Resistant Material : Thomas Langley

We are excited to announce Resistant Material, a solo exhibition by London-based artist Thomas Langley.

“Architectural resistance” – a form of protest aimed at social change and rebellion through building practices, has become the focus of artist Thomas Langley’s latest body of work. Drawing inspiration from a range of sources, from the alternative, hand-built shelters of 1960s California to fourteenth-century Kentish tiles and the eighteenth-century brick tax, Langley brings together a variety of historical and material references.

There is an introduction at play in these works to some curious objects and subjects, such as “gob” bricks, Kent peg and mathematical tiles, and medieval tally sticks. Borders, paddocks, serfdom, rebellion, vagrancy, class structures and craft are all at work here. Through bold, layered compositions of painting and drawing, Langley investigates the bare mechanics of image-making, weaving a historical thread that connects works across time and space. Material, form and narrative visually cascade onto the canvas in waves of paint and scrawling line.