FreddieFoulkes Gallery presents Rear View, an exhibition of paintings, monoprints, and etchings by Michael Cox and Sophie Ives.
Previously debuting with the gallery in May this year, Sophie Ives (b.2002) here presents paintings of the backsides of women. Three large paintings, Attrition, Stalemate, and Unbound show maturity and growth: ideas of and surrounding the female nude that have occupied the artist’s practice for over a year are now paired down and precise. Relentlessly confronting the viewer, these paintings generously offer a fresh voice to the ongoing conversation of nakedness versus nudity and of the female as subject and/or object in art. The two etchings, Carnal Sand and Come Undone, are representative of the artist’s newfound and flourishing discipline, and entertain the premise of theatre: figures meet and merge in the ring/ on the stage, inviting spectators. New to the gallery, Michael Cox (b. 1994) presents a number of small scale oil paintings and monoprints of the backs of paintings, and one large scale oil painting Paintings (Picassos). They are united by the artist’s persistent interest in censorship, confiscation, and the role art places in society at large.