Painter Lewis Hammond Explores the Dark Side of Intimacy in a Moody New Show in Mexico City—See It Here

As galleries around the world begin to slowly reopen, we are
focusing on exhibitions at spaces that are now open to public
visitors. Check out this show at a newly reopened gallery
below.

“Lewis
Hammond: Still Life”
Through June 27 at Lulu, Mexico City

What the gallery says: “The work of
London-based painter Lewis Hammond seems to embody if not the macro
aspect of the moment, then the micro, the personal, private
experience of what many of us may currently be experiencing.
Indeed, if Hammond’s tenebrous pictures felt relevant in a
pre-pandemic world, their portrayal of extreme states of mind, such
as fear, anxiety, desire and claustrophobia, feels more pertinent
than ever now.

The work in this exhibition, which was made [before and
during] the crisis in Mexico and then completed en pleine
crise in London, is liable to bring to mind many things. The
artist’s dark and moody palette, not to mention phantasmagoric
subject matter, deliberately evokes a whole host of old masters,
particularly Goya and the “Black Paintings,” as well as other
examples of the Spanish baroque, like Ribera.”

Why it’s worth a look: The subjects of
these moody, thick, chalky works seem at first to be relishing
their closeness to one another. A couple spoons in bed; another two
embrace, their heads almost fused together. Such pictures are
interspersed with others that veer toward danger, though it’s never
realized. In one painting, three thorny branches stand in domed
interior frames; in another, there is an arrangement of knives and
sharp tools; in a third, we see a scavenging animal with his fangs
out.

The heavy colors can be more calming than aggressive though, and
it seems as if the exhibition’s title, “Still Life,” refers not to
the art-historical term, but to the artist’s vision of people
and things existing in a still, unhurried life.

What it looks like:

The post Painter Lewis Hammond Explores the Dark Side of
Intimacy in a Moody New Show in Mexico City—See It Here
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