Wynnie Mynerva: Bone of my bones, flesh of my flesh

Gathering, Warwick St
24 January – 4 March 2023

Mounted onto curved partitions, monumental work cowl the doorway of Gathering. Standing in entrance of those work by Peruvian artist Wynnie Mynerva calls forth a magnitude and awe on the rigidity of the work. Violated Bliss I (and II), 2022, refers to a realm of violence and ecstasy while without delay functioning like two big arms enveloping the viewer inside the house — embraced or asphyxiated?

A small opening in between the work results in an additional darker house. Suspended within the air is a unadorned determine with seemingly infinite hair reaching the ground. Their gaze appears fastened with darkish dilated pupils. Their pores and skin shines and glows, virtually as if the physique was coated in oil. Are they human or robotic? I discover the rhythm of their shifting ribs, and the mark on one aspect. This mark stands for the reminiscence of myths round our bodies and creation. Not solely is the physique actual, however it in reality is Mynerva who ascends mid-air in the course of the length of the opening. A dwelling sculpture for a night, Mynerva is a proud non-binary and pansexual artist.

Due to this, the title of the present Bones of My Bones: Flesh of My Flesh factors to matters deeply private to Mynerva: physicality and gender development. In Genesis 2.23 there’s a passage that instantly references the creation of the primary girl: “this one eventually is bone of my bones And flesh of my flesh. This one shall be known as Lady, For from man was she taken.” This Western allegory of how the primary girl was created from the ribs of man stands for a patriarchal mode of considering.

Additional work are held on the wall with thick layers of paint developing contorted figures. A scent of oil persists across the portray First Bare Glory, 2022, which appear to have come straight out of the studio. The our bodies on the canvas distantly recall Picasso’s Les Demoiselles D’Avignon, seminal figures within the historical past of recent Western portray; but the figures of Mynerva are animated and twisted reacting to and subverting this given artwork historic ‘canon’.

The exhibition continues downstairs. Two Our bodies Contact on the Identical Shore I (and II), 2022, give a grandiose finale to this exhibition. They’re hung to assemble a ramp, separated by a crimson vinyl on the ground. The palette of darker and lighter pinks blends within the greys and blacks growing the rhythm of composition. It provides distinction and power to figures that Wynnie Mynerva paints with giant brush strokes. Like in a skateboard park, their circularity reference the symbolic order of shifting between binaries. The ramp gives freedom from the inflexible impositions of a patriarchal mind-set that Mynerva so brilliantly refuses.

Ilaria Puri Purini
Curator of Nationwide Programmes

5 Warwick St, London W1B 5LU
Opening Occasions: Tuesday to Saturday, 11.00 – 18.00
Exhibition open unitl 4 March 2023