LONDON.- Untitled, 1956 is the first of an ambitious trilogy of exhibitions produced in collaboration between Flat Time House (FTHo) and the Roberts Institute of Art. Each exhibition explores a different facet of the complex network of ideas and relationships surrounding John Latham’s work in dialogue with important works from the David and Indrė Roberts Collection. Throughout his life, Latham was relentlessly experimental in his choice of medium, rapidly moving between materials yet always applying a rich symbolism to his use of each. This first exhibition brings together a key early piece by Latham, Untitled, 1956, with impressive works by Phyllida Barlow, Bram Bogart and Antoni Tàpies, which share with Latham an intuitive investigation into material quality, presented alongside a new commission by Grace Ndiritu.

Alongside the three exhibitions, each taking its name from the key Latham work they contain, FTHo and RIA are commissioning an artist to produce a new performative work in response. Untitled, 1956 will present Grace Ndiritu’s commissioned carpet which incorporates a found image of a 1975 Artist Placement Group meeting. Alongside this will be documentation of new and existing performative works by Ndiritu including a live event entitled Event Structure: Holistic Reading Room (2022) which will take place at FTHo before the exhibition opening. Ndiritu’s intervention seeks to transform notions of group experiments from history to the present day through social practice. This commission reveals a resonance between her practice and Latham’s lifelong aim to bring reflective and intuitive modes of thinking to wider society – most clearly manifested in his work with the Artist Placement Group, a pioneering organisation that negotiated placements for artists within industry and government.

The second exhibition in the trilogy Red, Green and Yellow (28 April–29 May) features works from the David and Indrė Roberts Collection by John Latham, Liliane Lijn, Tim Head, Bob Law and Wolfgang Tillmans in an installation conceived by Berlin-based artist Julius Heinemann. The minimal and conceptual works in this presentation experiment with pure form, resonating with Latham’s belief in reflective and intuitive modes of working. The third and final exhibition, Gone Fishing (16 June–17 July), features work by John Latham, Boyle Family and Marlie Mul with a new audio commission by London-based artist Damien Roach under the umbrella of his cross-media project, patten. Latham and Boyle Family were pioneers in understanding sculpture as conceptual art and central participants and in the cross-pollination of popular culture and the avant-garde.

An accompanying publication produced by FTHo and RIA with newly commissioned texts will be launched in June 2022.