11.05.23 - 11.06.23
Checkmate is, in a sense, a continuation of a recent series of exhibitions at OHSH; God of War, ARES and Post-Post-War, all of which surveyed contemporary responses to the expansive theme of warfare.
At first glance a show about the game of chess could be considered absurd, trivial even; however, this exhibition explores our experience of life through the lens of conflict, with a sinister undertone. The game of chess is a microcosm of society, effectively exploring life and death; whilst playing one enacts strategies to defeat their enemy – sacrificing pawns, cornering a knight, or ending up in checkmate…
The eight artists in this exhibition explore the game of chess through diverse mediums and themes, from painting to sculptural installation. We’re looking forward to sharing more with you and welcoming you to exhibition on Thursday 11th May at OHSH Projects South.
ARTISTS: MIKE BALLARD, MARK BLETCHER, HENRY GLOVER, TOM HACKNEY, JOHNNY HOGLUND, SCOTT MCCRACKEN, SALVATORE PIONE, MIROSLAV POMICHAL
MIKE BALLARD (b. 1972, London) lives and works in London. “Ballard’s practice could be described as ‘architectural hauntology’. He collects and catalogues spectral marks and symbols that have been created from a city in a constant state of flux and development and transfers them on to wood, canvas and concrete.” [Eric Thorp]
Recent shows include: 'Throw your house out the window' (duo show with Michael Weiskoppel) at Tick Tack, Antwerp November 2021; ‘Gutter Snipe’ at The Bomb Factory Art foundation; ‘Adapt the collapse’ Union Gallery London; Royal Academy Summer Exhibition 2020, 2020 winner of the Jack Goldsmith award for Sculpture, KARST Projects Plymouth.
MARK BLETCHER (b.1995, UK) lives and works in Newcastle Upon Tyne. He received his BA in Fine art from Newcastle University (2019) and has been recognised for his achievements in painting, drawing and printmaking. His work explores themes of perception, subjectivity, and modern magical realism. Bletcher was a recipient of the Gwen May award from Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers (2020) and shortlisted for both the Woon Art Prize (2019) and the Young Contemporary Artist Award (2020). He is a co-founder of Minutes, a project that builds community through conversations with artists.
HENRY GLOVER (b.1997, Oxford) lives and works in London. He studied Fine Art: Painting at Wimbledon College of Arts (2017-20). Glover was selected for the Saatchi Arts Rising stars in 2020. His practice is focused on the interplay between the physical sensations of his materials and the raw emotions he experiences in his daily life and personal relationships. Working between oil paintings and ceramics, Glover creates a territory upon which his work exists in, imagined landscapes, haunting sculptures, and subjects that range between didactic everyday experiences and grand theatrical themes that have been commonplace throughout history, myths and folklore. Glover has exhibited nationally and internationally at C.G. Williams Siena & Turin, Grove, London & Berlin (Solo), Liliya Art Gallery (Solo), London, Mapa Fine Art, London, UAL, London, Nunnery Gallery, London and Riana Raouna, Cyprus.
TOM HACKNEY (b.1977, UK) lives and works in London. Since 2009, a crucial material for Tom Hackney’s art has been readymade chess data derived from games played by Marcel Duchamp. In 1923, Duchamp famously claimed to have given up art for chess, preferring the latter’s abstract beauty to the more concrete exercises of the former. Hackney’s choice of this specific material, enlisted in order to further the project of an ‘abstract’ art, therefore plugs him into a powerful network of historical dynamics. The Chess Paintings are made by translating the constituent moves of a selected game into a single, multilayered painting. A linen support is first divided into the eight-by-eight square grid of a chess board. The path of each move is then masked and painted, in sequence, in oil colours selected according to Duchamp’s 1920 design for a colour chess set. Tom Hackney completed his MFA at Goldsmiths in 2008. Recent exhibitions include: Childhood, Rocket Gallery, London (2022); Mind, Art, Experience, World Chess Hall of Fame, St. Louis (2022); Depicting Duchamp, Francis Naumann Fine Art, New York (2019); A Game in a Game (solo), Benjamin Sebban Gallery, Brussels (2018).
