LONDON.- Sims Reed Gallery and Oliver Projects are now showing Drop Shadows — a unique exhibition bringing together, for the first time, two contemporary artists - Katherine Jones RA and Temsuyanger Longkumer. Opening next spring, the exhibition will be a fusion of artistic visions exploring the delicate — and often deceptive - minutia of the natural world.

Having known each other as part of London's printmaking community for over twenty years, Herefordshire-born artist Katherine Jones RA and Temsuyanger Longkumer, who grew up in Nagaland, Northeast India have formed a special and close friendship. Despite vastly different upbringings, their aligned artistic practices share an intense fascination with the subtly transformative forces of nature, and its power to represent both danger and refuge.

In Drop Shadows, the artists explore nature's intricacies through three different art forms: painting, printmaking and sculpture. A renowned and accomplished printmaker, Jones has recently stepped outside her comfort zone to devote time to painting; this new body of unique works will be exhibited for the first time in this exhibition. Working on paper and wood panels, these works are investigating anthropomorphism in plants and parasites.

Jones' vibrant new imagery, featuring rainbow-hued wings, gleaming eyes, and wobbly cacti, hovers between figuration and abstraction. Gently surreal and ambiguous, each composition is infused with - in the artist’s words "a bit of magical thinking". This will contrast with Longkumer’s deeply symbolic objects which sit in quiet dialogue with the eerie luminosity that characterises Jones’ limited edition prints and paintings.

Earthy and tactile, Longkumer’s new collection of unique terracotta sculptures form the core of his multi-disciplinary artistic practice (his multi-media installation 'Home' was recently presented at the Venice International Film Festival.) Longkumer's curvaceous, organic forms focus on the mysterious world of microorganisms but are also reminiscent of rolling landscapes and the human body, with skin or scale-like surfaces. The artist’s additions of pins and spikes appear both menacing and protective, representing nature’s wily ability to deceive.

Drop Shadows has been curated by Katherine Oliver who has amassed over 20 years’ experience in the art world, and is bringing together these dynamic artists’ works in dialogue for the first time. This exhibition marks an exciting collaboration between Oliver Projects and Sims Reed Gallery, representing a new collaborative approach by pairing a respected, established gallery and rare book dealer with a recently founded nomadic gallery/online platform.

Katherine Oliver, Founder of Oliver Projects, comments: “Drop Shadows comes at an important time when the art world has begun to explore new, collaborative ways of working. These partnerships enable galleries to support each another whilst enriching the cultural landscape and offering fresh perspectives. This will be our first exhibition in central London, held in our 5th anniversary year, and will continue Oliver Projects’ programme of exhibiting contemporary artists’ works outside the typical ‘white cube’ gallery space. In addition, Drop Shadows will represent a shift in the gallery’s focus from contemporary works on paper to more substantial works including paintings and sculpture.”

Chloe Christian, Director at Sims Reed Gallery, adds: “We are thrilled to be working with Oliver Projects alongside Katherine Jones RA and Temsuyanger Longkumer - two hugely respected and established artists. Bringing their work together is a celebration of the power of collaboration which is further enhanced by this exciting partnership with Oliver Projects, which creates a vital platform for these artists to showcase their work, fostering a rich dialogue between the artists, the audience and the space itself."

Katherine Jones RA

Katherine Jones graduated from Camberwell College of Art in 2003. She has exhibited widely both in the UK and internationally and been the recipient of numerous awards including the London Original Print Fair Prize in 2014. She was also artist in residence at Eton College Drawing Schools in 2014; this was the starting point for ’We Grew the Long Bones’ a body of work which was launched by Oliver Projects with exhibitions at Eton and in London (2020). Rabley Gallery held a solo exhibition in 2021 which subsequently toured to Brixton Library gallery. Katherine’s work is held in public collections including the V&A Museum, London, Guangdong Museum, China, and Boston Athenaeum, USA. In April 2022 she was elected a Royal Academician. Katherine lives and works in south east London.

Temsuyanger Longkumer

Born into a remote tribe in Northeast India, Temsuyanger Longkumer is a multidisciplinary artist who studied at Guwahati University and The Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, both in India, before moving to London in 2001 to complete an MA in printmaking at the Royal College of Arts. He has since received numerous awards for his work and undertaken artistic residencies in Cambridge, Paris and Pisteletto, Italy. He has exhibited widely in the UK and beyond including showing work at the Singapore Biennale in 2019-20. He was the subject of a solo exhibition at Standpoint Gallery, London, in 2018, and most recently exhibited in the Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition (2022). His work is held in numerous collections including the Horniman Museum, London. He lives and works in east London.

Sims Reed Gallery and Oliver Projects
Drop Shadows
February 29th, 2024 - March 14th, 2024
PRIVATE VIEW: THURSDAY 29TH FEBRUARY, 6-8PM