Image: Gilbert&George Enzo Marra
22 April – 8 May
“The word ‘time-warp’ sprang to mind as I cast my eye over the work of Enzo Marra for the first time at his tiny Brighton-based studio. As if the paintings themselves were not evocative enough of a bygone era, the smell of oils and the sight of canvases piled up in various stages of completion across every inch of wall and floor space, added to the illusion that I was in the period and company of one of the old School of London painters.”
(Debra Wilson, Director, WW Gallery)
Demigods’, a solo show of new paintings by Enzo Marra . Enzo Marra’s painterly work is characterized by elements of history, mythology, surrealism and metamorphosis. His new ‘Demigods’ series is a tribute to some of the artists who have inspired him, Marra’s own personal heroes and heroines, rendered as deified mortals.
Marra is an artist in his studio, painting artists at work in their studios, each depicted in a manner that conjures up our collective romantic vision of the artist toiling away in a cosy bohemian garret. Subjects from Francis Bacon to Gilbert & George and Jackson Pollock to Cornelia Parker, are all handled in the same thick impasto and tonal palette of blacks, greys and whites.
Marra’s paintings have a nostalgic, reverential quality and surfaces that are laid bare for the comparisons that are there to be drawn. Stylistically, ‘Demigods’ encompasses an array of influences, from the almost calligraphic language of Giacometti to the abstract textural works of Zebedee Jones, and while Marra is to some extent a throwback to the gestural figuration of Auerbach, Kossoff and the School of London, he is no mere imitator. In recording the apotheosis of these artists, Marra’s subject matter reinvents a tradition of artists portraying one and other, a genre made famous by Gaugin and Vangogh during their tempestuous time in Arles or by the Bloomsbury Group, who painted and recorded each other from youth to old age.
Enzo Marra’s works on paper will be shown at this year’s Venice Biennale at WW Gallery’s collateral exhibition ‘Afternoon Tea’ 30 May – 12 June. In January 2011, four new works from the Demigods series were shown with WW Gallery in Art Projects at the London Art Fair. Marra (b. 1975) has had numerous commissions and exhibitions in the UK and in Italy, including selection for exhibition in the Threadneedle Prize 2010 and the 53rd Venice Biennale, 2009. He lives and works in Brighton and is represented by WW Gallery.
www.wilsonwilliamsgallery.com/
