JOSEPHINE KING:
on view through June and July
Josephine King (b.1965 London) makes ink-paintings on paper - a flat 'cut out and keep' portrait framing text which documents the often traumatic experience of the artist's life.
Her second Riflemaker exhibition, upcoming in March, is entitled
'I told him I was an artist. He said "can you cook ?" '
"They seem to me to be totally truthful pictures, from the heart. Many people will identify with these images" Paula Rego
"In painting Modern Woman, I am looking outside of myself rather than just looking within.
Showing myself naked in both mind and body depicts how it feels for me to be going against the grain of society. As a woman painter, I have nothing to lose"
Josephine King
Click to open press release.
Click here for hi-res images
THE OBSERVER - THE NEW REVIEW - SEPTEMBER 2012
Installation View
JOSEPHINE KING
'LIFE SO FAR'
Monday 13 September - Saturday 30 October
Click to download Josephine King exhibition book
For press-use hi-res images
pls contact Theresa Simon Communications: 7-734-4800
www.theresasimon.com
The subject of the work is King's extreme bi-polar mania, an illness which has plagued her all her life leading to several suicide attempts, whilst at the same time providing her with the subject matter for her art. The painting style is intensely colourful, almost a kind of pop Fauvism, featuring the artist in a variety of starched and patterned clothing often holding a 'prop' - knife, pills, tube of paint - though the work, rather than appearing depressing in any way is intimate, inspiring - apparently optimistic.
It is clear from the syntax of the compositions that King has an innate faculty for and interest in design, the poster layout of the paintings likely to have been influenced by the working environment of her father (the designer and photographer David King), though 'Life so Far' also reveals an interest in heightened stylisation - from haute couture and classical Indian portraiture to Victoriana, Art Nouveau and the decorative arts.
The Riflemaker book to accompany the Josephine King exhibition features an from Adrian Dannatt, writer, curator and correspondent for the Art Newspaper.
LIFE SO FAR is co-curated by Virginia Damtsa and Tot Taylor with Adrian Dannatt.
For press-use hi-res images
pls contact Theresa Simon Communications: 7-734-4800
www.theresasimon.com
"This is a grim and terrible subject, and the fact that she has shown it as playful and child-like images make it more frightening. They seem to me to be totally truthful pictures, from the heart, and they frighten me. Brave girl. Many people will identify with these images"
Paula Rego.
The subject of the work is King's extreme bi-polar mania, an illness which has plagued her all her life leading to several suicide attempts, whilst at the same time providing her with the subject matter for her art. The painting style is intensely colourful, almost a kind of pop Fauvism, featuring the artist in a variety of starched and patterned clothing often holding a 'prop' - knife, pills, tube of paint - though the work, rather than appearing depressing in any way is intimate, inspiring - apparently optimistic.
It is clear from the syntax of the compositions that King has an innate faculty for and interest in design, the poster layout of the paintings likely to have been influenced by the working environment of her father (the designer and photographer David King), though 'Life so Far' also reveals an interest in heightened stylisation - from haute couture and classical Indian portraiture to Victoriana, Art Nouveau and the decorative arts.
The Riflemaker book to accompany the Josephine King exhibition features an from Adrian Dannatt, writer, curator and correspondent for the Art Newspaper.
LIFE SO FAR is co-curated by Virginia Damtsa and Tot Taylor with Adrian Dannatt.
Art can still sometimes be a revelation. The first ever exhibition of 'paper' paintings by Josephine King provides just such a shock. King (b.1965 London) has been making art all her life, studying at the prestigous Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam, but having resisted exhibiting these paintings until now, the work has the unmistakable punch of a discovery of true import.
Josephine King achieved success early on for her ceramics, being the only professional artist-in-residence at Lisbon’s renowned “azulejos” museum of tiles, a page review in Flash Art leading to global distribution for these beautiful objects.
But this was before the discovery of her extreme bi-polar mania which so unbalanced her life, almost ending it on several occasions, yet ironically providing the artist with the subject matter for her mature, breakthrough work being exhibited today.
Here the chromatic tones, dancing patterns and lightness of touch of her earlier decorative oeuvre is fused with altogether more bleak subject matter; the blackest melancolia, drug abuse and destructive relationships along with several suicide attempts.
But these troubles are not reflected in any initial appreciation of the work. The paintings are overtly, outrageously attractive with bright palette and dazzling textural and tonal variation, so attractive that only slowly do you come to realise their message of utter despair, a despair whose only redemption is in the making of art, the making of this art itself.
