Leonard Baby, Medicine Cabinet, 2022. New Now: Modern & Contemporary Art, London.
Leonard Baby
Leonard Baby’s distinctive practice typically begins with cinema. Often viewing European technicolor films from the 1950s and 60s, the artist will discover a still frame that, in his words, “demands to be painted,” before cropping the image and painting it with masterful effect. In the captivating composition that makes up Medicine Cabinet, the protagonist’s hand reaches out to the top shelf as they make a cocktail, the Seagrams Canadian Whisky already at hand. It’s a scene that reflects the abundance, joy, and sophistication of a certain type of mid-century lifestyle (let’s not forget Don Draper drank Seagrams, among others), alongside the hazard for a privileged sense of ennui to descend into self-medication. The artist obscures the bottle labels only somewhat, inviting us to consider the only slightly less subtle brand and lifestyle product placement in our own time.
A young artist quickly gaining steam in the global art world, Baby is based in Brooklyn, New York. His recent accolades include a solo show at the Fortnight Institute in New York and a residency with PLOP in East London. His solo exhibition L.A., Baby is on view at the Half Gallery in Los Angeles from 7 April through May 11 of this year.
Francesca Mollett
Francesca Mollett, Maiden, Mother, Hag, 2020. New Now: Modern & Contemporary Art, London.
As the world entered lockdown mode in 2020, painter Francesca Mollett took to her garden to paint characteristic semi-abstract canvases that visually dissect the complex interrelationship between nature, body, and mind. The artist’s perception of this linkage was heightened during this time, as she remarked, “Making paintings in the garden in lockdown altered levels of pace, control, and distance, with light and weather affective like bodily energy.”
Since graduating that year from the Royal College of Art, Mollett’s star has only risen. Her work has been featured at solo and group shows globally, and she has been represented by Grimm Gallery since 2022. Her work’s captivating presence is a testament to the remarkable painterly skill with which she suggests otherworldly scenes through a physical method of mark making, almost earth-like textures, and atmospheric washes. She often relates her work to contemporary literature, connecting her perception of reality to stream of consciousness autofiction, further explaining, “Influenced by material feminists, I imagine the human intermingling with the more-than human as I paint.”
Jack Jubb
Jack Jubb, Sometimes, 2021. New Now: Modern & Contemporary Art, London.
Reflecting British artist Jack Jubb’s fascination with the ways that images degrade and become increasingly cryptic with time, Sometimes is highly characteristic of the young artist’s approach to painting. Initially drawn to a conceptual video and installation practice as a student at Goldsmiths, from which he graduated in 2015, Jubb turned to painting in 2020, explaining that the image and video files he archived for use in his new media works form the basis for his paintings. He elaborated, “I basically picked up the airbrush as a tool for reproducing images, but with the view to introducing a degree of degradation or blur to ‘found’ images which were already derived from found images online with low-resolution forms.”
Focusing on the dystopian and referencing his love for horror films, his paintings convey an eerie sense of the uncanny and resonate strongly in contemporary culture. Their focus on the passage of time as well as the interplay between digital and analog modes of expression invite questions on the nature of reality and the possibility of permanence. Jubb’s works have been exhibited widely in solo and group exhibitions throughout the UK and Europe. Sometimes was included in the solo exhibition Jack Jubb: Feeling Sentimental at D-J Berlin in 2021.
Victor Man
Victor Man, Suburbian Hobbiest, 2004. New Now: Modern & Contemporary Art, London.
Compelling and inquisitive imagery meet Victor Man’s extraordinary painterly skill in works that institutions, galleries, and collectors find highly desirable. Man represented Romania at the 52nd Venice Biennale in 2007 and his work is held in important public collections, including London’s Tate Gallery, the Musée Nationale d’Art Moderne, Centre Pompidou in Paris, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
Often taking images from media sources, Man removes their original context in paintings that engage memory, metaphor, and confutation. Living through the communist regime and ultimately experiencing its downfall, the pitfalls of deterioration, scarcity, and isolation have been recurrent throughout his life and are among the themes he explores through his practice. In Suburbian Hobbyist, the visible erasure of the figure’s mouth paired with the nearly void space in which he exists combine to form an image that presents a subversive expression of Romanian suburban life — which, the artist points out, remain typically marginalized and underprivileged communities in contrast to suburban environments in much of the developed world.
Xie Lei
Xie Lei, Obsession, 2023. New Now: Modern & Contemporary Art, London.
Xie Lei’s immediately recognizable paintings typically present mysterious figures, their features obscured, in an otherworldly void that suggests a space between states of existence. The aptly titled Obsession is no different, but perhaps its principal pictorial interest is the ambiguous reach of a second figure. We’re unable to tell if the outstretched hand is moving away from the face or towards it, or if its touch is an embrace or something more sinister. Overall, the painting, though dark, is rendered with soft curvilinear washes of transparent blue that lend the work an inviting glow and a source of endless visual fascination.
The allure of the arresting worlds that the Chinese-born artist builds have captured the attention of art lovers around the globe. Fresh on the heels of successful global solo and group shows, including at the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris, the Kandlhofer in Vienna, and Lyles & King in New York, Xie Lei’s 2021 painting Swallow shattered its low estimate at December’s New Now auction in London.
Alfie Caine
Alfie Caine, Ocean Retreat, 2020. New Now: Modern & Contemporary Art, London.
An inviting study of the interplay between interior spaces and nature, Alfie Caine’s Ocean Retreat is a masterclass in the handling of light, shadow, reflection, and form. In this work, nearly everything depicted in the interior finds its counterpart in the natural world, reflecting visual parallels between what is man-made and what is natural (the pool versus the sea, the indoor potted plants versus the outdoor vegetation, the vibrant sun versus the soft glow of the interior lighting in both buildings). An expert draftsman who studied architecture at Cambridge University, the angled lines of the buildings separate the fields of the composition. These lines lead our eyes to the transparent orange curtain — lit from both sides — which summarizes the visual fluidity of the painting as a whole.
Since his work first appeared at auction in 2023 at the Whitechapel Gallery Art Icon Charity Auction hosted by Phillips, Alfie Caine’s paintings have gone on to generate global enthusiasm among collectors. Just last December, Houlgate Villa, a painting from the same year as Ocean Retreat, achieved more than six times its low estimate at Phillips’ New Now sale in London.
Gillian Carnegie
Gillian Carnegie, Untitled, 2001. New Now: Modern & Contemporary Art, London.
British artist Gillian Carnegie is a master of traditional painting who engages with the historical categories of the medium, her paintings of flowers being among her most lauded. There is much more than meets the eye at first glance however, as evident in the sculptural depth of the impasto layers in this still life from 2001. The effect lends a striking depth to the composition and Carnegie’s use of a pale, muted palette and clever handling of shadow challenge the delineation between foreground and background, ultimately lending an abstract quality to the work. There’s a subtlety and intrigue to her works that only reveal themselves with extended time in front of them. A highly respected painter, Carnegie was shortlisted for the Turner Prize in 2005 and has exhibited widely at galleries and institutions throughout the US, UK, and Europe.
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