Cathy's Art Diary

Interesting exhibition at the Redfern Gallery of works on paper by Surrealist Eileen Agar alongside five contemporary artists invited by the gallery to respond to Agar’s work. I must admit I’ve not been to the current exhibition of Agar’s work at the Whitechapel Gallery so am not that aware of her work. The works here, like the one shown, were mainly colleges often overlaying a cut out frame over another work. The five artists chosen to respond to her work were all women, LINDER, Lucy Stein, Florence Hutchings, Nadia Hebson and Oliva Fraser. I had only come across the latter before. I liked LINDER’s photo montage work combining female figures and objects particularly a work called “THE Sphinx” which superimposed a couple of classical heads over each other. I also like Florence Hutchings paintings of everyday settings. Closed 17 July 2021

Nice exhibition at the Grosvenor Gallery of new work by Olivia Fraser.   This work is influenced by Indian miniatures and forms of yoga which have visualisation at their heart. I loved the first set of large pictures you saw called “The Golden Lotus”, green circle on a black background with a lovely gold flower on each one. I also a set called “Scent of the Lotus” of bees flying towards a lotus flower. Using the same image these are done in different colour combinations and it’s fascinating what difference different colours make to the image.   At first site, particularly the repeating series, look as if they are clever prints but in fact they are all painted in very fine detail very much in the Indian tradition.   Closed on 26 June 2018   Review Times