Last night, I had the opportunity to attend a private viewing of one of the latest, and most talked-about, exhibits at the Saatchi Gallery in London: Paper. If you happen to be in or around London for the next couple of months, this is definitely worth a visit.
The exhibition features pieces from 43 artists whose work ranges from drawing and painting to collage and sculpture. Paper is the medium that links them all.
Spread over three floors, the artists play with different textures and forms of paper, utilising its qualities as a material, and together they have assembled an impressive array of installations – some, very eye-catching, produced to truly magnificent proportions:
Having said that, there were absolute knock-outs in the more seemingly understated works too. Eric Manigaud‘s heart-wrenching drawings were probably my top pick in this category. A selection of life-size drawings of images taken from the State Care and Medical Facility in Weilmünster, in which physically and mentally ill Jewish patients were forcibly sterilised or starved under the Nazis:
Another top pick, this time of inspirational nature: whereas I couldn’t see myself ever being able to produce anything remotely similar to most of the pieces I had in front of me, Nina Katchadourian’s fun self portraits, Paul Westcombe‘s paper cups and Tal R‘s intricate doodles did, for a second, feel so familiar that I even dared to think ‘Yes, I do this too! I also doodle when I’m bored!’
Needless to say, my very momentary self-glorifying aspirational thought didn’t quite account for the differences in skill between the artists and yours truly:
So much could be said about this beautiful and surprising exhibition (in fact, lots seems to have been said about it already), but the best summary for me should be, simply, just go to see it if you can!
—————————————————————
PS – Yes. I did have a favourite.
I couldn’t help but LOVE Yuken Teruya‘s delicate paper bag trees. If I wasn’t the proud owner of a slightly overweight cat that loves her siestas in paper surfaces, I would have by now attempted to be the proud owner of one of these instead …
