The Odd Uneven Time — GROVE London + Berlin

WORK • ENQUIRE

The Odd Uneven Time
A Solo Exhibition by Tom White
04/02/23 - 04/03/23
Grove Collective
London, UK

Opening: Saturday, February 4th, 4-8 pm
9B Battersea Sq., SW11 3RA, London, United Kingdom

Grove Collective is pleased to present the upcoming exhibition The Odd Uneven Time, a solo exhibition by London-based artist Tom White, on view at the gallery’s Battersea Space, from Saturday, February 4th to Saturday, March 4th, 2023. This is White’s first solo exhibition, and marks the second time White has worked with the gallery. White has been represented by the gallery since 2022.

Tom White’s work extends well past portraiture. While his images usually consist of single or a small group of individuals, often portrayed frontally, engagement with his subjects alone can belie White’s tantalising aptitude for atmosphere. Indeed, the use of time in the show’s title signals this: his figures fall subject to much greater forces than the artist’s brush, instead existing within a constellation of time and space. White places significant importance on conjuring sensations within his paintings; the use of scale, composition and palette interact to supersede purely mimetic depictions of people, placing the focus instead on a deeply intimate ephemerality to the moment being portrayed.

Further amplifying this sense of atmosphere, the works throughout the exhibition can be charted across the calendar year, with the images beginning in spring and concluding in winter. As such, the artist’s reflections on light and time feature heavily as the pieces progress, while inviting a personal connection with the viewer. Temporal specificity in the works, along with White’s frequent use of (nearly) life-sized scale, invites a sense of familiarity and nostalgia; recollections of time past are shared from artist to viewer, person to person. This is greatly aided by the nature of the White’s practice: often drawing from — but not directly referencing — photographs, the works become a product of both fact and memory.

For Grove Collective, The Odd Uneven Time presents a further step in solidifying the gallery’s roster moving forward. Having brought on White for representation in 2022, the exhibition helps demonstrate the direction in which the gallery hopes to continue moving, while setting the stage for artistic and programmatic growth: with White only two years removed from completing his MA, the gallery will continue its commitment to young, emerging artists. Finally, it continues the gallery’s relationship with South London-based artists — as a proud South London gallery, it remains imperative to Grove Collective to develop strong ties to our locale, and The Odd Uneven Time is a reflection of that intention.