Gallery Rosenfeld, 37 Rathbone Street, London W1T 1NZ
galleryrosenfeld.com Insta: @galleryrosenfeld
Gallery Rosenfeld’s moving spirit, Ian Rosenfeld, died shortly before last week’s opening of the current shows, following an illness that saw him in and out of hospital in recent years – though he always remained positive and fully involved in the gallery’s programme.
Ian was a wonderful man, full of good humour, passionate about his artists – and very clear about his tastes, with no compromise for what might or might not be fashionable. That gave the gallery a distinctive edge, and made him an engaging person to talk to about what he liked and why. It’s welcome news that the gallery will carry on to deliver his mission. The beautifully-designed two-level space opened as Rosenfeld Porcini in 2011, a subsequent change of name reflecting the less direct involvement of Rosenfeld’s original partner; and a desire not to sound too like an Italian gallery, albeit Ian himself spent many years in Italy.
The shows often featured intricately abstracted – though not necessarily wholly abstract – suggestions of access to other dimensions, through such artists as Emmanuel Barcilon, Keita Miyazakim, Enrique Brinkmann and Levi van Veluw. Yet the performative work of the multi-disciplinary Korean Bongsu Park, and the more gestural and figurative paintings of Amarinta Blue and Ndidi Emefiele take us in other directions. And there is more than a memorial reason to visit the current shows, running to 16th March. Upstairs, the first solo exhibition of the gallery’s newest recruit, Portuguese artist Nuno Gil, reveals a colourful language incorporating leather collages. Downstairs, Ian was behind the selections for ‘Visions’, an interesting and very international mix of five MA graduates from last year.
London’s gallery scene is varied, from small artist-run spaces to major institutions and everything in between. Each week, art writer and curator Paul Carey-Kent gives a personal view of a space worth visiting.
