NEW YORK, NY.- GRIMM is presenting Corso, a solo exhibition of new works by London-based artist Francesca Mollett, on view at the New York gallery from 10 May to 22 June 2024. This is the artist’s second exhibition with GRIMM since joining the gallery in 2022, and her debut solo exhibition in New York. A new publication with an introduction by Bryony Bodimeade will be published to accompany the exhibition.

Mollett’s recent work is an exploration of the permeability of the painted image; the nature of her abstraction is porous, whereby representation of her subject seeps through membranous surfaces. Each canvas appears in flux, like a chemical reaction still unfolding, with the underlying image itself variously willed into or out of reach.

Language, textual and visual, is fundamental to decoding Mollett’s surfaces. The exhibition’s title Corso hints at the multiplicity of overlapping concepts with which the artist engages. With much of the work on view gathered from recent residencies - including one in 2023 in Turin, Italy - the title Corso is taken from the Italian word that can mean either ‘a street’ or ‘a river’, highlighting the intertwining of the architectural and natural. The artist arrived in Turin not long after a flood caused sections of the river Po to overflow its banks. The often overlooked minutiae of the town were thrown into sharp relief, as tree roots, cracks in the road, fluorescent fencing and peeling barks were cast in new, reflective detail.

Following her time in Italy, Mollett was later in residence in Cortachy, Scotland, looking at iridescence and lichens. Exploring the connections and disparities in each environment led to an openness when translating her observations back in her London studio, as time and space became compressed and reintegrated in her layered, painterly forms.