South London Gallery: Upon this Rock, Rene Matić

Upon this Rock is an interrogation of British patriotism by London-based artist and poet Rene Matić. Reflecting on the oppressive and tumultuous lived experience of the Caribbean community since Windrush, Matić’s works rediscover the agency of ‘Britishness’ in alienation today.

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Taymour Grahne Projects: Lost Dreams, Nicky Nodjoumi

This month, Taymour Grahne Projects also brought us a solo show that “reslish[es] in the discomfort of beauty”, by NY-based artist Nicky Nodjoumi. Nodjoumi’s ambiguous landscapes welcome juxtapositions of liberation and authority, harmony and harm, to the arena of working, corporate, life- where perhaps the subject becomes the object.

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Gallery 1957: The Journey, Annan Affotey

Interpreting the Ghanaian ideology of ‘Sanfoka’, looking back to move forward, Affotey’s exhibition at Gallery 1957 intrigues upon themes of violence, internal turmoil, and external perception (or the act being perceived).

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Sadie Coles HQ: NDE, Georgia Gardner Gray

Structured around the sculpture of a wounded soldier, Gray’s showcase at Sadie Coles HQ parallels the psychological violence constituting the consumer to the physical violence tormenting the soldier at war. NDE (Near Death Experience), is an out-of-body exploration from the perspective and reflections of this soldier, of the everyday in urban consumer culture.

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Unit London: this time of monsters, Jeremy Olson

Dystopian, humorous and mythical, through ‘this time of monsters’ Olson reimagines Gramsci’s reflections on ‘interregnum’- the long transition between historical stages. Olson’s monsters, residing in this liminal state of in-betweeness, and most importantly uncertainty, is an enigmatic parody of the confusion in our current history, whilst reminding us that with lightheartedness, there is a sense of hope.

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