South, London
Harminder Judge
A Ghost Dance
The Sunday PainterThe Sunday Painter and Matt’s Gallery are pleased to present A Ghost Dance, a single exhibition of new work by Harminder Judge across both galleries. Located just 10 minutes’ walk from each other, the galleries have worked collaboratively to help Judge realise a new body of work that brings the artist’s wall-based plaster pieces into dialogue with new developments with free standing and floor-based sculptures. A Ghost Dance references funeral rites, processions and the presence of ghosts and spirits. It draws on persistent themes in Judge’s work: life, death, ritual and rebirth, creating parallels between the deconstructed body and the cosmos. Judge is preoccupied with physical and spiritual transformation - a body becoming ash, material becoming immaterial, the physical becoming metaphysical. It revisits early elements of his practice, extends recent developments in his work, and opens up new areas of exploration. His work sets into motion dialogues between Western Modernism, Indian Neo Tantric painting, American Transcendental painting and familial funeral traditions drawn from rural Punjab. For The Sunday Painter, Judge combines new works on a smaller scale with a new cadaver-like sculpture devised for their space. For Matt’s Gallery, Judge works at scale, developing a monumental, enveloping expanse of material, pigment and colour for the space and setting this in dialogue with new discreet, floor-based semi-figurative works redolent of funereal urns or totems. A processional performance between the two spaces take place on the opening night, recalling early performance works by the artist. The exhibition is accompanied by a new essay by Susanna Davies-Crook, building on her previous text Spectres and Portals: The Work of Harminder Judge, produced for the artist’s debut solo show in India at Jhaveri Contemporary, Mumbai in 2023. Harminder Judge (b. 1982 Rotherham, UK) lives and works in London. He graduated from the Royal Academy Schools, London in 2021. Selected recent solo exhibitions include: Sea and Stone and Rib and Bone, Jhaveri Contemporary, Mumbai, India, 2023; Frieze London withThe Sunday Painter, London, UK 2022; Rising Skin from Rock and Chin, The Sunday Painter, London, UK 2022; Ankles Absorbing Ash, Humber Street Gallery, Hull, UK 2022; Mountains and Mercies, galeriepcp, Paris, France 2021. Selected recent group exhibitions include: Curated By: Glossary, Galerie Kandlhofer, Vienna, Austria 2023; The Reason for Painting, Mead Gallery, Warwick, UK 2023; Love Letter, Pace Gallery, New York City, USA 2023; And this skin of mine, Guts Gallery, London, UK 2022; New Beginnings, Blindspot Gallery, Hong Kong, 2022; A Grain of Sand, The Sunday Painter, London, UK 2021; Am I Human To You?, Jugendstilsenteret & Kube Museum, Ålesund, Norway 2021; Tomorrow: London, White Cube, London, UK 2020; Our Ashes Make Great Fertilizer, Public Gallery, London, UK 2020; At Home In The Universe, Jhaveri Contemporary, Mumbai, India 2019 and A Plot For The Multiverse, Indigo + Madder, London, UK 2019.