WHERE TO BUY…. DOMINIC BEATTIE AT FOLD
 2015
The Week | Issue 1039

The Week reviews an exhibition in a private gallery

In the art world of 2015, the art of the collage rarely attracts superlatives. This is a show to change that. The exhibition consists of four enormous collages of varying hues and patterns. Reproduction gives no sense of what it is to look at one of these extraordinary works; but if you linger in front of any of them, the effect is dazzling. Beattie has repeated patterns over and over again, taking meticulous care over the direction and positions of the lines and colours that he uses. The effect is mesmerising, radiating off the walls of the gallery like a heat haze. It all owes a lot to op art and modernism, but this is a body of work that reflects its own times while hinting at the past. It creates a kind of visual distortion that is not unlike looking at a cubist painting through a cracked iPhone screen. Also on show is a series of chairs that Beattie has designed and made to complement the collages. The resulting effect is science fiction by way of Piet Mondrian. Prices range from £10,000 to £15,000 for collages; and £180 for chairs.

 

158 New Cavendish Street, London W1 (020-7436 8050). Until 3 October.