Opens: Thurs 13th March 6:00-9:30 pm Q&A 7-8pm
Location: MUSE @RSA house 8 John Adam St London WC26EZ
Exhibition runs until 30 April 2025
7 NEW PAINTINGS
| Ben Oakley Gallery is proud to present a solo Exhibition by Duncan McAfee at MUSE RSA House 18 Adam St WC2N 6AA ‘HOW SWEET THIS DREAM’ Opening Thursday 13th March 6pm- 9:30pm Q&A 7-8pm with Acclaimed Art Critic Peter Suchin & the Artist. Exhibition runs until April 30th 2025 MUSE Cocktails & Drinks Opening hours Mon-Friday 16:00 -23:00 ‘How Sweet This Dream’ a solo exhibition by Duncan McAfee is a title that evokes the intoxication of love and could easily be mistaken for a quote from a romantic poet such as Keats but is, in fact, taken from the 1986 Anita Baker song Sweet Love. This plays into Duncan McAfee’s recurring theme of misquotation and misremembering, as played out in the imagery of this group of seven new paintings. Each panel takes Bacchus, the Roman god of wine and fertility, and loosely re-imagines a historical work, from Titian’s 16th century Bacchus and Ariadne, depicting the title characters’ love at first sight, to a scene from the Pastoral section of Walt Disney’s 1940 Fantasia in which an intoxicated Bacchus kisses his donkey. The artist is often imagined as a lover: though expressing their deep emotions, their relationship with their muse or the idea of art itself as a language of love. An artist creates artworks to connect with some distant viewer, a stranger. It’s an impossible ambition, a vain fantasy and, in a paradoxical way, the artwork may end up being the obstacle to genuine connection, a thing that’s in the way, a barrier instead of a bridge, a wall instead of a window. Perhaps this is why the characters appear so anxious in these paintings. This group of work has been produced especially for the RSA Muse bar. The images have been chosen for their aptness to surround people connecting through vocation, occupation intoxication, revelry, and maybe… love. One might utter ‘I Love You’ as a sincere expression of deeply felt connection, or a drunkenly slurred statement that may later be regretted. This collection of paintings are doing everything at the same time. W: BenOakleyGallery.com. E: info@benoakleygallery.com I:benoakleygallery_ |
Many Thanks
Ben & Helen Oakley
Thanks as usual for your continued support.
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