For its inaugural exhibition, Newchild is pleased to present a multigenerational show of artists whose unique approaches to art-making has led them to find recognition at different stages in their careers. On view will be works by Yoo Geun-Taek, Norman Hyams, Adam Shield, and Vojtĕch Kovařík. Several of the works were specially commissioned for this show.
The concept for this show originates from an inquiry into the patina of time and the power an artwork has to survive the period in which it was created. In A Very Long Wait, the Newchild team sought to address the inexorable power of time through works that expressed, subtly or boldly, our human feelings towards its unstoppable pace.
In this show, the viewer will encounter that in many of the exhibited paintings the experience of temporality becomes apparent as we examine the surfaces: ink, oils, gouache, acrylics, and powder pigments give shape to a universe that is constantly manifesting itself in infinite ways. Capturing not only a moment in time but more like a continuum, as if everything happens in a single hyper-focused powerful enormous moment.
In an attempt to gain control over time, it is human nature to structure time, to lapse into rituals and routines. These compelling yet mundane moments are the subject of many works in the show. Thinking about time also brings up the notion of change versus constancy, a duality that is ever-present in Samuel Beckett’s landmark play ‘waiting for Godot’. The author scrutinises the notion of time as a way to present our bland human condition in the light of an absurd and uncontrollable universe. The idea of fixating a banal and mundane subject on canvas for eternity is a paradox that is ever-present in the exhibition.
Even though the concept of this exhibition had been conceived before the majority of the world went into an emergency state of lockdown, it appears to be even more current and meaningful now. No one could have foreseen the exceptional situation that many of us have found ourselves in these past few months. The notion of time and its linearity completely shifts when being confined to one single space for an extended period. Waiting becomes a commonplace. Waiting to engage with other people, waiting to be inspired by external stimuli, waiting for a sense of normalcy to return. A very long wait it has been indeed.
