MATTER MATTERS | ARTISTS & THEIR MEDIA

The late, great Peter Schjeldahl asserted that, “An artwork is a unique, usually handmade physical object, worthless in itself, and around which ideas propagate and dreams are spun.”* With this in mind, Everard Read London presents a group exhibition exploring materiality and texture.

Featuring the work of more than 25 artists, primarily from across South Africa and the diaspora, this exhibition delights in the tactile language and dimensions of creativity and contends that the physical qualities of artworks are crucial contributing elements to their visual impact. Materials and texture can affect us in ways that transcend the purely visual.

As the very substance of art, materiality carries its own significance. Weathered wood, raw granite, patinated bronze, rice paper, beeswax, woollen dust, embroidered thread – an artist’s choice of medium influences not only the aesthetics, but also the meaning of their work. Materials bring their own histories, associations, and physical properties to bear on the artistic narrative.

In this exhibition, we celebrate how artists use texture and materiality to create conversations between form and substance. Each piece invites you to look beyond the surface, to consider the interplay between what you see and what you sense. The diversity of artworks in this collection supports the idea that in art, as in life, it is often the tangible, material aspects that resonate most deeply with our human experience.

_{*Peter Schjeldahl - Let’s see: Writings on Art from the New Yorker, Thames & Hudson, 2008}                                                                                                                                             

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