The Landscape: From the exterior to the interior

From its inception in 2011, gallery rosenfeld has always been interested in the genres which have defined art history and how they continue to provide inspiration for contemporary artists. Although the ‘portrait’, ‘still life’ and ‘landscape’ still have a relevance, there is very little critical attention on these supposedly “outdated” subjects. The only exception to this is the portrait, which has recently assumed a renewed predominance.

The gallery will now host two exhibitions centred around ‘The Landscape’. The first will open on May 6th and is entitled ‘The Landscape Part 1 - From the Exterior to the Interior’, whilst the second ‘The Landscape Part 2 - From Arcadia to the City’, will open in late July.

The first exhibition will explore how traditional ideas of landscape have evolved in the modern and contemporary world.

n the painting by Nigerian artist Ndidi Emefiele, a naked woman luxuriates on a sun bed beneath a rich landscape, whilst the figures in Araminta Blue’s work are huddled together as if they were shades or a mysterious Greek chorus. Whereas Emefiele’s landscape has rolling hills, a dusty road and the sea as a distant backdrop, Araminta Blue’s world is visionary and redolent of mystery hinting either at a theatrical scene or a strange, eerie forest.

The supremely detailed paintings of the Japanese artist Naoya Inose show a perfect natural world being either uprooted by broken buildings, industrial columns and mysterious concrete blocks or merely being forced to co-exist with relics of our industrial society.

All 6 artists in the exhibition have used an ancient tradition but not just as a way of finding inspiration, but instead as a way of commenting on that same tradition by absorbing it and then giving their works a highly contemporary slant which, contemporaneously, maintains the tradition alive and still today of fundamental relevance.