Cathy's Art Diary

Interesting exhibition at Saatchi Yates of new work by Lebanese artist, Omar El Lahib. The works were large and colourful but on closer looking they had a dreamlike quality and were reminiscent of Munch. They were effective but I didn’t warm to them. I was interested in his use of sunflowers but there was no explanation of this in the commentary. Echoes of Van Gogh? Circle of life? Closed 10 April 2024

Sensual exhibition at Saatchi Yates of work by Angela Santana. At first look I was quite turned off by these large voluptuous nudes but when you read the press release they are by a woman as a reinterpretation of the male gaze. She takes digital images and deconstructs and rebuilds them in paint. You see and yet you don’t see. I suspect the original images would feel quite sleazy but these feel joyous and free. Closes 31 August 2022

Interesting but ugly exhibition at Saatchi Yates of new work by Kottie Paloma. I was interested to see this works drew on cave paintings and archetypal symbols but I’m afraid I found them hard to interpret and I didn’t find their aesthetic particularly attractive. I don’t know the artists work so I was interested to read that they usually use more colour so I’ll go and Google to see what that looks like. I did like some of the monumental primitive looking female nudes and some of the more humorous titles such as “The Amerikan Human Resource Department”. Closed 22 May 2022  

Intriguing exhibition at Saatchi Yates of new work by Danny Fox. These pieces were inspired by Fox’s return to St Ives from Los Angeles and refer to the people and folklore of the area. The works were mainly large, bold paintings alongside some ceramic work and the totem like work shown here which included small figures set into the wood.   I liked the paintings which included portraits of local people including a Bric a Brac merchant and “The Tinners”. Closes January 2022