Sorcha Dallas

In continuing her Gallery’s international program, Sorcha Dallas has invited New York gallerist Anke Kempkes from Broadway 1602 to curate the work of eight artists: Agnieszka Brezezanska, Friederike Clever, Ryan Doolan, Michael Hakimi, Edwin La Liq, Nicj Mauss, Ana Mendieta and Seth Price. Dallas will be exhibiting the work of Alex Frost, Sophie Macpherson, Alex Pollard, Claire Stephenson, Henry Coombes and Gary Rough in the NY space in late June.

Inevitably, the press release to accompany this local manifestation of the exchange does little to explain or introduce the work. No uniting theme is given to offer admittance or insight into the workings of this cabal, but the concluding over-reaching sentence sets a high standard. Indeed, we are told that this work will be ‘an introduction to an alternative realm of expression’. We shall see.

What we can glean from the statement of intent, and guess from the title of the show, is that the works will examine those exhilarating moment when the private becomes public, the psychical and physical preparations that are made before bursting on the scene, already a legend. The exhibitors will make an exhibition of themselves in this sense, with the artworks as expressions of nerve, the jitters and the fa?ßade worn during the daily social performance. Brzezanska’s ‘Agony of Abstraction’ (pictured) examines some of these issues, where personal sensations and expression within the artwork rub up against each other, with figurative works by Doolan and La Liq examining the elegant art of posing and the care of the self.