There are hundreds of places to see art in this city but it's rare to get invited inside a collector's house. Jan Mol inhabits a place tucked away in a quiet Covent Garden street with an unassuming entrance. His exhibition, "7 Emerging Artists @ Mol's Place", is hung in and around his remarkable home - a former brick warehouse transformed into a sensational apartment/gallery space.
The work on display from 7 handpicked young European artists, ranges from video to paintings and drawings to sculpture (we say sculpture, but, it was a rug - a big black round rug. The creative process behind this one eludes us still but we're assured it's budding talent in action). Outrageously thin and fashionably dressed art kids decorated every fabulous corner, smoking and quaffing the delicious wine. It felt very much like a "happening".
But we were there for the exhibition, and happily, it really repaid attention. Sam Hacking's obsessive drawings of the same field, on scraps of paper, with disproportionately ornate frames fascinated, as did the ladies in black, posted on red velvet chairs either side of the drawings. Were they part of the art? We were too shy to ask. Aimee Neat's "normal pie" video installation was less perplexing and ran amusingly mundane parallel films of a man in a grey jumper eating breakfast and trying to fit an obstinate drawer back in a chest of drawers while the credits to Gladiators and the Krypton Factor played between them. A series of dark oil paintings by Margreta Stolen oozed unease, showing an unhappy girl, a growling dog and a bleak landscape while, in contrast, the bright creations of Natasza Niedziolka felt like jubilant, bold collages, very much at home on Mol's amazing brick walls.
Viewing of the showcase at Mol's Place is available until 7th April between 10am - 6pm, strictly by appointment. Contact [email protected].
