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Almine Rech

Genieve Figgis All the Light We Cannot See

Nov 21 — Dec 19, 2015 | London, Savile Row

Barely more animated are the English conversation pieces where, if the adults have the stylised hauteur of fish in brilliant livery, the little ones of the family, arrested by the painter in playful or light-hearted moments, suggest the image of darting minnows among the motionless, intent, mature fish. And these aquariums are lighted by the eighteenth century sun which seemed fated never to set. 

—Mario Praz

 In 1785, John Adams was appointed the first Ambassador to the Court of Saint James. Adams, questioned by an associate as to whether he had any British relatives, replied: “Neither my father or mother, grandfather or grandmother, great grandfather or great grandmother, nor any other relation that I know of, or care a farthing for, has been in England these one hundred and fifty years; so that you see I have not one drop of blood in my veins but what is American.”[1] Regardless of the characteristic bluntness—some might say surliness—of his answer, Adams’s ambassadorship was a success. During his first meeting with King George III, his former sovereign, he nevertheless described himself as, “more fortunate than all my fellow Citizens in having the distinguished Honor to be the first to stand in your Majesty’s royal Presence in a diplomatic Character.” In his response to Adams the King concluded by saying, “ I will be very frank with you. I was the last to c onsent to the Separation, but the Separation having been made and having become inevitable, I have always said, as I say now, that I would be the first to meet the Friendship of the United States as an independent Power. . . let the Circumstances of Language; Religion and Blood have their natural and full Effect.”[2]

Genieve Figgis’ first exhibition at Almine Rech Gallery stands as an eloquent testimony to the monarch’s prophesy; in All the Light We Cannot See, she rewrites the fashionable mid-eighteenth-century painting genre of “conversation pieces,” in a language of clotted blood and mystical delirium which reconstrues the proposed narrative as one of dissolution suffused in luxury.[…]

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Selected artworks

  • Genieve Figgis,                                      Living Room, 2015

    Genieve Figgis Living Room, 2015

    Acrylic on canvas
    120 x 150 cm

  • Genieve Figgis,                                      Dinner, 2015

    Genieve Figgis Dinner, 2015

    Acrylic on canvas
    80 x 100 cm

  • Genieve Figgis,                                      Goya's Commission, 2015

    Genieve Figgis Goya's Commission, 2015

    Acrylic on canvas
    100 x 150 cm

  • Genieve Figgis,                                      Bedtime, 2015

    Genieve Figgis Bedtime, 2015

    Acrylic on canvas
    80 x 100 cm

  • Genieve Figgis,                                      Chocolate Bed, 2015

    Genieve Figgis Chocolate Bed, 2015

    Acrylic on canvas
    60 x 80 cm

  • Genieve Figgis,                                      Carriage, 2015

    Genieve Figgis Carriage, 2015

    Acrylic on canvas
    100 x 140 cm

  • Genieve Figgis,                                      Mr & Mrs Andrews after Gainsborough, 2015

    Genieve Figgis Mr & Mrs Andrews after Gainsborough, 2015

    Acrylic on canvas
    70 x 100 cm

  • Genieve Figgis,                                      Brothers, 2015

    Genieve Figgis Brothers, 2015

    Acrylic on canvas
    30 X 40 cm

  • Genieve Figgis,                                      Kissing by the Window, 2015

    Genieve Figgis Kissing by the Window, 2015

    Acrylic on canvas
    50 x 40 cm

  • Genieve Figgis,                                      House / Reflection, 2015

    Genieve Figgis House / Reflection, 2015

    Acrylic on canvas
    120 x 100 cm

  • Genieve Figgis,                                      Gentleman on a Horse, 2015

    Genieve Figgis Gentleman on a Horse, 2015

    Acrylic on canvas
    150 x 150 cm