Overview
Opening reception: Thursday 30 January 6-8pm
Gallery 2 is an occasional programme of non-represented artists exhibited at Pilar Corrias Conduit Street. For the first iteration of the programme, Pilar Corrias is pleased to present The Last Oozings, a new body of paintings by London-based Georg Wilson.
Painting with the seasons, Wilson’s practice channels the cyclical rhythms and forces of nature, where new life welcomes growth, growth meets death and death awaits resurrection. Referencing John Keats’s poem, The Last Oozings is the artist’s ode to autumn. As the season arrives, vibrant reds and boisterous greens shift to vivid yellows and smouldering browns, and the land that was once overflowing with abundance retreats.
Opening reception: Thursday 30 January 6-8pm
Gallery 2 is an occasional programme of non-represented artists exhibited at Pilar Corrias Conduit Street. For the first iteration of the programme, Pilar Corrias is pleased to present The Last Oozings, a new body of paintings by London-based Georg Wilson.
Painting with the seasons, Wilson’s practice channels the cyclical rhythms and forces of nature, where new life welcomes growth, growth meets death and death awaits resurrection. Referencing John Keats’s poem, The Last Oozings is the artist’s ode to autumn. As the season arrives, vibrant reds and boisterous greens shift to vivid yellows and smouldering browns, and the land that was once overflowing with abundance retreats.
A spirit of place informs Wilson’s work. Drawing inspiration from ancient English folklore, poetry and painting, the artist depicts bountiful landscapes that exceed the natural; devoid of human presence, they are instead inhabited by wildling creatures that live harmoniously with the land. A keystone for the exhibition is the oak tree and its rich folkloric tradition. Referred to as the guardian of the forest, the oak becomes the main character in the artist’s world, enveloping the landscape and the fantastic, hairy creatures that inhabit these lands. In The Wet (After Ophelia) (all works 2024), a creature lounges in a swamp, mimicking the reclining tree in Of Autumn, which also features a wildling. Clutching saplings in an upper corner of the canvas, the saintly creature could be the oak’s custodian, or indeed the one who long ago planted the tiny acorn from which it grew.
Wilson’s world-building is enriched by her unique approach to texture and mark-making that unifies all surfaces, forms and beings. Each swirling, overlapping brushstroke reflects the gilded light that bathes England on an early autumn morning; such intense golden hues dominate the artist’s palette, which can be likened to that of the British landscape painter Samuel Palmer (1805–1881). Wilson’s pastoral visions of the English countryside are nostalgic yet also present a non-human realm where ownership and extraction are not present; a world that can flourish when left to its own devices.
