Alvaro Barrington South London Gallery 130th Anniversary Event

Join Alvaro Barrington and other participating artists for a special online fundraising event on Zoom on Monday 27 September 2021 from 6–7pm BST in celebration of South London Gallery's 130th Anniversary. 

The event will be live streamed from South London Gallery's pop-up space at 30 Old Burlington Street, W1S 3AR. 

The South London Gallery (SLG) was established in the 19th century by philanthropist William Rossiter, with a vision to ‘bring art to the people of south London’. Today it is one of the capital’s leading contemporary visual art institutions, known for its ground-breaking programme of contemporary art exhibitions, events and education projects for children, young people and adults.

Opened on its current site in 1891, the SLG is celebrating its 130th anniversary of being free and welcoming to all with the launch of a portfolio of limited edition prints by five leading international artists - Alvaro Barrington, Rashid Johnson, Gabriel Orozco, Christina Quarles and Haegue Yang - plus a new limited edition print on fabric by Katharina Grosse. With five limited edition prints on paper in a bespoke portfolio box with title page plus booklet about the artists and works, the portfolio is only available as a set and the prints are not sold individually. 

The SLG130 Portfolio will be launched at at a specially reduced price during the event. Katharina Grosse has also created a new limited edition print on fabric for sale on the night. 100% of profits from sales will directly benefit the South London Gallery.

Please register to join this invitation-only event.

ONLINE EVENT REGISTRATION

SLG 130th Anniversary online event
Monday 27 September 2021
6-7pm BST
Zoom

ALVARO BARRINGTON

SPIDER THE PIG, PIG THE SPIDER, 2021

Inkjet prrint on paper

80 x 70 cm

Alvaro Barrington’s print edition for SLG130 is divided into two versions, one of which features the words ‘Spider the Pig’, and the other ‘Pig the Spider’. Together they reveal the title of the artist’s 2021 exhibition at the SLG Spider the Pig, Pig the Spider. This play on mutation and inter-changeability is continued through the visual composition of the prints. Multiple images of the artist’s hand and forearm are overlaid with digitally rendered line drawings of spiders’ legs and pigs’ trotters in reference to the characters introduced in the title. These are superimposed onto a backdrop merging elements from the video game, Grand Theft Auto with Barrington’s photo of a nasturtium flower and leaf at a community garden near his studio. Two of the five distinctive arm gestures are based on George Orwell’s Animal Farm: one is a sign akin to the Hitler salute made by the main character– a pig called Napoleon, and another mimics the threateningly clench--fisted arms at the sides of all the pigs at the moment when they start to wear suits. A contrastingly gentle caress by Grandma Pig in the children’s cartoon Peppa Pig is the source of the third gesture, alongside another inspired by the strength and flexibility of the legs in the towering bronze sculptures of spiders by Louise Bourgeois. The remaining two hand signs are from Barrington’s own version of the African folktale of Anansi the Spider, into which he introduces the Black Power fist and the pointing finger of God from Michelangelo’s Creation of Adam on the Sistine Chapel ceiling.

The event coincides with Alvaro Barrington's upcoming exhibition at South London Gallery, Spider the Pig, Pig the Spider, the artist's first solo presentation in a UK institution. 

The exhibition will run from 1 October - 21 November 2021