Souad Abdelrassoul & Shabu Mwangi: A Never Ending Longing: Gallery 12, Cromwell Place, London
Gallery 12, Cromwell Place, London
10 May: Private View from 5 - 8pm11 & 12 May: 10am-5pm
13 May: 10am-8pm
14 May: 10am-6pm
15 May: 10am-5pm
Circle Art Gallery (Nairobi) presents a two-artist exhibition featuring new works by Lawrence ‘Shabu’ Mwangi (Kenyan) and Souad Abdelrassoul (Egyptian).
Souad Abdelrassoul's (b. 1974) work connects human and animal figures to the natural world, believing we are a part of it. Her compositions trouble notions of space and form, producing strikingly personal works in which she exalts nature, emotion, and the feminine. Throughout her work - often referencing mythologies, legends, and art historical tropes - she weaves narratives that tell of how women evolve and grow in spite of social and material conditions that are oppressive and that restrictive.
Shabu Mwangi’s (b. 1985) work follows an ongoing examination of the self. Interested in the effects of structural and historical violence, and different forms of marginalisation on the individual and collective psyche, Shabu’s paintings are considerations of societal and cultural fissures. His works look inward, tracing an ongoing personal journey of striving to understand the balance between the two things that guide our actions - love and pain.
Together, Abdelrassoul and Mwangi’s works comment on the contingent nature of our shared existence. Their semi-autobiographical works highlight the undeniable connections that we have to our community, and furthermore, in the case of Abdelrassoul, to the natural world. They invite a consideration of how these connections shape who we are, who we can be, and most importantly, how we can imagine ourselves within and beyond our present realities.
a yellow dot means reserved, please ask if you are interested in any of the reserved works as they may become available
Souad Abdelrassoul
Egyptian, b. 1974; Lives and works in Cairo
Souad Abdelrassoul currently lives and works in Cairo. Her artistic practice spans various media; drawing, painting, sculpture and graphic design. Working between the abstract and figurative, she connects human and animal figures to the Earth believing we are a part of it. Her metamorphosed figures do not seek to depict physical beauty but attempt to reflect on the connections between the human race and the natural elements of life; earth, metal, animals and plants. Tree-like figures with branching veins and arteries, and giant insect-like creatures merge on her canvases to remind the viewer of the vital bond between our internal lives and the exterior world we live in. Abdelrassoul re-conceptualizes the way we perceive space and re-purposes notions of form, science and nature into something strikingly personal, she exalts in the feminine, the emotional and nature. Throughout her work, she tells stories, sometimes using myths and legends that we recognise, to draw attention to how women are forced to evolve and grow in an environment that is oppressive and that restricts the life choices. She questions the role of women in society and cultural history in an unusual and disruptive way.
Abdelrassoul graduated with a BFA in 1998, completed her master’s degree in History of Art in 2005, and in 2012 she completed her PhD in Modern Art History. Since 1998 she has exhibited frequently in group and solo exhibitions in Cairo as well as shows in Nairobi, Beirut and the USA. She has also exhibited at international art fairs in London and Marrakech. In 2022, Souad Abdelrassoul's The Magician (2021), was acquired by the Chazen Museum of Art at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the USA. She is included in 300 Women Artists, forthcoming from Phaidon in 2022.
Lawrence 'Shabu' Mwangi
Kenyan, b. 1985; lives and works in Nairobi
Shabu has been a practicing artist since 2003. His practice focuses on the effects of structural and historical violence, and different forms of marginalization on the individual and collective psyche. Shabu’s paintings are considerations of societal and cultural fissures. His most recent work traces an ongoing personal journey of striving to understand the balance between the two things that drive us, love and pain, and how we react in different ways depending on which of the two is dominant. Shabu’s work has previously dealt with questions of collective suffering, and the effects that inequality, marginalization, and other forms of structural violence have on communities. In this new body of work, he has turned his gaze inwards, focusing on an examination of the self. He asks himself questions about how he sees the people around him and his interactions with them.
Mwangi has participated in workshops and residency programs both locally and internationally. His work has mmost recently featured in The Sources of Our Seas, a solo show at Circle Art Gallery in 2021; East African Encounters, a Circle Art Gallery group exhibition at Cromwell Place in London in 2021, and Self Adressed, an exhibition of self-portraiture by artists from Africa and its diaspora curated by Kehinde Wiley for Deitch Projects LA. Other shows include: The Man with Two Shadows (2020), an online exhibition with Circle Art Gallery; Yawning for Power, 2019, a solo exhibition with Tilleard Projects; The Stateless, solo exhibition at Circle Art Gallery (2018); Freedom, Flight, Refuge, Circle Art Gallery 2017; Art Transposition Nairobi-Kampala-Hamburg, LKB Gallery, Hamburg; Pop-Up Africa, GAFRA, London (2017); Out of the Slum (2012), Essen, Germany; He has also participated in residencies in Kenya, Germany, and Italy. In 2022, Shabu Mwangi and fellow members of the Wajukuu Art Project will participate in documenta 15, curated by Ruangrupa.
