Exhibitions
2000 Onwards
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Peter Blake: Time Traveller
18 June–9 September 2021 Waddington Custot is pleased to present Peter Blake: Time Traveller, an exhibition dedicated to the groundbreaking exploration of collage by iconic British artist Peter Blake. This comprehensive survey show, which includes a number of important museum loans, investigates the fundamentals of Blake’s practice in collage over a career spanning seven decades, bringing together historic works and never-before-seen pieces. A new monograph, Peter Blake: Collage, which includes a foreword by Blake’s schoolfriend David Hockney, will be published by Thames & Hudson to coincide with the exhibition.
Peter Blake: Time Traveller charts the development of Blake’s approach to collage-making, beginning with his layering of subject matter in early painted compositions and experiments with collaged paper after encountering work by Kurt Schwitters in the 1950s. From here, the exhibition travels via Blake’s rise to prominence as the ‘Godfather of British Pop art’ to his current, self-proclaimed Late Period. From his found object constructions to his most recent digital print photo-collages, Blake has broadened the scope of what collage can comprise and what it can communicate. Peter Blake: Time Traveller includes works from Blake’s Alphabet and Museum of Black and White series, as well as pieces made in homage to fellow artists Sonia Delaunay, Kurt Schwitters and Robert Rauschenberg. Clowns, wrestlers and Icons are shown alongside work around souvenirs and holiday postcards.
The artist’s largest canvas work to date, Late Period: Battle, is seen on view for the first time. The piece, measuring 183.4 x 293.5 cm, was started by Blake in 1964 only to be abandoned and left unfinished until the artist turned to collage to complete the work in 2018. Read more -
Frieze Viewing Room
Fabienne Verdier 5–14 May 2021 On the occasion of Frieze New York 2021, Waddington Custot celebrates the work of French abstract painter Fabienne Verdier. The solo presentation focuses on Verdier’s expression of the way in which sound energy, created by vibrations, moves through substances, inspired by her experience as the first artist in residence at The Juilliard School, New York in 2014
During her residency, Fabienne would join the practice sessions of musicians and singers and attempt to capture the music she heard as a visible manifestation on the page, as she described: “I closed my eyes and I heard something and I got a totally new vision of what sound is. A new structure appeared in my brain: I discovered a new form, a new dynamism which was a real revolution in my painting.”
This idea was further developed the following year with ‘Vide Vibration’ part of a commission by the Roberts French Dictionary, in which Verdier considers silence as a kind of inhabited emptiness, preparing our mind to the relative movement of sound energy.
Also included in the Frieze New York presentation are large scale paintings in a restricted palette of just two colours, including the ‘Infra-Red’ series in blue and red. With this combination, Verdier makes reference to the edges of the light spectrum as perceived by the human eye, and the light which remains on the retina, still ‘seen’ when the eyes are closed. In this respect, Verdier was interested in the impact of light energy on our bodies, as compared to the effect of sound energy, and the continued effect of the vibrations of music once a piece of music is stopped.
In 2020, Verdier returned to the arias she had been inspired by at the Juilliard School to create the ‘Vortex’ series. For these large scale canvases, Verdier prepares the background over several weeks with: a single colour, worked into the surface. The single gestural motif is created with an immense brush, suspended from the ceiling of her studio by a thick chain. In the ‘Vortex’ paintings on view here, the gesture takes the form of a whirling helix, painted in response to the operatic scaling of sopranos and altos performing Mozart arias.
Read more
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Paul Feeley: Space Stands Still
12 April–6 June 2021 Waddington Custot is pleased to present Paul Feeley: Space Stands Still, the first solo exhibition of Feeley’s work in the UK for over 50 years. The exhibition shines a light on this significant but relatively overlooked artist who worked with Clement Greenberg and played a pivotal role in the careers of many seminal abstract artists, including Helen Frankenthaler.
This exhibition charts the development of Feeley’s abstraction over the course of his brief but prolific career, presenting pieces from the 1950s through to those created just before his untimely death in 1966 at the age of 55. Works by Feeley, including oil on canvas paintings and three-dimensional sculptures in wood, are shown in the UK for the first time. The works are characterised by Feeley’s distinctive approach to symmetry and pattern through curving shapes in vibrant colours. The central forms and repeated motifs, often in symmetrical clusters, are reminiscent of vertebrae and teeth, molecular structures or jacks.
