Ed Cross Fine Art is delighted to present Wild Things, a solo show of new works on paper and linen by Tiffanie Delune, at London Art Fair 2022.
Leveraging Delune’s distinctive use of materials to expand her oeuvre’s established subject matter, Wild Things stages multiple iterations of a singularly rich conversation. Between generations and materials, across abstract and figurative forms, Delune asks – what makes up the indefinable, undeniable uniqueness of a person? Presenting multiple lines of enquiry, the works prefer to luxuriate in their own questions rather than cut them short with answers.
Representations of her own family members – her grandmother in Marie-Jeanne Always Whispers (2021), the shadow of her young father nestled inside an older, more peaceful self in No More Battlefields, Only Flowers (2021) – examine how inheritance might play a part in influencing one’s intuition and imagination; elsewhere, constellations and other astrological symbols push the viewer to consider heavenly as well as earthly influences on the personal present.
Whether raining down from celestial bodies, seeping into our souls from the earth beneath our feet or flowing through our veins courtesy of our ancestors, Wild Things manifests an intuitive kind of magic, heavily invested in its physical world. Incorporating a warm and sensual colour palette as well as characteristically diverse materials — from acrylic, pastels and paper to thread and glitter – Wild Things conjures playful resonances of the past (what was) and imagined memories (what could be) alike.
In There’s A Place For People Like Us (2022), presented unframed and hanging free, those twin lines of enquiry find common ground. Geometric shapes reminiscent of lunar phases are echoed in the fragmented silhouettes of animals, while soft layers of earthy pigment build into a surface symphony of tone and texture – the culmination of an investigation as personal as it is universal.
Having asked where our inclinations come from, Delune responds with her own indomitable and undeniable flair as an artist. Wild Things connects contemporary figures to ideas of ancestry, and inner lives to an individual’s roots and personal stories – in exemplifying her own path, Delune’s practice is as generative as it is generous.
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Tiffanie Delune is a Paris-born visual artist of French and Belgo-Congolese heritage, living in Lisbon, Portugal. Creating multi-layered pieces on cotton canvas, loose linen and smaller pieces of paper, Delune’s practice invites dialogue between scale and subject and incorporates materials from acrylic, pastels and papers to glitter, threads, loo roll, keys, bags and dried flowers. Self-taught, Delune immerses herself in her practice with daily rituals andcreative challenges. Delune has exhibited in London, Paris, Lagos and LosAngeles and featured on Forbes, BBC Radio London, Contemporary And, TheFinancial Times and Artsy. Her work is held in various private collections and thepermanent collections of the Fondation Gandur pour l’Art in Geneva, Switzerland aswell as the New York Presbytarian Hospital for Women and Newborns, NY.
Since 2009, Ed Cross Fine Art has worked with emerging and established artists across and beyond the African diaspora. The gallery seeks to stage conversations – between practitioners, international audiences and as guided by its artists – to amplify voices historically silenced, and to create space for their independent development.
Please contact Emily Watkins (emily@edcrossfineart.com) for more information, high res images, or to arrange an interview with the artist.