year after, in 1988. Although his literature had been censored in Britain, he lived in London during the late 1960’s and early ‘70s, making strong connections with many noteworthy figures of the British art scene such as Francis Bacon. References to Burroughs’ works and creative practice are now deeply embedded in Western culture, from painting to film to advertising to literature to journalism to music. His 1952 novel, Queer, is the foundation of Luca Guadagnino’s current film of the same name, starring Daniel Craig.

October Gallery is thrilled to announce a series of insightful events including film screenings with Q&As and gallery talks that will accompany the forthcoming exhibition William S. Burroughs. Presented by those who were influenced by his work or knew and collaborated with Burroughs, the series begins with a Gallery Talk on 8th March and continues until 5th April, 2025. For the full programme see our Events Page
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Material Sensibilities

30 January – 1 March 2025
Gaia Ozwyn, To be Sure of Anything (to be sure of its end), 2024.
Oil and concrete on linen canvas.
Xanthe Somers, Weaver's Woe, 2024.
Glazed stoneware, 57 × 50 × 50 cm.

October Gallery presents Material Sensibilities, an exhibition of vital and challenging works by Nnenna Okore, Naomi Wanjiku Gakunga, Susanne Kessler, LR Vandy, Jukhee Kwon, Sokari Douglas Camp and Sylvie Franquet, which explore the liminal boundaries of creative materiality, alongside new works by Xanthe Somers, Theresa Weber, Gaia Ozwyn and Khadija Jayi.

Material Sensibilities brings together sculptures, ceramics and paintings. Deploying a multitude of processes: cut, weave, burn, paste, rip, pin and embed, each piece invites the viewer to contemplate the dynamic dance between materiality and the artist’s hand.


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