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PAINTING, SMOKING, EATING

Paintings About Painting

Curated by Kurt Beers & Andrew Salgado

In collaboration with Saatchi Gallery

2 August - 20 September 2024

51 Little Britain, London, UK, EC1A 7BH

www.beerslondon.com info@beerslondon.com +44 (0)20 7502 9078

@beerslondon

PAINTING, SMOKING, EATING

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B

EERS London presents Painting, Smoking, Eating at Saatchi Gallery,

an exhibition co-curated by Andrew Salgado that takes its title from

a Philip Guston painting. The exhibition consists of 13 internationally- based artists whose work here considers (rather plainly stated)

paintings about painting.

For centuries, artists have obsessed over the tangential, self-reflexive

aspects relating to the joys and burdens of their craft. From Velázquez’s

self-reflexive Las Meninas to Modernist iterations like Matisse’s Red Studio

to Norman Rockwell’s Triple Self-Portrait or more contemporary examples

like the works of Dana Schutz or Jonas Wood, the painter’s obsession

with the act of painting itself has become among the most ubiquitous and

prevalent of subject matters.

Perhaps the artist’s anxiety-laden process lends itself so readily to such

reflective analysis. The notion that great art requires both sacrifice and

artifice, combined with the persistent myth of the creative genius is an

increasingly recurrent theme.

True, the artist’s journey is one of obsess and dedication, but the included

artists here dismantle this mythology with works that are wryly self-aware.

Considering the artist’s environment and respective bric-a-brac depicted

here, we might ask ourselves why artists are so keen to depict themselves

as incomplete, in states of partiality? It can be assumed that the artistic

journey one of consistent re-examination, and therefore these depictions

of artist as outsider might be the most logical means to express this

sentiment. Often, the artist’s world is depicted alongside food, alcohol, and

cigarettes as measures of vice, indulgence and excess. While these works

are certain not to answer any of the greater historic or histrionic questions

surrounding art and its production or depiction, we are offered a satirical

snapshot of the artist’s pursuit.

“

As artists, our own peculiar processes that form the framework for our

creative processes are integral and unique to each of us. The almost- performative aspect of how we do what we do is both idiosyncratic and

- in a strange way - almost shamanistic. As artists, the rituals we adhere to

before, during, and after creation assume an almost sacrosanct energy. I

know hockey players don’t change their underwear during playoff season,

don’t shave, or eat the same foods. And in a strange way, as artists we

adhere to similar rituals that allow us so-called shortcuts to the creative

act. I was reading I Paint What I Want to See by Philip Guston and his no- nonsense ideologies surrounding art, art-making, and the environment

of the artist became almost as relevant as the act of painting itself. This

show began as a response to his famous work ‘Painting Smoking Eating’,

and I just ran with that idea. I began thinking about artists who look at

this process, self-reflexively, and usually as something quite tongue-in- cheek. I think the best artists are never afraid to turn that lens back upon

themselves, to poke fun at the same things we hold to such... quasi-religious

extremism. The best artists are aware that it’s all a little bit absurd.

Andrew Salgado

Co-Curator of the Exhibition

Artist

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INDEX

Shai Azoulay ............................................................................................8

Sabrina Bockler .................................................................................... 14

Juan De La Rica ....................................................................................18

Jonathan Edelhuber.......................................................................... 24

Paul Gagner .......................................................................................... 28

Henriette Grahnert............................................................................. 34

Stefhany Y. Lozano ............................................................................40

Roman Manikhin .................................................................................48

Jennifer Pochinski ..............................................................................60

Florent Stosskopf ............................................................................... 68

Jakub Tomáš ..........................................................................................72

Heidi Ukkonen .......................................................................................78

Helena Wurzel ...................................................................................... 82

Andrew Salgado ................................................................................. 86

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