Sullivan+Strumpf at Frieze London 2024

Sullivan+Strumpf

2 days left

Sullivan+Strumpf at Frieze London 2024

Sullivan+Strumpf

2 days left

Sullivan+Strumpf is thrilled to present three internationally acclaimed Australian artists Naminapu Maymuru-White, Lindy Lee and Gregory Hodge. Through colourful and textural works on canvas, paper and bark, this group exhibition celebrates diversity, resilience and spirituality, and amplifies the power of abstract expression.
Sullivan+Strumpf is delighted to be the first Australian gallery to participate in Frieze London with three leading Australian artists, Gregory Hodge, Lindy Lee and Naminapu Maymuru White. - A senior leader and one of the most revered women in her community, Naminapu Maymuru-White is one of the first Yolŋu women to be taught to paint miny’tji (sacred designs). Miny’tji reflects the Yolŋu concept of Milŋiyawuy, which simultaneously represents the Milŋiyawuy River that snakes across Maŋgalili Country and the celestial Milky Way. Naminapu is one of the most highly regarded artists working today in Australia, with recent exhibiotions including 'Stranieri Ovunque–Foreigners Everywhere', 60th La Biennale di Venezia, acquisition by Kluge-Ruhe Collection for inclusion in 'Madayin - eighty years of bark painting from Yirrkala', and the upcoming National Gallery of Australia's Indigenous Triennale. - Australian Paris-based Gregory Hodge, whose unique approach to painting has seen him rise to be one of Australia’s most sought-after contemporary artists. Throughout his 20-year career Hodge has been fascinated by illusionistic painting and the tradition of Trompe l’oeil mimicry. He will present new paintings that build on his investigations of the warp and weft of woven materials, inspired by the Europe’s grand tradition of tapestry. - Lindy Lee is one of the most important Australian female artists and is highly respected for her ongoing contributions to contemporary art. In a career spanning more than 40 years, she has exhibited in over 150 exhibitions around Australia and internationally and created more than 40 public artworks and large-scale sculptural commissions. At the time of the launch of the most significant commission in the National Gallery of Australia’s history, Lee’s 'Ouroboros', at Frieze London she will present a series of new works on paper. They meditate on the transience of matter and life, which are bound together in an endless cycle of death and rebirth. Apart from the booth presentation, Naminapu Maymuru-White will create an immersive presentation at the Breguet booth at Frieze London, curated by Jenn Ellis. Founded in 2005, and fast approaching 20 years as one of the Asia Pacific’s leading contemporary galleries, Sullivan+Strumpf has helped foster and grow the careers some of the most significant contemporary artists in Australia, Southeast Asia and beyond.
Naminapu Maymuru-White (b. 1952)
Naminapu Maymuru-White is one of the the first Yolŋu women to be taught to paint miny’tji (sacred creation clan designs), and is an elder with a belief in sharing her knowledge and experience with her family. Her works are of historic and continuing significance as a Maŋgalili clan member and contemporary artist in her own right. Her fluid and unrestrained compositions distinguish her as a highly unique and innovative Yolŋu artist.
Naminapu Maymury-White, portrait in the studio, photography Leicolhn McKellar
"I am inspired every day by the beauty of the world around me and the stars themselves. I paint what is true. I feel this sacredness. I am painting to try and share that feeling with people who don’t know about it. I want them to feel how special this is.” - Naminapu Maymuru-White, 2024
Naminapu Maymuru-White, 'Milniyawuy', 2024, earth pigment on stringybark, 201 x 95.5 cm
The sacred miny’tji designs reflect the Yolŋu concept of Milŋiyawuy, which simultaneously represents the Milŋiyawuy River that snakes across Maŋgalili Country and the celestial Milky Way. These dense and textural paintings tell the sacred stories of her clan: that all souls that have ever lived, and will ever live, already exist side by side simultaneously in the stars, that they are birthed by water and return to the water of the sky at death.
Naminapu Maymuru-White, 'Milnyawuy', 2024, installation detail, Breguet booth at Frieze London
Lindy Lee (b. 1954)
Over four decades, Lindy Lee has established herself as one of Australia’s most influential and respected contemporary artists with a practice that explores her Chinese heritage through the philosophies of Taoism and Buddhism - principles which emphasise humanity’s intimate and inextricable relationship to nature. Her work investigates the interdependence between spirit and matter, often employing elements of chance to produce works that embody this intimate connection with the cosmos.
Lindy Lee in the studio, 2024, photography Zoe Wesoloski-Fisher.
Lindy Lee’s new works on paper meditate on the transience of matter and life, which are bound together in an endless cycle of death and rebirth. Burning the paper with a soldering iron and exposing to rain for prolonged periods of time, the artist fuses natural elements and with the cosmic energy of the universe.
Lindy Lee, 'Unbounded', 2024, Chinese ink, fire and rain on paper, 200 x 140 cm
Lee uses the pure energy force of fire – one of the four Buddhist elements alongside earth, water and wind – in a controlled yet spontaneous gesture that momentarily consumes the paper on contact. Each mark of nothingness is thus the mark of a moment’s action, and each scroll is the aggregation of these moments.
Lindy Lee, 'Depths of Quintessence', 2024, Chinese ink, fire and rain on paper, 200 x 140 cm
Gregory Hodge (b. 1982)
Gregory Hodge is an Australian artist based in Paris, France. His paintings oscillate between abstraction and figuration, layering personal source material with painterly gestural marks and obscured motifs of foliage, interiors and architecture. With an ongoing interest in how to render different material surfaces in paint, Hodge’s recent works eschew a slick, pop finish for a deliberately handmade quality designed to resemble the warp and weft of tapestries and other woven materials.
Gregory Hodge in the studio, 2023, photography Olivier Seignette.
Paris-based Australian artist Gregory Hodge’s paintings oscillate between abstraction & figuration, layering source material with painterly gestural marks. Interested in rendering different material surfaces in paint, Hodge’s recent works replicate the warp and weft of woven tapestries. His unique aesthetic has made him one of Australia’s most sought-after artists. Hodge’s works are held in several public and private collections internationally.
Gregory Hodge, 'Live With Us', 2024, acrylic on linen, 200 x 160 cm
Highly textural gestural motifs and architectural references are arranged into compositions that emulate and mimic the warp and weft of a meticulously woven surface. Whilst subverting the surfaces of his paintings through exaggerated shadows, edges and textures, Hodge conceals in each work personal memories and objects from his surroundings and everyday experiences.
Gregory Hodge, 'Flowers', 2024, acrylic on linen, 200 x 160 cm