Kerlin Gallery is pleased to present Them, an exhibition of new painting, sculpture and work on paper by Guggi.
Across paintings on canvas and paper, the artist builds up fields of intense colour layered with the bold, curving outlines of simple vessels and smudgy, broken crosses. Meanwhile, in the titular painting, Them, two linear forms ascend on the left-hand side of the picture plane – abstract and totem-like motifs that represent the artist’s late parents. Layered over four pencil-drawn bowls, a gossamer wash of white paint, and the coarse, jagged finish of the paper itself, the figures enter a dynamic but harmonious relationship with shape, line, gesture, and colour.

Them also includes four small, whitewashed urns – the kind of meditatively simple common objects of utility that have formed the subject matter of Guggi’s paintings for decades.

Over the past three decades, Guggi has achieved recognition for his drawing, painting and sculpture using the quotidian beauty of household objects to reflect on the human experience. Through his expressive use of shape, line, gesture, and colour, he imbues simplified everyday objects with great emotional resonance and feeling. Described by the artist as his most auto-biographical exhibition yet, Them sees the artist’s established forms and techniques applied to a deeply personal subject matter – the recent loss of his parents – presenting us with an exhibition of diverse media and emotional range. Rich in poetic expression, the works in Them invite us to reflect on memory, the passing of time, familial bonds, and the objects that tell the stories of our lives.