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Material Sensibilities<br>
30 January – 1 March 2025
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<strong>Khadija Jayi</strong>, <em>VOLCAN</em>, 2019.<br>
Burned paper and plexi glass, 24 x 24 x 10.5 cm.<h2>
Material Sensibilities<br>
30 January – 1 March 2025
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<strong>Gaia Ozwyn</strong>, <em>To be Sure of Anything (to be sure of its end)</em>, 2024.<br>
Oil and concrete on linen canvas.<h2>
EDDY KAMUANGA ILUNGA<br>
EDITION PRINTS AVAILABLE IN OUR STORE
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William S. Burroughs<br>
6 March - 5 April 2025
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<strong>William S. Burroughs</strong>  <em>Crazy Man</em>, 1988.<br>Paint on cardboard, 83.8 x 53.3 cm.<br>
© Estate of William S. Burroughs.<h2>
William S. Burroughs<br>
6 March - 5 April 2025
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<strong>William S. Burroughs</strong>  <em>Burn Unit</em>, 1987.<br>Paint on Arches paper. 58.4 x 76.2 cm.<br>
© Estate of William S. Burroughs.<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

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.

 

FORTHCOMING EXHIBITION

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.
 

 

RECENT EXHIBITIONS

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.
 
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’.