The exhibition “World and Scenes” brings together the works of Sarah Gilbert and Jérémie Magar, two artists presenting the last iteration of their respective lifelong exploration of painting.

The association of Sarah and Jérémie’s practices follows both a conceptual and an affective logic. At the heart of it is a long-standing friendship between the two artists who have decided to present the latest and most successful iteration of their painting practice as a dialogue.

“The task of life is to make all repetitions coexist in a space where difference is distributed.” says philosopher Gilles Deleuze. “World and Scenes” becomes the materialisation of this distribution, staging the artists’ similar endeavours to transform repetition as a means to free their painting practices.

After a decade-long accumulation of clothes, objects, and discarded boards, alongside growing frustrations with representational painting, Jérémie decided not to purchase any new art materials until everything he owned had been used, guided by Donna Haraway’s mantra: “Stay with the trouble”. Reworking the same materials day after day helped him to better understand their inner logic making them appear using simple structures, elemental shapes, monochromes, minimal joinery, etc. reclaiming the spatial dimension of painting.

In her artistic process, Sarah Gilbert creates small scenes, intimate theatres where characters and modular elements come together to evoke a layered interplay of emotions. Before painting, the artist carefully designs the scenes using digital tools providing the core foundation and structures, while allowing for unexpected developments when moving onto the canvas.

Sarah’s inspirations from Kabuki Japanese theatre to the curated realities of social media, the physical intensity of sports, the immersive worlds of video games are wide-ranging. All these heterogeneous references inform her compositions, helping her craft scenes that capture fleeting yet powerful emotions.

Private View: 8th May 6-9pm