The Sun Never Sets is London-based artist Matthew Krishanu’s first solo show in a public-funded gallery. The exhibition brings together over 30 paintings exploring figuration, place, and memory. The works centre on two boys (the artist and his brother) growing up in Bangladesh, and their experience of a complex world that includes expatriates, missionaries, and expansive landscapes.
Matthew Krishanu says: “The paintings are about stepping into ‘another country’ – one where themes of empire, childhood and migration are explored through a combination of autobiography and imagination.”
The show includes three paintings recently acquired by the Arts Council Collection, to be exhibited together for the first time. Skeleton (2014) depicts two boys standing with the bones of a cow, which is missing its forelegs – its skeleton was washed up on the banks of a river, during the severe floods in Bangladesh in 1988. In Boy and Mask (2017), a boy stands in front of a tiger’s mask – the mask seems animated or alive, while the boy has closed eyes. Ordination (2017) portrays a church scene (part of the artist’s ‘Mission’ series of works) in which a new priest is being ordained.
Questions of costume, symbol and status are raised in all these paintings – whether of adults seen performing ceremonial roles, or children posing in shorts and t-shirts.
The Sun Never Sets is accompanied by a free publication with a text by independent writer and curator Matt Price.
