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GROVE LONDON
The Great American Songbook
10/02/24 - 01/03/24

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ANNOUNCEMENT FORTHCOMING




Mark



The Expanse In-between
A Group Exhibition featuring Shannon Bono, Hoa Dung Clerget, and Francisca Sosa López
08/09/22 - 08/10/22
Battersea, London


Grove Collective is pleased to present the upcoming exhibition The Expanse In-Between, a group exhibition featuring artists Shannon Bono, Hoa Dung Clerget, and Francisca Sosa López, on view at the gallery’s Battersea Space, from September 8th to October 8th, 2022. This marks the first time that Grove Collective has worked with Clerget, the second time that the gallery has worked with both Bono and Sosa López, and is the first time the three have exhibited together.

Even at first glance, similarities emerge across the works of Bono, Clerget, and Sosa López. All three vividly and explicitly orient their works towards the representation of their respective diasporas; Bono invoking her connection to a pan-African diaspora, Clerget to her native Vietnamese diaspora, and Sosa López the Venezuelan diaspora. However, to essentialise these three rich and diverse practices as being singular in their thrust is to discredit the fascinating nuance of each individually. While each artist either directly or indirectly references notions of history, displacement, and cultural identity in their work, their modes of expression vary significantly. They reflect on the specificities of place, language, and culture intrinsic to their heritages, as well as their nations’ relationships to geopolitical power. Notably, Sosa López’s relationship to her adoptive home is much different than that of the British-born Bono, or French-born Clerget.

As such, points of departure emerge. Bono’s work, often recognisable through her trademark figures and incorporation of Sierra Leonean, Congolese, and Gambian patterns, contrasts the often figureless work of Sosa López. While Bono’s figures assert their presence, Sosa López, directly references the Venezuelan migration crisis through the noticeable absence of figures. Likewise, while still wall-based, Clerget veers furthest away from the constrictions of painting, embracing the materiality of household goods such as broom reeds. Yet, Clerget returns to painting through the medium of nail polish, a largely Vietnamese industry in her native France, while Sosa López expands her painted canvases through the use of salvaged cardboard and other packing materials. The process of meaning-making between these three artists is one that verges on kaleidoscopic: even a slight shift in perspective reveals entirely new points of contact.

For Grove Collective, this marks the beginning of the gallery’s autumn program, returning to two well-loved artists whilst initiating a relationship with one of London’s most creative and thoughtful practitioners, Hoa Dung Clerget. The opportunity to explore painting in an expanded field provides both a gift and curatorial challenge, inviting the gallery re-conceive its space. As such, it proves an important exhibition for all involved — all parts of the space and exhibition process are up for renegotiation, with the hope of creating something more imaginative and responsive.

Additional Installation Images




Mark