Newchild is pleased to present New York–based artist Andrew Sendor’s highly anticipated solo exhibition, RIVER—his first in Europe in over a decade. The exhibition will comprise new paintings and drawings, along with site-specific installation components—all of which align with a fictional narrative written by the artist. 

Dr Ben Street, art historian and author, writes about Sendor’s practice: “The procedure by which these paintings were made is typical of Sendor’s approach to date, which is as much reminiscent of filmmaking as it is of painting. Each work is the result of a complex history, beginning with a written narrative, continuing into casting and staging, and then documentation in photography and film, which then feeds the artist’s labour-intensive studio practice. This rigorously mediated process nonetheless results in paintings that possess a startling naturalism and convincingness.”

Sendor is most recognized for his extraordinary facility in representational painting that serves to illuminate his ongoing engagement with the generative power of the imagination. Drawing on working methodologies of photorealism, Sendor creates psychologically charged, hyperreal compositions that merge the visual language of painting with strategies of cinematic world-building. Through his use of disrupted visual motifs, theatrical mise-en-scène, and signature artist’s frames, Sendor constructs an idiosyncratic pictorial lexicon—one in which image and structure become inseparable.

This new body of work, on view at Newchild, Antwerp, from October 17, continues Sendor’s exploration of speculative storytelling, reaffirming his singular contribution to the discourse of contemporary painting.

Artists: Andrew Sendor