About the artwork:
This body of work focuses on the corners of buildings. Each vertical painting divides stacked blocks and decorative mouldings with contrasting gray and navy stripes, creating jagged perspectives that simultaneously suggest a flattened, patterned surface. The cream and beige blocks shift subtly with the passing light, producing compositions that oscillate between minimalism and neoclassicism, concrete observation and abstract form, austere structure and ironic play. The works balance meticulous formalism with psychological tension, creating visual rhythms that are both precise and unpredictable.
Hodgkinson navigates the tension between pictorialising and abstraction, distilling experience into formal gestures while retaining subtle humor. These paintings continue his engagement with classical genres not as nostalgic forms but as living structures capable of contemporary resonance. This exhibition marks his first solo show with the gallery—a “putting on the braces” moment.
About the artist:
Anchored in representations of the visible world, John Hodgkinson does not use painting as a mirror but as a method of engagement—a means to approach the world, testing perception, memory, and feeling through sustained visual inquiry. His practice carefully considers the viewer’s perspective, shifting conventional modes of observation toward that of witness or voyeur.
Hodgkinson began painting in a derelict building in Lancaster Gate, west London, starting with the simple premise of painting what was visible outside his studio window. Over time, the place, light, and tones of the architecture helped define his style, a sensibility that has persisted throughout his work. Before 2022, he focused on installations and site-specific projects; lockdown allowed him to return to painting, bringing lessons from those experiences back to the canvas.
Observation—paired with a deep engagement with art history—is central to Hodgkinson’s process. He moves his studio frequently, responding to shifting environments, the sensory details of what is outside the window, and the qualities of light and space. This coupling of direct observation with historical painting methods informs the layered, thoughtful approach of his work.
John Hodgkinson (b. 1989, Lincoln, UK) lives and works in London, UK.
Recent solo exhibitions include Gratin, New York (2025) and Ramiken Crucible, New York (2023).
