No.9 Cork Street: Autumn/Winter 2022

Autumn/Winter 2022 programme at No.9 Cork Street opens on 8 September with exhibitions from Kate MacGarry (London), Vanguard Gallery (Shanghai) and The Pit (Los Angeles, Palm Spring), running through 24 September 2022.

KATE MACGARRY

East London-based gallery Kate MacGarry presents a group exhibition TWENTY, in celebration of the gallery’s 20^th anniversary.

The exhibition brings together new and historical works by artists represented by the gallery, including the maquette of Antelope by Samson Kambalu for the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square, site-specific durational postal project by Peter Liversidge, JB Blunk’s iconic ceramic pieces from the 1970s, and Goshka Macuga’s monumental tapestry.

Full list of artists: Rana Begum, J Stoner Blackwell, The Estate of JB Blunk, Matt Bryans, Helen Cammock, Marcus Coates, Dr. Lakra, Rose Finn-Kelcey, Laura Gannon, Samson Kambalu, Peter Liversidge, Goshka Macuga, Peter McDonald, Florian Meisenberg, Bernard Piffaretti, Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard, Ben Rivers, Luke Rudolf, John Smith, Renee So, Patricia Treib, Francis Upritchard and B. Wurtz.

VANGUARD GALLERY

Shanghai-based Vanguard Gallery will present recent works by Kelvin Kyung Kun Park, Gresham Tapiwa Nyaude, Jin Haofan, and Lam Pok Yin in the group exhibition Unruly Paradigms.

Ranging from paintings, videos and virtual reality simulation, each artists are distinct in their own trajectories. Nyaude’s energetic and metaphoric images visualise the transmutation of identity and dignity, pressurised by social hierarchy and life struggles; while Jin ponders the metaphysical nature of life through his saturated depiction of the alienation and glitches of the mundane. Park contrasts the assimilation and performativeness in collective acts with the embodiment of an individual, while Lam conjures the ghost of human labour that haunts the blackbox of technology. 

THE PIT

Based in Los Angeles and Palm Springs, artist-run gallery The Pit presents The Pit Presents, an exhibition of artists represented by the gallery, mostly based in the West Coast, including Heather Day, Howard Fonda, Bella Foster, Erik Frydenborg, James Goss, Kelly Lynn Jones, Liz Markus, Anthony Miler, Devin Troy Strother, and Maryam Yousif. Originally the title The Pit Presents was given to a series of exhibitions of visiting galleries hosted at The Pit Los Angeles starting in 2018. The exhibition for No.9 Cork Street is curated in the spirit of the visiting gallery series, with The Pit representing works from its own program as a visiting gallery itself. The anti-conquest, salon-style exhibition shows new works by the artists across mediums, styles and themes, filled with bright colours, maximalism and excitement.

OCTOBER AT NO.9 CORK STREET

October opens with major solo shows of James Nares presented by Kasmin (New York), Zoë Paul by blank (Cape Town), and a group show of Karon Davis, Mustafa Ali Clayton, Michelle Blade and February James presented by Wilding Cran (Los Angeles). No.9 Cork Street will be open throughout Frieze week with a late-night opening during West End Night on Thursday 13th of October.

Presented on the ground-floor gallery space will be the first UK solo survey of London-born, New York-based conceptual artist James Nares, bringing together works across Nares’ five-decade career from the 1970s to the present. Across Nares’ five-decade career, the artist’s cross-disciplinary practice has investigated, challenged and expanded the boundaries between gesture, motion, and time.

Upstairs in Gallery 2 will be a solo presentation of Zoë Paul, titled Shadows over the bright and darkened lands of the earth, showing a series of three large-scale bead curtains made from handmade stoneware, terra cotta, and porcelain depicting the forms of three naked figures suspended in motion. The works were originally commissioned by MoMA for the Modern Window series, presented at the Museum from September 2020 until July 2021.

Meanwhile in Gallery 3, will be a selection of new works by Los Angeles-based artists Mustafa Ali Clayton, Michelle Blade, Karon Davis, and February James. Titled The Air Upon You, the exhibition brings each artist’s explorations of the figurative into dialogue with one another. At the heart of the exhibition, Karon Davis’s white plaster Lounging Nude no.1 serves as a guiding point, setting the stage for works by Blade, Clayton, and James.

No.9 Cork Street will host a number of events, talks and tours throughout Frieze Week in London.

BRAZILIAN MODERN DESIGN

From late October into early November, No.9 Cork Street will host a special pop-up show of Brazilian modern design by two Brazilian design professionals, Ulysses de Santi and Cecilia Tanure, shown for the first time in London. Based on their passion about the heritage of the designers of the 1950’s, 1960’s and early 1970’s, the show will open up a substantive dialogue about Brazilian Modern Design: namely that the beauty, importance and singularity of Brazilian design derives its strength from post-colonial times of natural resources, a mixing pot of European, Japanese and Arab immigrants and a balance between rapid industrialisation and a profound respect for the handmade tradition. 

NOVEMBER AT NO.9 CORK STREET

Through November, No.9 Cork Street will host solo presentations of Mark Yang from Various Small Fires (Los Angeles, Seoul), Nedia Were from Ross-Sutton Gallery (New York), and Vanessa Baird from OSL Contemporary (Oslo).

Mark Yang's paintings concern how we entwine, interact with, and read other human beings, using the human figure as a conceptual off-ramp, while Nedia Were's signature style paintings show the artist's unique interpretation and experimental play on old master pieces such as Ruben's The Tree Graces and Botticelli's The Birth of Venus. As one of the most distinct voices in Norwegian contemporary art, Vanessa Baird's presentation includes new works on paper, both large and small, made in pastel and watercolour. Baird's work is storytelling of a kind, taking reference from the artist's own personal experience as well as inspirations from Scandinavian folklore and literature.

DECEMBER: CONTEMPORARY KOREAN ARTISTS

The 2022 programme at No.9 Cork Street concludes with a major presentation from Barakat Contemporary (Seoul) of three pioneering artists who are actively shaping the discourse around Korean contemporary art since the 1990s to present: Yunchul Kim, Chung Seoyoung, and Sojung Jun.

Presented as three distinctive solo exhibitions, the ground floor will show works by Yunchul Kim, who explores the artistic potential of the "world of materials" by incorporating novel materials created by the artist himself. Upstairs will be exhibitions of Chung Seoyoung, a key figure of the Korean contemporary art scene since the 1990s, whose sculptures reflect on the language-object relationship and the multiplicity of sculptural practice by transforming commonly found industrial materials into artworks. Adjacent to Chung will be a presentation of Sojung Jun, whose video and writing works are situated in nonlinear space-time, awakening a new awareness of history and the present - often paying attention to the unheard voices in the periphery of society.

To keep up to date on all the latest news from Frieze, sign up to our newsletter at frieze.com, and follow @friezeofficial on Instagram, Twitter and Frieze Official on Facebook.