Although often associated with Abstract Expressionism, Feeley broke with the movement in the 1940s. Speaking to Lawrence Alloway in 1964, the artist explained ‘I began to dwell on pyramids and things like that instead of on jungles of movement and action... The things I couldn’t forget in art, were things, which made no attempt to be exciting.’ And so Feeley’s work moved away from gestural abstraction and into ‘a quiescent art of stability, poise, and space’, as described by Douglas Dreishpoon in Imperfections by Chance (his 2015 essay on Feeley). This astute observation is echoed by Feeley’s comment that in his paintings ‘space stands still’. Read more -
Work on Paper
Chu Teh-Chun, Hans Hartung, Pierre Soulages, Fabienne Verdier and Zao Wou-Ki 25 February–18 March 2021 Waddington Custot presents ‘Work on Paper’. This online exhibition features paintings by five major figures associated with French art: Chu Teh-Chun, Hans Hartung, Pierre Soulages, Fabienne Verdier and Zao Wou-Ki. All engage with ideas of lyrical abstraction and Tachisme, movements that thrived in Paris in the mid-20th century. Their balanced and elegant compositions are charged with a mastery of gesture and quick execution. These artists were deeply inspired by nature, and the paintings are each a personal expression of the living world. Read more
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Defining Space
A group exhibition of 20th and 21st century artists 2 December 2020–20 February 2021 Defining Space explores the impact of negative space within the work of 20th and 21st century artists, demonstrating how line and drawing play a crucial role in mapping out imagined spatial configurations.
The works in this group presentation demonstrate the translation of drawing into the three-dimensional; towering monumental installations protrude from the walls, and curl up from floors, while the negative space of the picture plane is variously architecturally structured, or revealed through light and shade.
The exhibition includes works by Peter Blake, Enrico Castellani, Michael Craig-Martin, Ian Davenport, Jean Dubuffet, Barry Flanagan, Peter Halley, Hans Hartung, Frank Stella and Bernar Venet among others.
One of Bernar Venet’s iconic Indeterminate Line sculptures, created in rolled steel, shows the French artist’s approach to conceptualising and configuring space.
Mgarap Bangke, a 2004 wall-based sculpture by Frank Stella, similarly towers in a tangle of industrial materials, which the artist has coerced into curving organic forms. Moulded sections of dark carbon fibre are supported by circular loops of unpainted stainless-steel tubing and geometric rails.
A new painting by Ian Davenport, titled Yellow and Purple (Double), is also displayed, portraying the artist's use of colour as a tool to delineate space through controlled movements of vibrant paint. Read more -
TEFAF Online New York 2020
Barry Flanagan’s 'Hells Bells' 1–4 November 2020 Waddington Custot participates in the inaugural edition of TEFAF Online, a new digital art fair initiative that allows galleries to present a single artwork.
A VIP preview runs online from 30–31 October, with the public opening dates from 1–4 November.
Waddington Custot has selected to show Barry Flanagan’s Hells Bells, one of the artist’s most celebrated renditions of the iconic ‘leaping hare’.
In this sculpture the hare takes a giant leap –ears aloft and limbs outstretched in a burst of youthful energy– over a steel lattice plinth which evokes a pyramid. Read more
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Fabienne Verdier: Vortex
6 October–24 November 2020 Waddington Custot present 'Vortex', a remarkable new series by the celebrated contemporary abstract painter, Fabienne Verdier. Through her work, Verdier gives physical form to the usually invisible and intangible forces... Read more -
Pablo Reinoso
Online exhibitions and gallery presentation 4 September–25 October 2020 This autumn, Waddington Custot celebrates the work of contemporary sculptor Pablo Reinoso with the launch of two Special Focus digital exhibitions and an installation of some of the artist’s most iconic works in the Cork St gallery space. These presentations, accessible both online and in person, seek to explore the Franco-Argentine artist’s ongoing interest in the contemporary interaction between humanity and the environment. Read more
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NEW WORK: David Batchelor
29 June–14 August 2020 NEW WORK: David Batchelor, opening online on 29 June, marks the third iteration of the Waddington Custot digital exhibition series and is the gallery’s first solo presentation by the Dundee-born artist. Bringing together a collection of Batchelor’s most recent sculptural works, the exhibition emphasises the artist’s distinct approach to colour, one defined by and tied to experiences of the city. Read more -
NEW WORK: David Annesley
11 June–14 August 2020 NEW WORK: David Annesley, the second iteration of our digital solo exhibition series, is now open online. Promoting contemporary artists working today, this instalment of the initiative celebrates David Annesley’s... Read more
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NEW WORK: Ian Davenport
26 May–14 August 2020 Waddington Custot launches NEW WORK, an online platform debuting painting and sculpture by leading contemporary artists working today. NEW WORK: Ian Davenport, the first iteration of our digital solo exhibition... Read more -
Frieze New York
Online Viewing Room 6–15 May 2020 Waddington Custot participates in the inaugural edition of Frieze Viewing Room, showcasing a range of works specifically selected to experience in the digital realm. Preview days takes place on 6 May from 10am EDT / 3pm BST and 7 May from 11am / 4pm BST. The public opening is from 8–15 May, starting at 11am BST / 4pm BST, closing on the 15 May at 7pm BST / 12am BST.
