Harbinger of a sweet song

About the exhibition

More than a year after life started to evaporate suddenly and magically, yielding its place to sets of entirely different daily routines that would bind us excruciatingly for what seemed like eternity, we are finally about to see a light at the end of the tunnel. Works of two young artists reflect this newly budding confidence that we have so desperately longed for; Farnaz Gholami's paintings leave us a promise despite its melancholic views, and Alexandra Searle's uncanny sculpture casts hope for what is to come under impossible circumstances.

Gholami's paintings are essentially psychological, above all, of anticipation. The artist infuses the sense of absence to her paintings, not laden with despair or regret, but matter-of-factly, which propels the audience to ponder what is in store. The want which could be destabilising to a certain degree, eventually calls us to remember that what we see is not the culmination of the story, but there is a 'beyond.’

Inspired from found images, such as photos from magazines or family albums and from stories old and new, the young artist constructs her own images with her imagination with a firm anchor to reflect her own personality and life. They invite us to a time and place where we have never been, yet they make us feel that we know it from somewhere, sometime, allowing us to project our own experience and inner dreams.

Alexandra Searle's sculpture may strike as unsettling at first with its visual grip of intuitively impossible equilibrium, unexpected posture, or puzzling but curiously intriguing look that is in between organic and inorganic or real and surreal. It is the underlining lightness of physical as well as psychological with which Searles never fails to infuse her objects, that eases the tension and make the oeuvre complex with two antagonistic vectors.

Despite technical intricacies and strict discipline called for, Searle's objects transpire the pleasure of creation. A vast array of media, often flamboyant colours, and technical limits that must have been tried in order to execute the most extreme possible, project the joy of discretion and freedom of creation. Her sculptures channel the untold, which we all wish to believe, that life could be enjoyable, fun, and manageable.

Farnaz Gholami

Lives and works in London. Gholami is a recipient of the MAFA in Fine Art Painting, the Slade School of Fine Art (2019) and the Graduate Diploma in Fine Art, the Chelsea College of Arts (2017), and Post-Baccalaureate, Brandeis University, MA, USA (2013).

Gholami was shortlisted for the Bloomberg New Contemporaries (2019) and was a runner up for the Tiffany & Co. Outset Studio Makers Award (2019).

Recent selected exhibitions include: 'Echo, eco, Co, O, Heck!', Proposition Gallery, London (2021), 'Squeezed' and 'Group Show', Karen Tronel Gallery, London (2020), 'Gestura', The Koppel Project (London), 'Graduate Art Prize 2019 Shortlist Exhibition', Art and Herbert Smith Freehills (London), 'But We Don't Leave Pyramids', Charsoo Gallery, Teheran, Iran (2019), 'Home', Jordan Gallery, Teheran, Iran, 'The Field', ASC Gallery, London (2018).

Alexandra Searle

Lives and works in London. She obtained the MFA Fine Art Sculpture, the Slade School of Fine Art (2019) and the BA Fine Art, Newcastle University (2015).

Searle is a recipient of the 2021 Glass Lab Scholarship at The Glass Foundry, Stroud, Henriques Scholarship Prize, 2019, and she was a finalist of the 2020 Ingram Collection Prize.

Recent selected exhibitions include: 'Mythologies', Neon Gallery, London (2021), 'After Hours', Bowes-Parris Gallery, London (2020), 'Gestura' The Koppel Project, London (2019), 'Summer Exhibition', Royal Academy of Arts, London, 'BBA Artist Prize' BBA Gallery, Berlin (2018), 'Chance & Happenstance' Lily Brooke Gallery, London (2017).