Tyburn Gallery is pleased to present Intersection, a group exhibition including works by Gabriel Choto, Gabrielle Kruger and Neo Matloga.

This year, our summer group show features three young artists who are pushing the boundaries of painting in their practice. From layering different media, to blending techniques, to abandoning the canvas entirely, these artists all present their own innovative perspective on what it means to be a painter in 2018.

Gabriel Choto creates mixed media works on paper by combining the disciplines of printmaking and painting, finding new pathways into the painted image by taking cues from the surface quality produced by the printmaking process. His evolving experimental practice involves layering areas of naturalism rendered in oil paint over the delicate compositional architecture of etchings, to produce subtle, striking portraits. Sensitive and intimate, these images often include close family members, depicting quiet moments of contemplation or affectionate domestic scenes. They draw on themes of home, pride, identity and diaspora.

Gabrielle Kruger’s unique practice involves harnessing the materiality of acrylic paint to create complex, layered, 3-dimensional installations of plant-like forms. Freeing the paint from the surface of a canvas or board, the artist draws attention to the constructedness of both the tradition of landscape painting, and the modern natural environment itself. These works expose the complexity of the distinction between natural and synthetic, between plant, paint and plastic, hinting at the difficult relationship between humanity and our natural environment in the Anthropocene era.

Neo Matloga works with drawing, painting and collage to make large-scale mixed media pieces on paper or canvas, depicting domestic scenes which capture memories of daily life during the artist’s childhood. These monochromatic works play with surrealism and perspective, pushing light, shadow and line to the edge of abstraction. The artist’s practice is a meditation on the healing properties of family and home, showing fragments of happiness and togetherness in the midst of struggle, and the new hope which was emerging at the time – hope for a democratic future after the end of Apartheid.

Gabriel Tendai Choto was born in 1995 in Harare, Zimbabwe. He was raised in Bradford, and currently lives and works in London, England. After completing his Diploma in Art and Design at Leeds Arts University (formerly Leeds College of Art) in 2012, Choto went on to gain a BAFA in Drawing from Camberwell College of Art (UAL), London, in 2014. He is currently undertaking an MFA at Central St Martins, London, UK. Selected group exhibitions include FBA Futures, Mall Galleries, London, UK (2018); Flock, GX Gallery, London, UK (2017); Blxckout Revolution: The Exhibition, 198 Gallery, London, UK (2017); BAME, Hotel Elephant Gallery, London, UK (2016); and Long Live the New Flesh, Tower Gallery, London, UK (2015). In 2018, Choto was selected for the Clyde & Co Art Award, with his works being included in the Clyde & Co exhibition in London.

Gabrielle Kruger was born in 1993 in Cape Town, where she currently lives and works. After graduating summa cum laude from Stellenbosch University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 2015, she went on to be awarded her Masters in Fine Arts from Michaelis School of Fine Art, University of Cape Town in 2018. Kruger has exhibited widely within South Africa, including in such group exhibitions as Untitled 6.99, 99Loop Gallery, Cape Town (2018); SS17, Gallery Momo, Cape Town (2017); Growing Gatherings, 99Loop Gallery, Cape Town (2017); Between t[here] and then here and there, Michaelis Galleries, Cape Town (2017); Lady Bush, Cavalli Gallery, Somerset West (2017); Untitled 3.99, 99Loop Gallery, Cape Town (2016); Kingdom, Cavalli Gallery, Somerset West (2016); and Dreams Amongst Other Things, Salon91, Cape Town (2015). In 2018, she was awarded a Certificate of Excellence from the 33rd Chelsea International Fine Art Competition, and she will be participating in the collective exhibition at Agora Gallery, New York, NY, USA.

Neo Image Matloga was born in 1993 in Limpopo province, South Africa. He currently lives and works in Amsterdam, Netherlands, where he recently completed a two-year residency at De Ateliers. Solo projects include Good Morning Midnight, De Ateliers, Amsterdam, Netherlands (forthcoming); Molatelo, SCOPE Art Fair, New York, NY, USA (2017), and Moo re tswang gona, FNB Joburg Art Fair, Johannesburg, South Africa (2016). His work has been included in group exhibitions including Tell Freedom: 15 South African Artists, Kunsthal KAdE, Amersfoort, Netherlands (2018); ‘Let's see, where were we? In the pit of despair.’, De Ateliers, Amsterdam, Netherlands (2017); Post Its, Constitutional Court, Johannesburg, South Africa (2016); South African Voices, Gallery van Dorst, Wassenaar, Netherlands (2016). Before participating in the De Ateliers residency in Amsterdam from 2016 to 2018, Matloga also completed a residency at the Bag Factory in Johannesburg, South Africa in 2015.