©DENZIL FORRESTER/COURTESY THE ARTIST AND STEPHEN FRIEDMAN GALLERY, LONDON
Stephen Friedman Gallery in London is now representing the Grenada-born, England-based artist Denzil Forrester worldwide. Many of his paintings, which feature vibrant colors and teem with movement, depict scenes of London’s reggae nightclubs. His works address police brutality and social injustice experienced by Afro-Caribbean communities in England in the 1980s.
In a release sent by the gallery, Forrester said, “I just wanted to draw movement, action, and expression. I was interested in the energy of the crowd, particular dance movements and what the clubbers wore. In these clubs, city life is recreated in essence: sounds, lights, police sirens, bodies pushing and swaying in a smoke-filled room.”
Forrester’s work is part of collections at the Tate in London, the Arts Council Collection in London, the Harris Museum & Art Gallery in Preston, England, and elsewhere. He has exhibited at the Studio Museum in Harlem, the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, Whitechapel Gallery in London, the Gallery of Modern Art in Glasgow, Scotland, and the Royal Academy of Arts in London.
Recently, Peter Doig and Matthew Higgs curated a solo-show of Forrester’s art, which was staged at White Columns (New York), Tramps Gallery (London), and the Jackson Foundation Gallery (St Just, England). In the gallery’s release, Higgs said, “Within the history of British painting of the post-war era, I think there will be a corrective where Denzil Forrester’s name and his work is introduced into the art historical narrative.”