Galerie Gregor Staiger is pleased to present a solo booth featuring new paintings and works on paper by Somaya Critchlow, created for this year’s Paris Internationale. While working on the artworks displayed, Critchlow read two essays in parallel: Angela Carter’s ‘A Well Hung Hang-Up’ and Audre Lorde’s ‘Uses of the Erotic, The Erotic as Power’, continuing inline with her reference to ‘The Maids’ by Jean Genet, all of which have informed the artist’s research. The miniature and larger ink works showcased serve as a means for the artist to experiment with the expression of mark-making and atmosphere. Critchlow has also been working on creating paintings of two figures for some time, and a curated selection of these will be exhibited throughout the duration of the fair.

Somaya Critchlow (b. 1993, London) lives and works in London. Critchlow is currently featured in the group show “Pictures Girls Make”: Portraitures, curated by Alison M. Gingeras at Blum & Poe, LA. Recent solo exhibitions include Somaya Critchlow: Paintings and Drawings, FLAG Art Foundation, New York (2023); Afternoon’s Darkness, Maximillian William, London (2022); Blow-Up, Galerie Gregor Stager, Zürich, Switzerland (2021); Underneath a Bebop Moon, Maximillian William, London (2020); and Sincere for Synonym, Fortnight Institute, New York, NY (2019), among others. Critchlow’s works have been acquired by institutions such as the Baltimore Museum of Art, MD; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, CA; Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA; The Arts Council, London; The British Museum, London and Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam.

As of Late,

Late under i
feelings, under gut
torso tender, tense
knotted
a network of connections
minds read, what the subconscious
knows
feelings under late
lately hatred grows.

Glittering skyline,
a milky moon penetration
of darkness,
holding the seams together
7 turns away,
inches crawl by
but they always took miles

under, eye
under mind,
a sleepy hollow

Somaya Critchlow