When Shit Hits the Fan Again
Guts Gallery champions the newest voices of artists and collectors, and breaks down the barriers surrounding the traditional art world, which is predicated on exclusion. Guts disrupts this by launching alternative models for showcasing art. Bypassing the financial burdens of having a permanent exhibition space, Guts operates on a nomadic level and uses their growing digital platforms to champion emerging artists. Their most recent exhibition, ‘When Shit Hits the Fan Again’, is grounded in this ethos as emerging artists are exhibited amongst those more established resulting in cross-generational exchange, disrupting the traditional hierarchy.
‘When Shit Hits the Fan Again’. Source: @guts_gallery instagram.
All of the artworks were posted onto Guts’ Instagram on February 4th, allowing one to comment, like and browse the works as they came flooding through in real time. For a more relaxed viewing of the exhibition, the viewing room on Guts’ website enables this, with a playlist of the artists’ lockdown anthems to accompany it.
As physical exhibitions are being delayed or cancelled, Guts is backing the underrepresented contemporary voices in the art world. 50% of profits from the exhibition will be split equally amongst all the contributing artists, distributing wealth between the established and rising, actively working to erode the elitist, hierarchical and nepotistic habits of the art world. This is essential in helping to sustain artists and their work, especially during such an unpredictable time.
Ellie Pennick, gallery founder, and Jen O’Farrell, co-curator, stated they wanted the exhibition to “focus on the impact the pandemic has had on the artists themselves”. When asked about her role as curator and gallery director, Ellie said her responsibility is “to flip the traditional power dynamics between gallerist and artist, creating safe spaces, accessibility, constructive dialogue and collective shouldering. Providing a platform and support system for underprivileged emerging artists who are often denied” by the austere art world. Ellie said that she hopes this exhibition, like the others Guts has held, will “offer a new outlook and model that is fundamentally for artists, by artists”.
Ellie Pennick, Gallery Founder. Source: gutsgallery.co.uk
On first scroll through the exhibition one does not quite know where to look. Powerful, attention-grabbing pieces abound. From the fleshly masses of Elsa Rouy’s works, to the loud proclamations made in Corbin Shaw’s textile pieces addressing the often skirted-over topic of men’s mental health, it is clear that the artists involved in this exhibition are not afraid to make a statement. That is what makes this exhibition, and Guts’ previous shows, so exhilarating.
Elsa Rouy, ‘Squashed’, 2021. Acrylic and ink on canvas. Source: gutsgallery.co.uk
Featuring 33 artists in total, it would be tempting to explore every artist and their work in this exhibition. But, for the sake of this review, I shall limit it to a few favourites and leave the rest for the reader to discover.
Anousha Payne’s painting and sculpture featured in this exhibition verge on the macabre. Her work is eerie yet intriguing. ‘Grandmother’ is unnerving and typical of Payne’s oeuvre: supplemented by a short story, this work reflects Payne’s desire to explore the boundaries between fiction and myth. The inclusion of the Hamsaya (a Bharatanatyam hand gesture used in classical Indian dance) connects Payne’s work to her cultural heritage. This piece is shown next to Jacobo Pagin’s work, which has a musical quality. Indeed, he fuses painting and sound in his paintings, creating poetical compositions. Figures appear and disappear across the surface of the canvases, interwoven with other shapes.
Anousha Payne, ‘Grandmother’, 2021. Watercolour, pencil and chalk pastel on cotton. Source: gutsgallery.co.uk
Jacopo Pagin, ‘Glassed Potion’, 2020. Oil on canvas. Source: gutsgallery.co.uk
Scroll down a bit further and one comes across Olivia Sterling. Sterling’s paintings are often set in mundane locations such as a bathroom or playground: places where racial micro aggressions might occur and are ignored. In ‘Picky Bits’, arms reach out to grab victoria sponges or battenbergs, referencing stereotypical British identity, tethering her painting to a specific time and place. Through her paintings, Sterling communicates how her experience as a black woman is inextricable from her Britishness.
Olivia Sterling, ‘Picky Bits’, 2021. Acrylic on canvas. Source: gutsgallery.co.uk
Another personal favourite is recent Goldsmith graduate Anna Pye. Students and soon-to-be Graduates are endlessly reminded of the difficulty in obtaining employment amidst a pandemic and rising unemployment. Therefore, Guts’ decision to represent recent graduates is refreshing and gives hope. Pye’s paintings typically reference ‘trashy’ culture. In ‘Playboy Bellyring’, a tacky belly button embellishment is on display with a matching tramp stamp. Pye’s curiosity for “‘trashy’ graphic designs, personal camera roll images, 90s club memorabilia” and nostalgic fashion customs pairs well with Robert Roest’s paintings. Roest’s work shows two dogs, angrily snarling their teeth at the vulnerable viewer. Roest, similarly to Pye, explores painting in relation to digital media. Consequently, his work is uncomfortable, seeming half natural, half artificial, with the appearance of having been photo-shopped or digitally distorted. His ability to render paint in this way is at once captivating and impressive.
Anna Pye, ‘Playboy Bellyring’, 2021. Oil on linen. Source: gutsgallery.co.uk
Robert Roest, ‘Full Moon and Stinky Smelling Spirits’, 2021. Oil on canvas. Source: gutsgallery.co.uk
With such a varied display of talent, styles and mediums, this exhibition speaks to Guts’ founding principle: to facilitate space and exposure for a diverse arts community, within a dynamic, creative working environment. Since its establishment in 2017, Guts has been at the forefront of a new type of art space: a space that is innovative and responds to questions of inclusivity, diversity and accessibility. For those hoping to be in the next generation of curators or gallery directors (physical or virtual), Ellie’s advice would be: “throw yourself into it, learn practically, be experimental: there is no rulebook”.
Guts Gallery’s exhibition was a one-night only event on February 4th, however, all the works can be viewed on their Instagram and website.
All images sources from gutsgallery.co.uk.
Olivia Wilson
Reviews Editor, MADE IN BED