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'I am trying to integrate emotional experiences with abstracted form; the unexpected happenings when these two things meet.' 1
This luscious painting by Antonia Showering appears at first glance to be an arcadian idyll. Set within a mountainous landscape, three figures gather around a body of water. The two figures in the foreground are on the verge of a tender embrace; with one arm outstretched and another concealed beneath the water, the central figure gestures towards intimacy.
Derived from personal experience, the subject matter of people in water - a motif Showering has been exploring across many canvases for the last year - updates early 20th century depictions of bathers through a distinctly contemporary lens. Showering favours ambiguity and suggestion over any direct and straightforward narrative reading. Is the figure in the background in pensive repose, or an intrusive spectator of this couple’s meeting?
Showering is one of the most exciting and promising painters working in the United Kingdom today. Her paintings often teeter at the edges of representation and abstraction. With bright, jewel-like colours that overlap and blend together, her compositions are formed from recent encounters and deeply embedded memories. The fragility of memory is suggested in Showering’s handling of paint, which gracefully fluctuates between ethereal layers of diluted pigment to built-up sections of opaque colour that overlap, obscure or reveal details in the narrative.
The strong and vibrant palette of saturated colours recalls the experiments of Les Nabis and German Expressionists, Emil Nolde in particular, as well as the semi-abstract paintings of the Californian landscape by Etel Adnan.
Painting in layers
Showering begins her process by applying distemper on raw canvas laid flat on the floor. As she begins to paint, the pigments react with the ground, creating loose, abstract pools of colour that form the basis of her compositions.
Showering continues by overlaying colours, creating richly layered compositions in which the previous marks remain visible. In Who do you follow? these blended layers form an expressive and elemental sky – pinks, greens, yellows and oranges fluidly extend into one another. Showering’s approach to colour is intuitive, pairing pink and green or yellow and ochre in various atmospheric combinations.
'Colour relationships are important to me; sometimes they need to sit harmoniously with one another and other times a slither of its complimentary colour can enhance or detract from the atmosphere of the painting.' 2
In the studio
Antonia Showering (born 1991, London) lives and works in London and Somerset. She graduated with a MFA from the Slade School of Art, London in 2018 and a BA (Hons) from City and Guilds of London Art School in 2016. Recent exhibitions of Showering’s work include an online solo presentation with White Cube (2020), Dwelling is the Light at Timothy Taylor (2020), and Out of This World at Stephen Friedman (2019). Residencies and awards include ‘Bloomberg New Contemporaries SPACE (studio bursary), London (2019); ‘The Great Women Artists Residency’, Palazzo Monti, Brescia (2018); and Chelsea Arts Club, London (2017).
1 https://whitecube.viewingrooms.com/viewing-room/43-introductions-antonia-showering/
2 https://somethingcurated.com/2020/08/31/interview-antonia-showering-on-her-new-show-at-white-cube-gallery/Description
Image courtesy of the artist
Condition reports, Lot descriptions and information in respect of Lots included in this Online-Only Auction have been prepared exclusively by Whitechapel Gallery following Whitechapel Gallery’s assessment of the Lots. Phillips and its staff are not responsible in any way for such statements, representations or opinions or for any other information provided in respect of the Lots, whether by Whitechapel Gallery, on Phillips website or in any other form.Provenance
Donation courtesy of the artist
1
Who do you follow?
signed and dated 'Antonia Showering A Showering 2021' on the overlap
oil on linen
51 x 41 cm (20 1/8 x 16 1/8 in.)
Painted in 2021.
Estimate
£4,000 - 6,000 ♠
Sold
Head of Sale, London
+44 20 7901 7993
Whitechapel Gallery Art Icon Charity Auction
Online Auction 15 - 23 March 2021
1
Antonia Showering
Who do you follow?
Estimate £4,000 - 6,000 ♠
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2
Jadé Fadojutimi
Our Eternal Internal Tsunami Effect
Estimate £5,000 - 7,000 ♠
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3
Yinka Shonibare CBE RA
Creatures of the Mappa Mundi – Alerion and Satyrs
Estimate £40,000 - 60,000 ♠
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4
Cassi Namoda
Princess Elizabeth Bagaya of Toro
Estimate £8,000 - 12,000
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5
William Kentridge, Tala Madani and Michael Rakowitz
Intimate and exclusive studio visits with Whitechapel Gallery Artist alumni William Kentridge, Tala Madani and Michael Rakowitz with Iwona Blazwick and Lydia Yee
Estimate £2,000 - 4,000
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6
Donna Huanca
OBSIDIAN LADDER
Estimate £2,000 - 3,000
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7
Rachel Jones
A Sliced Tooth
Estimate £5,000 - 7,000 ♠
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8
Ernesto Neto
body and skin
Estimate £12,000 - 15,000
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9
Michael Armitage
Dinner with Whitechapel Gallery Director Iwona Blazwick OBE and artist Michael Armitage at Townsend Restaurant
Estimate £3,000 - 5,000
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10
Flora Yukhnovich
Above the Salt
Estimate £15,000 - 20,000 ♠
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11
Ilse D’Hollander
Untitled
Estimate £8,000 - 12,000 ♠
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12
Margaret Howell
Exclusive personal shopping experience and store credit at Margaret Howell, London
Estimate £2,000 - 3,000
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13
Wonder Buhle Mbambo
This is For Where I am From
Estimate £8,000 - 12,000
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14
Henry Poole & Co
Experience an exclusive behind-the-scenes tour of one of London’s most famous Savile Row Tailors Henry Poole & Co with the owner Simon Cundey
Estimate £2,000 - 3,000
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15
Khari Turner
Moonlit King
Estimate £5,000 - 7,000
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16
Musée Atelier Audemars Piguet
Exclusive visit to Musée Atelier Audemars Piguet in Le Brassus, Switzerland, with Olivier Audemars
Estimate £5,000 - 8,000
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