King grew up in the haute bohemia of late 1960s North London until moving while still a child to Amsterdam. As the daughter of the renowned designer, and collector of Soviet material David King (now with his own permanent room at Tate Modern ) and a dedicated mother, her mixed cultural background and subsequent world travelling led to her pushing the boundaries of creativity with utmost daring. King does not hide her love for earlier women artists, often also troubled, but her composition and subject matter remain absolutely her own; an unmistakable 'signature' mix.
This view of the world, the artist looking out without any trace of self-conscious cynicism, with absolute sincerity, with complete generosity, is here laid bare for us.
Adrian Dannatt,
Adrian Dannatt is a writer and curator and a regular contributor to The Art Newspaper
Josephine King (b1965, London) British/Dutch
Education: Gerrit Rietveld Academy Amsterdam, 1987-1992
Painting/Printmaking
Ecole National Superieure Des Arts Decoratifs
Paris: 1991
Painting/Printmaking
AR.CO - Lisbon, Post-Academy: 1993-1994
ARTIST IN RESIDENCE
Museu Do Azulejo
Lisbon: 1993-1995
Tile painting
ARTIST IN RESIDENCE
Zoological Museum
Amsterdam: 1997-1998
Painting and studying butterflies and insects.
EXHIBITIONS
Gallery Ratton
Lisbon
'African Blues':1994
Tiles
Gallery Oikos
Lisbon:1995
Ceramic tiles
Nederlanse Tegelmuseum (Dutch Tile Museum)
Otterlo
'Portuguese Diary': 1998
Ceramic tiles and sketchbooks
Gallery Ratton
Lisbon
'Equus':1999
Ceramic tiles
ARTICLE
Flash Art
1995
'Global Art'
City Magazine
Lisbon: 1999
'Lisbon in Colour'
Josephine King achieved success early on for her ceramics, being the only professional artist-in-residence at Lisbon’s renowned “azulejos” museum of tiles, a page review in Flash Art leading to global distribution for these beautiful objects.
But this was before the discovery of her extreme bi-polar mania which so unbalanced her life, almost ending it on several occasions, yet ironically providing the artist with the subject matter for her mature, breakthrough work being exhibited today.
Here the chromatic tones, dancing patterns and lightness of touch of her earlier decorative oeuvre is fused with altogether more bleak subject matter; the blackest melancolia, drug abuse and destructive relationships along with several suicide attempts.
But these troubles are not reflected in any initial appreciation of the work. The paintings are overtly, outrageously attractive with bright palette and dazzling textural and tonal variation, so attractive that only slowly do you come to realise their message of utter despair, a despair whose only redemption is in the making of art, the making of this art itself.
King grew up in the haute bohemia of late 1960s North London until moving while still a child to Amsterdam. As the daughter of the renowned designer, and collector of Soviet material David King (now with his own permanent room at Tate Modern ) and a dedicated mother, her mixed cultural background and subsequent world travelling led to her pushing the boundaries of creativity with utmost daring. King does not hide her love for earlier women artists, often also troubled, but her composition and subject matter remain absolutely her own; an unmistakable 'signature' mix.
This view of the world, the artist looking out without any trace of self-conscious cynicism, with absolute sincerity, with complete generosity, is here laid bare for us.
Adrian Dannatt,
Adrian Dannatt is a writer and curator and a regular contributor to The Art Newspaper
Josephine King (b1965, London) British/Dutch
Education: Gerrit Rietveld Academy Amsterdam, 1987-1992
Painting/Printmaking
Ecole National Superieure Des Arts Decoratifs
Paris: 1991
Painting/Printmaking
AR.CO - Lisbon, Post-Academy: 1993-1994
ARTIST IN RESIDENCE
Museu Do Azulejo
Lisbon: 1993-1995
Tile painting
ARTIST IN RESIDENCE
Zoological Museum
Amsterdam: 1997-1998
Painting and studying butterflies and insects.
EXHIBITIONS
Gallery Ratton
Lisbon
'African Blues':1994
Tiles
Gallery Oikos
Lisbon:1995
Ceramic tiles
Nederlanse Tegelmuseum (Dutch Tile Museum)
Otterlo
'Portuguese Diary': 1998
Ceramic tiles and sketchbooks
Gallery Ratton
Lisbon
'Equus':1999
Ceramic tiles
ARTICLE
Flash Art
1995
'Global Art'
City Magazine
Lisbon: 1999
'Lisbon in Colour'