miłość
29 Downham Rd
London N1 5AA
Wed-Sat 11-6 & by appointment
Newsletter
The gallery is currently on its summer break, open by appointment only. We will reopen to the public on the evening of 12 Sept.
UPCOMING EXHIBITION
Cherry Bomb!
Kate Burling, Douglas Cantor, Anna Choutova, Nettle Grellier, Gosia Kołdraszewska, Lydia Pettit, Olivia Sterling, Sophie Vallance Cantor
13 Sept - 4 Oct
PV: 12 Sept, 6-9pm
Cherry Bomb!, the tenth exhibition at miłość, features Kate Burling, Anna Choutova, Douglas Cantor, Nettle Grellier, Gosia Kołdraszewska, Lydia Pettit, Olivia Sterling, Sophie Vallance Cantor in their interpretations of the theme of cherries in the media of painting, drawing, installation and film.
Not unlike an apple, but sexier, the cherry has become a symbol of innocence and youth and their inevitable loss. Taking the title from the Runaway’s punk rock hit, the exhibition is an image of rebellion, decadence, loudness. Yet, in the abundance of sweetness and explosiveness, there is risk of nausea, and the loss of purity is traced with nostalgia – so be careful not to choke on the pit whilst you tie the stem into a knot.
Cherry Bomb! is accompanied by an exhibition text by Asha Palacios. The private view will coordinate with local openings, as we premiere the Haggerston Gallery Map together with Alma Pearl, Final Hot Desert, Project Loop and Seventeen.
Request the exhibition catalogue or press pack.
ARTIST SPOTLIGHT
Douglas Cantor
Douglas Cantor’s paintings are layered and personal; they project onto and record his day-to-day life through recurring motifs of personal objects and desires, close relationships, and snippets of life and traumas. They celebrate and romanticise, reminisce and grieve – in a stream of consciousness, his use of symbolism is dictated by the process of painting itself and the forming of the image, both conceptual and compositional.
This more private and emotional aspect of his work weaves an assortment of personal jokes and anecdotes into the imagery of the paintings and, like layers to a person, its meanings are ready to resonate with some but not all. Douglas’s use of text and poetry then serves as a bridge connecting the viewer with the indirect, and a window to his emotional and mental state.
A common motive in Douglas’s paintings is the exploration of diaspora identity and the transfiguration of culture through the experience of the Latino immigrant to the UK. The images are often punctuated by the feelings of segregation, rejection and discrimination, which simultaneously manage to remain romantic and idealised, wishful and hopeful. They preserve the dreamings of the immigrant in what may be a collective cultural version of the lie sold as the American Dream, but in this case, his own.
Douglas tries to come to terms with the ways his culture and identity have mutated through the experience of immigration; his work delves into what it means to not belong here or there, the feelings of a fragmented life, and the stark contrast of realities between the place that was left behind and the often unwelcoming new place. Circumstances and experiences all too familiar to the immigrant, they simultaneously strengthen and dilute what it means to be from somewhere else, somewhere past, or nowhere at all.
Enquire about available works.
BOOKSHOP SPOTLIGHT
Fąfel
Gosia Kołdraszewska & Julia Grygiel
FĄFEL is a story of two sunflowers, the dialogue between them becomes the focal point of the story. It is an experiment, an attempt to bridge a visual narrative of Gosia Kołdraszewska with the poetry of Julia Grygiel — two languages and styles of expression.
The name FĄFEL is an expression of lightness and softness which the authors want the publication to bring. Intending FĄFEL to be treated as an object-book rather than a zine, while choosing the materials, they focused on the feeling of quality and, primarily, softness.
See more here.