Juliana Cerqueira Leite

IN THE COMPANY OF, OCTOBER 5 - November 17, 2018, TJ BOULTING, LONDON

IN THE COMPANY OF, OCTOBER 5 - November 17, 2018, TJ BOULTING, LONDON

Juno Calypso, Juliana Cerqueira Leite, Maisie Cousins, Charlotte Edey, Barbara Hepworth, Jessie Makinson, Lee Miller, Alice Neel, HelenA Pritchard, Stephanie Quayle, Anne Ryan, Boo Saville, Hrafnhildur Arnardottir aka Shoplifter, Antonia Showering and Caroline Walker.

TJ Boulting is delighted to present In The Company Of, an exhibition exploring the relationship between historic and contemporary women artists, curated by Katy Hessel. As Hessel explains:

“This exhibition will put the account into a real-life context, not only shining a light on some of the most exciting women working across painting, sculpture and photography today, but showing the constant conversation with the women who came before them. It is important to recognise the enduring legacy of the women who were so often overlooked by art history, and provide an alternative insight to the subject” – Katy Hessel

In The Company Of showcases three historic female artists, Barbara Hepworth, Lee Miller, and Alice Neel, alongside twelve dynamic contemporary female artists. The exhibition aims to highlight the legacy of Hepworth, Miller, and Neel and how the impact of their work still resonates with artists working today. By comparing their shared artistic language and creating a dialogue between them, it will also put the contemporary artists’ work into an historical context. 

Lee Miller’s photographs often crossed over her surrealist tendencies with her photojournalistic war imagery. An image of a ‘US Army nurse drying sterilised rubber gloves, Churchill Hospital, Oxford, England,’ (1943) inspired Maisie Cousins to create a photo-collage in response, which highlights their shared incorporation of the surreal, and the motif of the hand. Juno Calypso plays with the use of masks throughout her photographic self-portraits, utilising existing beauty devices in a sinister commentary on modern female beauty ideals, and is seen here alongside Miller’s image ‘Fire Masks’ (1941) which shows the wartime devices as darkly surreal fashion accessories on models. Similarly surreal are Jessie Makinson’s fantastical figurative painting and drawing, Charlotte Edey’s mystical and dreamlike tapestry, Anne Ryan’s cut out paintings and Hrafnhildur Arnardottir/Shoplifter’s whimsical and playfully coloured hair wall pieces. Juliana Cerqueira Leite’s nude photo collages sits with Miller’s ‘Nude Bent Forward’ (1930) – one of three made in collaboration with artist Man Ray, with Miller often credited just as his muse or assistant – which shows the evolution of the female gaze. Miller used a model and the image was inevitably drawn into the male artist dominated surrealist fetish for creating a phallic form, in contrast Juliana’s work always uses the action of her own body in space and material, and represents an empowered exploration of the female body.

Exhibition works