On the occasion of Winston Branch’s first exhibition at Simon Lee Gallery, we are delighted to host a talk between the artist and Rianna Jade Parker. The talk will take as its point of departure Parker’s recent interview with the artist for Tate Etc magazine, looking in greater depth at the artist’s journey with abstraction, extensive travels and his move to the Caribbean.

Simon Lee Gallery and Varvara Roza Galleries are pleased to present Jasmines blowing in the wind, a solo exhibition of paintings by Winston Branch. For his inaugural exhibition with the gallery and his first in the UK in 25 years, Branch will present a selection of historic works that delve into the possibilities of painting through abstraction.

Ambitious and experimental, the works in this exhibition are the fruit of a 25-year long inquiry into the potentiality of light, colour, space and depth. Born in St. Lucia in 1947, Winston Branch came to London as a teenager to study at The Slade School of Fine Art. Branch would go on to teach at The Slade School of Fine Art, Chelsea College of Arts and University of California (Berkeley, CA) amongst others, whilst maintaining a robust painting practice initially focused on figuration but, from the 1980s onwards, focused on pure abstraction.

Notes on the speaker:

Rianna Jade Parker is a critic, curator and researcher based in South London where she studies her MA in Contemporary Art Theory at Goldsmiths College, University of London. She is a founding member of interdisciplinary collective Thick/er Black Lines, whose work was exhibited in the landmark exhibition Get Up, Stand Up Now: Generations of Black Creative Pioneers at Somerset House, London. She is a Contributing Editor of Frieze magazine and co-curated War Inna Babylon: The Community’s Struggle for Truths and Rights at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London. Her first book ‘A Brief History of Black British Art’ was published by Tate in 2021 and she is represented by The Wiley Agency.

Time: 18:30

Location: Simon Lee Gallery, London

Tickets are free, but confirmation of attendance is required, please contact: events@simonleegallery.com or RSVP via this link: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/468547677717