This diverse presentation of artworks spans several decades, with pieces connecting through a multitude of points. Read more
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Taipei Connections
A new online initiative by Taipei Dangdai 2–10 May 2020 Waddington Custot participates in Taipei Connections, a new online initiative by Taipei Dangdai. For the inaugural edition, Waddington Custot showcases a curated selection of works that reflect the gallery’s rich... Read more -
Art Basel Hong Kong
Online Viewing Room 20–25 March 2020 Waddington Custot are participating in the inaugural Art Basel Hong Kong Online Viewing Rooms, which open for a limited time extending beyond the fair’s original dates, enabling us to share with you a strong selection of the works of exceptional quality originally destined for the fair.
Our presentation includes works by Chu Teh-Chun, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Peter Blake, Ian Davenport, Jean Dubuffet, Barry Flanagan, Hans Hartung, Pierre Soulages and Fabienne Verdier. Read more
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Barry Flanagan: Alchemy of the Theatre
4 March–25 April 2020 Alchemy of the Theatre explores the theatrical elements of Barry Flanagan’s sculptures, from their dramatic conception, to the performances of the hares to reflect human experience. Read more -
Taipei Dangdai
17–19 January 2020 For the gallery’s inaugural participation in Taipei Dangdai, Waddington Custot presents a booth that reflects its rich heritage and expertise in modern and contemporary art. Read more
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Art Basel Miami Beach 2019
3–8 December 2019 Waddington Custot comes to Art Basel Miami Beach with a range of important works spanning the twentieth century. The gallery brings together heavyweight artists either from or with strong connections... Read more -
'Disruptions': Art Basel Cities: Buenos Aires
3–8 December 2019 The work of artist, designer, sculptor, and architect Pablo Reinoso is inherently interrogative, designed conceived to question shape, function, and the physical space objects occupy. His large-scale, often functional structures... Read more
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Maria Helena Vieira da Silva
30 November 2019–15 February 2020 Paris: 20 September – 16 November 2019 Jeanne Bucher Jaeger, Paris London: 30 November 2019 – 15 February 2020 Waddington Custot, London New York: 26 March – 29 May 2020... Read more -
Waddington Custot at Fiac 2019
17–20 October 2019 Spanning the great European artists from the mid-twentieth century onward, Waddington Custot's 2019 fiac booth includes some of the leading names of Modern painting and sculpture. Read more
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Schools of London
Waddington Custot at Frieze Masters 3–6 October 2019 For Frieze Masters this year, Waddington Custot presents a curated booth of painting and sculpture, looking at the enduring impact of various London art schools from the 1960s onward. In... Read more -
Patrick Caulfield: Morning, Noon and Night
11 September–15 November 2019 ‘Happy paintings, deceptively simple, masterly in the making’. Financial Times ‘A beautifully mounted little exhibition... a reminder of what a witty and inventive artist Caulfield could be. ’ The Spectator... Read more
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Frieze Sculpture Park 2019
Robert Indiana and Barry Flanagan 3 July–6 October 2019 For the first time, Waddington Custot will present work by two sculptors as part of Frieze Sculpture, London’s largest free display of outdoor art, held in Regent’s Park. The works... Read more -
Fabienne Verdier
Sur les terres de Cézanne 21 June–13 October 2019 Critical acclaim for Fabienne Verdier: Sur les terres de Cézanne 'One of the most extraordinary French painters of today…This retrospective at the Granet Museum is magnificent'. Le Point... Read more
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Art Basel
Stand F11 12–16 June 2019 Read more -
Writings on the Wall
17 May–8 August 2019 We are pleased to announce that Writings on the Wall has been extended due to a strong response from our visitors and will now run until 8 August 2019. Writings... Read more
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Alice Anderson
Body Disruptions 12 March–10 May 2019 Waddington Custot is pleased to present Body Disruptions, a solo exhibition of works by London-based performer and artist Alice Anderson, bringing together sculptures and drawings from solo and collective performances. Read more -
Nick Brandt
This Empty World 7 February–7 March 2019 Waddington Custot is pleased to present the new series of photographs This Empty World by Nick Brandt. The series examines the escalating environmental and ecological degradation in East Africa, previously explored in Inherit the Dust (2014–16). In This Empty World, Brandt uses colour for the first time, and a digital medium format, bringing immediacy to a subject that demands our attention. Read more
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Art Basel Miami Beach
Miami Beach Convention Center 6–9 December 2018 Read more -
Jedd Novatt
Conversations with Gravity 20 November 2018–30 January 2019 Waddington Custot is pleased to present an exhibition of new work by American sculptor Jedd Novatt . The exhibition comprises of new, large-scale sculptures from Novatt’s Chaos series, and is... Read more
