3 April – 11 May 2013 34/35 Hatton Garden, London EC1N 8DX www.wilsonwilliamsgallery.com Open Wednesday – Friday 11am – 6pm and Saturday 11am – 4pm
Leaving behind the bustling jewellery shops and markets of Hatton Garden in London and diving down a tiny alleyway packed with character, one arrives at the WW Gallery’s new exhibition space. Spread across 1200 square feet of sky-lit rooms, the gallery, shop and lounge occupy the site of a former jeweller’s workshop. Their current exhibition North South Divine is a collaborative exhibition with Platform A Gallery in Middlesbrough, an innovative and critical gallery and studio complex located in the town’s railway station. As the title suggests, the exhibition makes immediate reference to the age old social tensions between the North and South of the UK, tenderly turning them on their heads and instead choosing as its focus a celebration of togetherness, alignment and conversation. North South Divine brings together a strong, deliberately cross-generational group of artists with work by Tony Charles, Deb Covell, Kate Davis, Annie O’Donnell, Phil Illingworth, Boa Swindler, Alison Wilding and Chiara Williams. The exhibition addresses questions around civic language and art’s place alongside it, and the distinction between public and private space. Many of the works find common ground through the use of a modernist language that aims to investigate, critique and uncover. While also held together by shared processes and materials, the artists respond to their common art historical reference point individually, some with subversive wit, others through their use and juxtaposition of materials. This makes for an interesting dialogue between unity and simplicity on the one hand, and a more interrogative, questioning discourse on the other. Don’t miss this exhibition!
Main image: Alison Wilding, Aerial, 2008. Laser cut mild steel, ink on Japanese paper, 77 x 99 x 6 cm. Installation view, North South Divine, WW Gallery, 2013. Courtesy the artist and WW Gallery.