NINE ARTISTS

STEVENSON presents Nine Artists, a simultaneous presentation of exhibitions by Marvin Luvualu Antonio, Iman Issa, Peterson Kamwathi, Matthew Alexander King, Mame-Diarra Niang, Thierry Oussou, Zakara Raitt, Paul Mpagi Sepuya, and Ephrem Solomon. Marvin Luvualu Antonio's (Toronto, b.1986) Trash Talks explores relationships between the artist's studio and the everyday. In constructing this installation, composed from found objects and discarded matter, Antonio seeks to reconcile the complexities of contemporary excess in relation to his own sense of self. Iman Issa's (Cairo/New York, b.1979) The Revolutionary is a sound installation describing the attributes of a fictional protagonist. Made using text-to-speech software, the audio loop creates a circular and infinite narrative based on the artist's notions of 'the revolutionary'. Peterson Kamwathi's (Nairobi, b.1980) Monument to a Vessel is an installation of life-size hand-drawn figures holding placards, gathered together in protest. Kamwathi's work engages social behaviour, political ritual, and theatricality in contemporary Kenyan society. Matthew Alexander King's (Cape Town, b.1987) You Asked A Joke Question, But I Gave A Serious Answer, is a programme of scheduled performative gestures. Over the course of the exhibition King will perform a range of interventions that interact with the logic and structure of the exhibition and gallery environment. Mame-Diarra Niang's (Paris, b.1982) photographic series, At the Wall and Metropolis, map and explore optical and geometric abstraction in urban landscapes. The combination of these two bodies of work juxtaposes the inner cities of Dakar and Johannesburg, reducing distinct architecture to pure sculptural form, flat planes of colour, and ambiguous perspective. Thierry Oussou's (Amsterdam/Allada (Benin), b.1988) painting and drawing installation, Trace Series, creates a space for the ritual contemplation of other realms, and refers to the related sense of disconnect created by modernization in Benin. Zakara Raitt's (Johannesburg, b.1991) In-between consists of structural interventions dividing the gallery's internal spaces into a maze-like network of cardboard walls and sculptures, reflecting Raitt's interest in the built environment and its obstruction. Paul Mpagi Sepuya's (Los Angeles, b.1982) Figure / Ground Studies is a selection of intimate studio photographs. Using a mirror to create an analogue photographic collage, Sepuya constructs a matrix of visual relationships between figuration, studio debris, and the camera itself. Ephrem Solomon's (Addis Ababa, b.1983) Folk Memory is a series of painted and collaged woodcut panels. Trained as a printmaker, Solomon carves his images into the surface, revealing the gouges and marks of production, to make portraits intensified by colour and pattern. The exhibitions open on Thursday 4 June 2015, 6 to 8pm. http://stevenson.info