Untitled (circa 1999)

Joanna Price is best known for her figurative works, studies of life and society which reference paintings and themes from the past but always with a refreshing and subversive narrative. A recurring motif in her works are blue, male figures in suits, first seen in her second solo exhibition, ‘Small Blue Executive World’, at the Anna Bornholt Gallery. Good form and Nice style is typical of this style, with blue figures, clustered on floating islands, their dramas played out on a pale surface. The island motif is also seen in the organic form of the ceramic sculpture, which also depicts a similar male tension.

The Guildhall Art Gallery houses the City of London Corporation’s art collection and is situated in the heart of the Square Mile. The collection is particularly rich in Victorian art and since the Second World War the Gallery has concentrated on expanding its unique collection of London pictures. Given the Gallery’s location, several works explore themes associated with the City of London, such as money, power, boom and bust, trade and commerce, with particular reference to the financial services.

Price’s works are well-observed portraits which evoke the masculine/phallic energy of the City of London, a part of the city which is evidenced in the collection through formal portraits mainly of men in roles of power and authority, and to this aspect of the collection the two works are a pertinent counterpoint. In Good form and Nice style, the actions of the figures are ambiguous, the interactions can be read as friendly or something more malevolent, a kind of restrained violence. The figures in the sculpture, men urinating (top level) whilst other figures hold them up (bottom level) has a similar tension, and most obviously brings to mind the term ‘pissing contest’ and what it means metaphorically as well as its connotations of toxic masculinity. With an obvious visual link to the Gallery’s financial surroundings, Price’s work within this context is particularly thought-provoking.

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