Evocatively titled “Sonnet,” the multifaceted show sparks a deeply felt journey through the lyricism and testimonies of our contemporary lives. Commencing with the sonnet, a nuanced and historic art form conjuring yearning and dichotomy, Anderson unearths a new modern language through rhythmic paintings, mixed media, and readymade sculptures.
An Inventive and Labyrinthine Installation Unfolds at Bernheim, London
Anderson perceptively delves into the meticulous configuration of the sonnet: 14 lines along with fixed rhyme patterns and syllables. Discovering echoes of his own creative practice within its framework—a fierce dedication to the settled while carving room for the discovered—the artist offers a labyrinthine installation over numerous floors of the gallery.
Three circuits of creativity flow through the exhibition, with the textures and tones of alliteration breathing profound human emotion and expression throughout. Within the ground floor domain, visitors meet with the readymade sculptures harmonizing in clusters and tackling themes of birth, survival, and death. Baby blue piece (2023) centers on a Circumstraint Newborn Immobilizer, Support piece (2022) discloses a Ukraine Benefit Bike® jockstrap across a model of a torso, while Remembrance piece (2024) perches a commemorative funeral flag display atop a shipping package. With a keen, conceptual sense of the absurd, Anderson also debuts a low-hanging balloon sculpture which appears as an ethereal bout of emptiness.
Fresh Paintings Utilize Abstraction and Figuration to Ponder Human Existence
A fresh series of paintings beckon by way of fractured chain-link fencing imparting an undefined narrative of liberation from order and agitation. The graphic wires unfold both with rigidity and gossamer softness, and the Harlequin works are set in dialogue with the iconic modernist practices of Pablo Picasso and Rudolf Stingel, skillfully utilizing both abstraction and figuration to ponder the roots of our existence. From a depth of celestial blackness, each piece hints at movement and authority within the unknown.
Mitchell Anderson’s Signature Artistry Evokes the Amorous and the Enduring
Structure and consequence are revered in new alliances of the artist’s trademark playing cards which are ingrained with found texts. Compelling verse by poet John Keats is revitalized alongside homages to Lord Byron, Thomas Chatteron, and Edmund Spenser, juxtaposed with turn-of-the-century vintage gay porn playing cards. Visceral Keats poems “The Human Seasons” and “A Song About Myself” wager beside cards presenting a shirtless Luigi Mangione and wildfire imagery.
In one heavenly white room, blazing in front of a playing cards work, visitors are acquainted with Solar Piece (2024). A ghostly inflatable of printed Oxford nylon glows with an internal light string, challenging perceptions in a primal palette of orange, yellow, and brown. In conversation with the opulent building facades just outside the glass windows, Anderson seems to prepare us for the future with an embryonic rhyme of the past.
While ephemeral and provocative, the shadows of our modern society here unfurl as both amorous and enduring. Anderson allows for a range of sensations and sensibilities with “Sonnet,” hopefulness is afforded, even when we are at a loss for words.
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