IDIOMS
65a Charlotte Street
London W1T 4PJ
The Finch Project is pleased to present Sophie Kitching’s new exhibition “IDIOMS” on view in Fitzrovia from October 8 to October 15, concurrently with Frieze London 2024.
Derived from the ancient Greek word “idioma,” which means “peculiar phraseology”, the intimate exhibition offers a comprehensive exploration of the artist’s own language and means of expression. Sophie Kitching’s pictorial writing becomes detectable as her own “peculiar language” through a range of mediums, including paintings on paper and polycarbonate panel, oil paintings on canvas and board. Two small-scale ‘French Windows’ allow her to further expand her research on colour into the third dimension.
“Idioms” hold the idea of a dual meaning, also of note in the selected works on view. In particular, the polycarbonate and two-way mirror painting ‘Untitled (Idioms)’ invites our own reflection and surroundings to become part of the piece, thus multiplying its perception and perspective. The ‘Spread’ series on calligraphy paper offers a dual interpretation, evoking both the diffusion of watercolour stains and the double-page itself enhanced with printed red margins. In “IDIOMS”, Sophie Kitching expands her body of work ‘Invisible Green’ with a triptych of new paintings invoking the power of nature as a universal language. Dark auberginehues, red and orange brushstrokes contrast with olive greens, light viridian pigments and blue lavender, while a significant part of the white canvas is left untouched. Like a silent pause, these breathing spaces allow for the painted surface to reveal itself. The unsaid in a conversation is often what is hidden or implied in the speech, a suspended place where a deeper understanding can unfold.
Each work presented embodies as such, in its void and filled surfaces, a recording of time, instant, landscape, nature, light and movement. Duality and contrast are at play as the works respond to one another.