JOHNNY HÖGLUND (b. 1988 Sweden) lives and works in Hallröd, Sweden; his practice focuses on a process driven narrative and a material-based aesthetic, contextualised from his physical and mental surroundings. He holds a BFA from Goldsmiths University, London. Self-portrait after Surgery is an intimate framed self-portrait from the hospital bed post-cancer-surgery. An event both experienced and painted at the age of 28, the same age as the artist's father unexpectedly passed away. This double meaning adds to the anxiety of this painting, along with the colour palette.
On top of the painting's frame stands a wooden rook chess piece. The rook symbolises many things, most obviously watching, or observing our inner world e.g. the way ancient fortresses were built. In this case, the inner world being psychological, represented and conveyed through the visual means of paint.
Functioning as a bridge between a series of paintings inspired by the Danse Macabre, and as a reference to the game of chess with Death in Bergman’s The Seventh Seal, where the rook is the piece with which the main character "checks" Death...if only to stall and delay the inevitable dance with death…
SCOTT McCRACKEN (b. 1987, Falkirk, Scotland) is a painter and occasional writer and curator. Working primarily on a small scale, the motifs in his paintings fluctuate between the diagrammatic and the corporeal, but never fully settle as either. There is a type of handmade geometry that exists as a binding yet elastic force, where elements become held or suspended. Masquerading as abstract paintings, they insist on alluding to the genres of still life and landscape. He studied at Edinburgh College of Art (2005-11) and Turps Art School (2015-17). His work has been exhibited nationally and internationally. In 2017 he was awarded the Darbyshire Prize for Art and in 2019 he was shortlisted for the Contemporary British Painting Prize. He lives and works in London.
SALVATORE PIONE (b. 1995, Italy) is a multidisciplinary artist that lives and works between Sicily and London. He holds a degree in 2D Animation from Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia in Turin and a Bachelor’s in Fine Arts from the University of Arts London. Salvatore is currently completing his MFA at Goldsmiths, London. Salvatore creates works that contend with grotesque theatricality, camp and remembrance themes. He is strongly influenced by the customs and traditions of his land, Sicily, and often the places and experiences of his childhood serve as inspiration for the realisation of his works. Yet, a queer narrative pulsates through the stories and symbols, whereby the rampant machismo inflected within the strong Catholic culture of Italy its thwarted and disrupted by the depiction of hyper-masculine figures engaging in homoerotic scenes, with feminised features in his work. This is a personal procedure that stages a dialogue between the past and present elements that become intertwined with a grotesque theatricality, grappling with the history of tradition, and the possibility of his body as an insurgent to it.
MIROSLAV POMICHAL (b.1984, Slovakia) lives and works in London and Sherborne, Dorset, where he teaches art history. Miroslav’s work is distinguished by a sculptural treatment of the picture plane. His paintings depict emblematic symbols, landscape, urban vignettes, and scenes of conflict in which black lines crisscross the surface of each picture, allowing a sense of disruptive narrative. Abstraction is interspersed with the use of myopic symbolism, a trope of Expressionist painting concerned with the issues and tragedies of modern life, and particularly the tragedies of war. The monumentally concrete armature of the legacy of Expressionism is punctuated dramatically by a sense of dramatic storytelling and a commitment to the spiritual side of humankind as well. Miroslav has an MFA from Wimbledon College of Art and a BA in Art History from The Courtauld Institute of Art, London. His work is held in private and public collections, including the Ingram Collection. The artist has exhibited internationally at Kun Kelemen Fine Art, Bratislava; Flatgallery, Bratislava; Saatchi Gallery, London; Slate Projects, London; The Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, Bosse & Baum Gallery, London; The World Museum, Liverpool and The Leopold Museum, Vienna.