<strong>Romuald Hazoumè</strong>, <em>Mon Gouvernement</em>, 1997. Found objects, varied dimensions.

TRANSVANGARDE NOW

3 March – 30 April 2011
Brion Gysin, Untitled, 1959.
Coloured inks on paper, 65 x 50 cm.
Signed with rare form of artist's signature.
strong>Kenji Yoshida, La Vie, 2008.
Oil and metals on canvas, 81 x 100 cm.

October Gallery is the first gallery in the UK to promote the trans-cultural avant-garde, and represents acclaimed artists from around the world. ‘Transvangarde Now’, will exhibit works from Japan, China, North America, Africa and the Middle East. This spring exhibition is a truly international look at art for a new decade.

ROMUALD HAZOUMÈ (Benin) lives and works in the Republic of Benin. Hazoumè’s work first came to prominence in the U.K. with the inclusion of his witty, tongue-in-cheek “masks” in the Saatchi Gallery’s “Out of Africa” show in 1992. Hazoumè’s outstanding installation, “Dream,” was the most recent recipient of the Arnold Bode Prize at documenta 12 – making him the first-ever African contemporary artist to be awarded this prestigious prize. He opened a new exhibition of works at the Irish Museum of Modern Art in February, 2011.

GOLNAZ FATHI (Iran) lives and works in Tehran. She creates astonishing compositions and installations using various media: acrylic on canvas, pen on paper, light boxes, silk and wool. Golnaz finds inspiration in poetry and in present day Iran. Taking mastery of traditional calligraphy as the departure point for her work, she transforms it into the realm of the contemporary and the personal, releasing ‘that within myself which cannot be put into words’.

KENJI YOSHIDA (Japan): Yoshida's marvellous canvases can be construed as momentary apperceptions of reality, unique intuitions made manifest by the power of the artist's vision, glimpses that allow his audience access to a serene beauty.
He was the first living artist ever to be given a solo exhibition at the Japanese Galleries of the British Museum.

RACHID KORAÏCHI (Algeria): Koraïchi works with many media, including ceramics, textiles, poetry, calligraphy, and paint. Born to a Sufi family in Ain Beida, Algeria, his work is intimately informed by the numerology, signs and ethos of Sufi mysticism. He has participated in many international exhibitions and his work is included in several major private and public collections worldwide.

HUANG XU (China): Chinese artist Huang XU’s ethereal oversize C- type prints explore the fragile nature of contemporary global economy. The tattered remains of plastic bags are collected and digitally remodelled in 3D scanners normally used by archaeologists, to produce images of haunting luminosity.  Evoking the aesthetic of the sublime, Huang Xu’s vast prints capture free-frame shots of decay in a maelstrom of economic change.

GOVINDA SAH 'AZAD' Nepalese artist, Govinda Sah’s acrylic paintings are based on fantastical cloud formations and tumultuous skies, which he depicts through large explosive canvases.  He explores the transcription of molecules and the mystery of how nothing becomes something.

BRION GYSIN (UK): Gysin had a lifelong fascination with the juncture of word and image. He studied Japanese and Arabic calligraphy, and evolved his own style of word/image glyphs, supple as flames or tendrils of smoke. Gysin introduced his lifelong friend, writer William S. Burroughs, to the techniques of "cut-ups" and "permutation". Together, they experimented in sound and image, using collage, tape recorders, light painting, writing and film.

WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS (USA) Burroughs is best known as a primary member of the Beat Generation. His ‘non-linear’ techniques has influenced future generations of artists and writers. Burroughs also developed a painting technique whereby he created abstract compositions by placing spray paint cans in front of, and some distance from, blank canvases, and then shot at the paint cans with a shotgun.

OWUSU–ANKOMAH (Ghana) Owusu-Ankomah’s canvases employ geographically and historically diverse visual references, from Saharan rock painting and Italian Renaissance sculpture, to Ghanaian textile designs, Chinese calligraphy, New York graffiti and capoeira martial arts from Brazil.

 

Works in Exhibition


OCTOBER GALLERY ARTISTS