• THE RAW EDGE OF BRUTAL EXPRESSIONISM: CYRILLE CHAMAYOU & ANDREW MOGRIDGE
    INVESTEC CAPE TOWN ART FAIR 2025 | Candice Berman Gallery

    THE RAW EDGE OF BRUTAL EXPRESSIONISM: CYRILLE CHAMAYOU & ANDREW MOGRIDGE

    Brutal Expressionism: A Confrontation with Chaos

     

    At the heart of this exhibition is the ethos of Brutal Expressionism, a contemporary movement born in response to the increasingly chaotic and unpredictable world we inhabit. Both Chamayou and Mogridge reject pretence and convention, instead embracing the raw, the emotional, and the absurd. Their works are not safe havens of beauty or serenity but rather spaces of confrontation – whether through the discomfiting figures in Chamayou’s paintings or the playful yet subversive ceramics of Mogridge. Brutal Expressionism offers no clear answers but compels both artist and viewer to engage with the messiness of human experience.

     

    For Chamayou, this confrontation is deeply personal. His art is a cathartic process, a physical struggle with his materials and emotions that produces works of intense energy and ambiguity. For Mogridge, the confrontation is societal, using humour to upend our expectations of power, authority, and permanence. Together, their works reflect the duality of existence – where beauty and violence, tenderness and absurdity, coexist in a chaotic and unpredictable world.

     

    This exhibition is an invitation to step into the raw edge of that chaos, to experience art that does not shy away from the brutal truths of our time, but rather confronts them head-on, offering catharsis, absurdity, and perhaps even a glimmer of understanding amidst the disorder.

     

     

    This exhibition presents the powerful works of two distinctive artists, Cyrille Chamayou and Andrew Mogridge, both of whom embrace the chaotic, the absurd and the visceral in their practices. Through their respective mediums – Chamayou in painting and Mogridge in ceramics – each artist explores the unpredictable forces that shape human experience, presenting an unflinching confrontation with themes of power, violence, and emotional intensity.

     

  • Andrew Mogridge: Absurdity and Subversion in Ceramics In contrast to Chamayou’s emotional intensity, Andrew Mogridge approaches the chaotic world with...

    Andrew Mogridge: Absurdity and Subversion in Ceramics

     

    In contrast to Chamayou’s emotional intensity, Andrew Mogridge approaches the chaotic world with a sense of the absurd. A storyteller by nature, Mogridge’s ceramic work plays with themes of power, violence and the farcical elements of authority. His use of humour – often dark and acerbic – subverts societal norms and undermines the seriousness with which we approach structures of power. Born in South Africa and trained as a graphic designer and painter, Mogridge’s transition to ceramics opened new possibilities for exploring fragility and permanence.

     

    Mogridge’s work, often figurative and textured, carries an element of unpredictability. "I embrace the absurd and value the power of impulse over preconception," Mogridge explains, allowing for accidents and chance moments to shape his pieces. The titles he assigns to his works act as placeholders, immediately divorced from meaning, forcing viewers to confront the desire to make sense of the absurd. This process, in turn, challenges the viewer to relax their search for deeper meaning and instead engage with the humour and unpredictability of the pieces in front of them.

     

    Ceramics, with its inherent durability, adds another layer of complexity to Mogridge’s practice. He notes that while canvas rots and paper fades, ceramics can last thousands of years, transcending notions of ownership and provenance as time erodes their original context. This interplay between the fragile and the permanent, the serious and the absurd, allows Mogridge to explore not only the impermanence of life but also the absurdity of the structures we create to control it. His works, with their humorous titles and textured surfaces, invite viewers to embrace the ridiculous, to laugh at the absurdities of power and existence.

  • Cyrille Chamayou: Punch Painting and the Visceral Collision Cyrille Chamayou’s work is defined by a relentless engagement with emotional and...

    Cyrille Chamayou: Punch Painting and the Visceral Collision

     

    Cyrille Chamayou’s work is defined by a relentless engagement with emotional and physical urgency, a method he refers to as "Punch Painting". His process is akin to a fighter stepping into the ring, a creative space where energy, instinct and confrontation reign. Born in France in 1970 and having lived in Paris, Montréal, and across several African cities, Chamayou’s experiences have shaped his explosive style. His vibrant palettes draw from the effervescent colours and energy of Africa, where he now resides in Johannesburg. Yet beneath the surface, his work moves into unsettling territory, portraying ambiguous, disturbing figures – mutants, toothless faces, looming creatures – that leave the viewer both captivated and uncomfortable.

     

    Chamayou’s work oscillates between tenderness and aggression, between "being torn and kissed in an insane dogfight," as he puts it. His paintings explore a crossroads of angst, intrigue and love, engaging deeply with the complexities of human relationships. The figures that populate his canvases are not simple subjects but rather characters that demand engagement, confronting the viewer with questions, fears, and emotions. Chamayou’s art resists the suppression of intense emotional reactions, instead bringing them to the forefront, creating a visceral experience that mirrors the chaos of real life. His subjects are locked in existential battles: “we meander, fight, argue, tear each other apart, and kiss each other better."

     

    Drawing influence from the tortured classicism of Goya and the contemporary, rough expressiveness of artists like Frank Auerbach and Adrian Ghenie, Chamayou’s work situates itself firmly in the domain of Brutal Expressionism. In this movement, there is no room for the safe or the easily digestible. Instead, Chamayou’s Punch Painting technique embodies raw confrontation, challenging his audience to step into a world where chaos and beauty, violence and tenderness, collide without warning.

  • INVESTEC CAPE TOWN ART FAIR 2025 | Candice Berman Gallery
  • INVESTEC CAPE TOWN ART FAIR 2025 | Candice Berman Gallery