Exhibition
Evolution: Tam Joseph Paintings
3 Oct 2020 – 15 Nov 2020
Regular hours
- Saturday
- 12:00 – 15:00
- Sunday
- 12:00 – 15:00
- Wednesday
- 11:00 – 18:00
- Thursday
- 11:00 – 18:00
- Friday
- 11:00 – 18:00
Address
- 71 St. Mary's Road
- London
England - W5 5RG
- United Kingdom
Travel Information
- 65
- Ealing Broadway & South Ealing
- Ealing Broadway
(Extended through to 15 November) This is Tam Joseph’s first solo exhibition in London for many years.
About
Tam Joseph’s new exhibition, Evolution, sees the artist presenting a body of work that decisively reflects the astonishing directions his work has continued to take over the past decades. Though his work has always been varied in both its subject matter and form, it is perhaps his paintings with an explicit social content – such as Spirit of the Carnival – for which Tam Joseph has been particularly celebrated and recognised. Evolution demonstrates an ever-increasing maturity on the part of the artist and this selection of work is delightfully original and decidedly unexpected in its form and content. With its multiple references to art history, popular culture, the continued relevance and influence of US music, and manifestations of diaspora, identity, and history, Evolution represents an important opportunity for audiences to familiarise or refamiliarise themselves with the work of Joseph.
One of the centrepieces of the exhibition is sure to be Joseph’s remarkable sampling of, and homage to, Frans Hals’ celebrated and much-loved 17th century Baroque masterpiece, The Laughing Cavalier. It is a measure of the wit, imagination, and creativity of Joseph that he so successfully reinterprets a painting from four centuries ago, with his Laughing Legend with Stratocaster. The reincarnation of The Laughing Cavalier as Jimi Hendrix, his flamboyant clothing, self-assured, but decidedly sensitive bearing depicted with a singular painterly sophistication by Joseph. Another one of his paintings, King of Kings sees Joseph paying homage to another one of his musical heroes, Nat ‘King’ Cole, with so much of his portrait steeped in new ways of seeing the great American singer. Evolution bears witness to Joseph’s remarkable and characteristic ability to derive his ideas, interests, and artistic style from a broad and diverse range of sources. More than anything, as the exhibition title itself suggests, here is an artist whose practices are forever evolving.