October Gallery is pleased to announce an exhibition by the late Kenji Yoshida (1924-2009). In 2007, Yoshida said ‘Life brightens most when peace occurs. Peace is supreme beauty’ and this constantly repeated idea suffuses his art. This exhibition will display selected works from different periods of the artist’s career. His first years after moving to Paris in 1964 to work with Stanley Hayter are best characterized by his subtle and graceful etchings, varying from elementary shapes to delicate and intricate motifs against dark backgrounds. In the oil on paper works from the ‘70s and ‘80s, Yoshida experimented with irregular forms and muted colours merging imperceptibly into one another. However, this exhibition will focus primarily on Yoshida’s later paintings in which gold and silver are dynamically applied upon contrasting fields of bright colours and black grounds. Stunning multi-panelled pieces remember, in their sheer size, traditional Japanese lacquer screens and their exquisite deployment of gold and silver leaf. Yoshida’s work reflects the Japanese aesthetic ideals of wabi and sabi, a mindful approach to everyday life, which accepts that beauty is transient, imperfect and always incomplete.

To coincide with El Anatsui’s monumental installation covering the façade of the Royal Academy of Arts during their Summer Exhibition, October Gallery, London, will display two of the artist’s recent works, Iris and Balkan in the exhibition Masters of the Transvangarde.
Masters of the Transvangarde celebrates the pioneers of the “trans-cultural avant-garde”, with an eclectic gathering of masterpieces of contemporary art from around the world.

Also on display will be work by William S. Burroughs, Brion Gysin, Rachid Koraïchi, Gerald Wilde and Kenji Yoshida.

October Gallery presents The World of Extraordinary Objects, a group exhibition of mesmerising mixed-media works by artists from around the world. This exhibition will introduce artists Gyeong Yoon An, Jukhee Kwon and Remy Jungerman, who will display their works for the first time at October Gallery, London.

The World of Extraordinary Objects will also include the large-scale sculpture, Exit Ball, by Romuald Hazoumè, powerful new work by Laila Shawa as well as intriguing works by Gérard Quenum, Gandalf Gavan, William S. Burroughs, Huang Xu and Lucy Azubuike amongst others. This exhibition hopes to surprise and engage the senses of the viewer, sharpen perception, creating a doorway to another world, where ordinary objects become extraordinary.

October Gallery is pleased to present All out of time and into space, an exhibition of the art of William S. Burroughs.

October Gallery’s long association with William Burroughs began in 1988 with his second solo exhibition, which was his premiere exhibition in the UK. The founders of the October Gallery have worked with Burroughs since 1974 and for this latest insightful exhibition, collaborate with William Burroughs Communications and James Grauerholz, Burroughs’ long-time associate, editor and collaborator. The show will feature Burroughs’ paintings, drawings and a selection of his ‘talismanic’ art objects’.