A key contemporary moment: Yay, to have a mouth!

Rose Easton and Ginny on Frederick

14 February — 29 March 2025

This is a special moment for contemporary art in London. In recent years numerous emerging artists and galleries including a. SQUIRE, Brunette Coleman, Harlesden High Street, Ilenia, Hot Wheels, Neven, Rose Easton, Ginny on Frederick and many others have been generating energy that I have only ever experienced during the era of the YBAs (Young British Artists).

Some of these galleries were included in Frieze 2024, bringing freshness and excitement to the fair. Most of them started since or just before COVID, often occupying modest spaces that were made vacant by the pandemic, and holding ambitious and dynamic exhibitions beyond the physical restraints of their buildings. With it being so hard for artist-run spaces to exist and survive now, these galleries understand that exciting curatorial programmes are essential for their credibility.

Co-curated by Rose Easton and Ginny on Frederick, Yay, to have a mouth! is a group exhibition of thirteen artists in the space adjoining Rose Easton’s eponymous gallery in east London. It is an outstanding group show that upholds the theme in a visually engaging way, which is described by the curators as: “understanding the mouth as the originary site of pleasure and pain…” The galleries aren’t just showing the artists they normally work with, and have made a considered, curated show. The accompanying autofictional text by Sam Moore further invokes the show's feeling and reflects the recent tendency for young galleries to commission texts in place of press releases, evidencing their understanding of existing structures whilst seeing ways to reimagine things.

The curators have taken the title from the opening line of a 2010 feature in frieze by Jan Verwoert, considering the life and work of the Polish artist Alina Szapocznikow (1926–1973). Verwoert writes about the politics of emotion through the work of this historical figure, discussing the “joys” and “curse of having a mouth”, which is a facial feature often found in the sculptures of Szapocznikow. The artist's works resonate timelessly and emotively far beyond their appearance and physicality, reflecting her short and traumatic life. Drawing upon this history offers a potent place from which this contemporary show has grown.

Considering that these two galleries are significant within London’s emerging gallery scene — and embody a sense of community shared by many young galleries today — it is nice to witness an act of collaboration being so generative and supportive, akin to the spirit of Condo. The curators have thought internationally and included artists based in other countries. But the big success for me is that they have looked beyond their own age group to include artists of older generations, creating cross-generational dialogue within the show. This gesture is welcome. It is also clever, in that it benefits the status and perception of these galleries — and helps them to become more established. It reminds me of when Stuart Shave first showed Peter Halley in 2007, or Richard Tuttle in 2009 — exhibitions that re-contextualised the artists he worked with.

It is curious how different generations connect to older artists. As a student at Goldsmiths in the 1990s, I recall the omnipresence of Bruce Nauman — an artist who was especially influential on the YBAs. In recent years, I have lost count of the number of conversations I’ve had with students discussing Maggi Hambling, and similarly have noticed the increased interest in Sylvie Fleury, particularly following the Swiss artist’s 2023 show at Sprüth Magers.

Upon entering Yay, to have a mouth! the gallery visitor is greeted by a large cut-out figurative sculpture by I.W.Payne — an artist whose work has had relatively little exposure in London. It is shown alongside a painting by Mike Silva, a painter of my age who has belatedly begun to gain visibility for his work. Meanwhile, artists like Rebecca Ackroyd, R.I.P. Germain and Jenkin van Zyl are featured, all of whom have rightly had institutional shows.

Barbara Wesolowska, Michael Ho, Sang Woo Kim and Gabriella Boyd have recently had established gallery shows. But it feels refreshing to see their work together within a thematically curated exhibition. Works by Hannah Murray and Phillip Gabriel (both based in New York) are also featured — introducing their work to a new London audience.

The mouth is forever present and in different ways. In I.W. Payne’s work there is a large photographic image of a mouth with a speech bubble atop the painted dotted surface of the figure. Mike Silva’s tender painting of a close friend partially obscures the mouth as he drinks from a beer can. The physical reflection in Rebecca Ackroyd’s work include you — the viewer’s mouth. The mouth is explicit within the paintings of Sang Woo Kim, Hannah Murray, Phillip Gabriel and the sculptures of R.I.P. Germain and Jenkin van Zyl. It is more abstracted in the painting of Barbara Wesolowska and the constructed painted relief that looks like an enlarged makeup compact of Sylvie Fleury. You believe a mouth resides within the elusive, figure-like image in Gabriella Boyd’s painting. Meanwhile, other oral associations are implied in the work by Michael Ho. In Maggi Hambling’s painting Prelude 2000 the mouth is depicted repeatedly.

The artists in this exhibition who are still emerging or becoming established are already achieving impressive things, are gaining visibility, and have shows coming up that will only further their reputations. Both these galleries, along with their contemporaries, are growing and receiving so much attention. In my eyes this new generation is reshaping the art world. Since Frieze last year and with the the amount of press interest focusing on these galleries, the international art world is now conscious of London’s emerging art scene. When you combine these factors with the high quality of all the works, I think this show could historically be regarded as an important exhibition for this generation. It echoes the ambition that shows, such as Minky Manky curated by Carl Freedman at the South London Gallery in 1995, or Some Went Mad, Some Ran Away curated by Damien Hirst at Serpentine Gallery in 1994, had in the YBA era.

There have been other shows that have included artists from the emerging scene, but this multi-generational show stands out as it has been organised by galleries that are part of this generation themselves. I think Yay, to have a mouth! will be remembered in the future, not so much for having debuted new artists, but more for capturing the energy and having an intellectual and visceral understanding of a key moment.

Peter Davies, Member of the CAS Fine Art Acquisitions Advisory Committee, artist and lecturer at the Slade School of Fine Art

Yay, to have a mouth!

14 February - 29 March 2025
223 Cambridge Heath Road
London
E2 0EL