The Smallest Gallery in Soho is delighted to present artist Michael Henley with his work Descended - an unsettling end. Following directly from Henley’s solo exhibition in late 2021 and expanding from the installation piece ‘Descended’, which draws from human and animal forms alongside visual cues from the Vanitas movement and classic Baroque Painting. He seeks to communicate the transience of organic matter, animals and bone in a state of constant metamorphosis. The heavily worked graphite pieces are layered and coupled with a light source with the aim to create translucent pillars or trees (in this case) that seem to be etched with the images and stories.
The portal-esc pieces that contain, as a whole and individually, a glimpse into the world around us. Perhaps not in this time frame but a far off future at the mercy of the many possible scenarios that could play out.
The choice of a monochrome colour scheme helps to create a further feeling of seeing something that has, over time, aged to become the raw parts of the intended image and what we are presented with is the ‘bones’ or very raw parts of the whole.
Overall, some may view these works in terms of morbidity or life and death and while this is a present theme in a lot of Henley’s works, the same could be said in favour of the celebration of life and nature. In any case these pieces offer the culmination of Henley’s current practice which seeks to embrace a sense of experimentation and change.
About the Artist:
Michael Henley is a London based artist whose work deals primarily the duality of process and ideas. He uses this partnership to push and experiment with his medium (ink, graphite & light) as much as possible which in turn informs the research and concept of each body of work.
Henley’s fascination with organic bodies and the natural world is a huge influence on his work and through this he aims to create highly detailed pieces that act as portals or, perhaps beacons that invite further inspection wherever they may be.
