An exhibition that gave us life …

This is an exhibition review that I have been meaning to write for a few months now, but I just never sat down and actually done it. So, today is the day, here it is. And I feel it is still very much current, even though it is written from a perspective of a time a while back… How much has really changed?….

There was this exhibition I was planning to see for a while and one day I was walking home from work very tired and all I wanted to do was to get home as soon as possible and lie down. But I don’t know what happened, but something drew me to walk the long way home and I somehow made my way into the 44AD gallery.

At first I didn’t even know what was going on when I was standing in front of the door. I felt like an impostor. I mean, a curator, who hasn’t physically been in any gallery for more than a year… It wasn’t a nice feeling and I knew I had to change it. I have the power to change it with literally just one step.

I saw the gallery was surprisingly still open and I walked in. And, oh, what have I walked into! It was actually one of the private views of the exhibition, how lucky was I. I immediately got a huge burst of energy when I saw the artist Natalie in there, with a huge smile on her face (which you could know was there, even if it was hiding behind the mask). Natalie Bedford is an amazing and a very positive artist that I have collaborated with a few years back when she chose me to curate her solo show. I was so amazed with how the space looked like.

She actually curated the exhibition herself this time. And I know the space very well, because I made quite a few exhibitions in there, but she transformed it so much that I almost didn’t recognize it. Wow.

The works of art consisted of her new paintings of flowers from her garden that she did during the lockdown. And, oh, it really was like walking into a garden! Just positive colours on colours on colours surrounding you. She used some very interesting solutions for exhibiting the works and also included real flowers. It was all so bright and simply brilliant. I just couldn’t help but smile.

I really saw Natalie’s energy through the paintings, what kind of energy she was in when she was painting. And, remember, that was during the gloomy lockdown, but the positivity was just shining through… I was walking around the exhibition and I could finally breathe. Literally.

Yes, I know I haven’t been to any gallery then for a while, mainly just the online ones, but none of the artworks and the energy they have been exuding gave me what this one gave me.

There were mostly paintings of flowers, which I have to admit I am usually not as fussed about. But they were so beautiful and so stunning. So positively charming and great. And there were objects around the space that corresponed to the once that were painted on the canvas. And flowers in vases and hanging from the walls. All that just gave it life.

Literally, that exhibition was LIFE! And it made me think that whatever is happening, the brighter future is coming.

And I still feel that. I keep wondering what kind of artworks will we be seeing in the next few years. What will change? What will the topics be? And this gave me confirmation that not everything will be pessimistic (though I agree that we have to tackle this as well!). There will be life. Because we are alive.