Donald Rodney’s art (1961-98) has been familiar to me for many years. But only rarely has it been possible to experience, at close quarters, anything approximating the sheer range and depth of his practice. In his first retrospective exhibition in over a decade and a half, Rodney’s remarkable work is given the platform it deserves.
Spanning painting, drawing, oil pastels, photography, sculptural assemblages, installation and computer-generated art, Donald Rodney: Visceral Canker at London’s Whitechapel Gallery reveals an artist who was ambitious and prolific, audacious and innovative. An anathema to today’s market-driven art world.
Invention was central to Rodney’s inimitable practice, but it was also integral to his life and upbringing. Growing up in what was often a racially and socially fractured Britain became central to his artistic concerns.
