The painter, born in Manchester and currently living in Trinidad, presents seven new large-scale works, a book based on the paintings, ten prints inspired by a Symbolist poem and another book with the poem and a related essay.
Chris Ofili hasn’t gone for straight-foward depictions of the classic Biblical sins, instead he has made up his own versions: The Fountain, The Harvester, The Swing, The Crowning, The Fall From Grace, The Great Beauty and The Pink Waterfall. It is his interpretation of the theme of sin, completed during enforced isolation accompanying the onset of the Covid pandemic which would occasion heightened reflection and introspection.
The resulting paintings are absolutely stunning, using dreamlike female figures, flowers and plants, bright colours and sparkling dots to create a strange and adventurous vision of human nature. The longer you look at them, the more little details reveal themselves.
After this the prints, called Pink Daydreams of a Faun and based on Stéphane Mallarmé’s Symbolist poem L’Après-midi d’un faune, come over rather flat and humdrum, lacking the excitement of Ofili’s latest paintings. They share the dreamlike themes, but they miss the sparkle.
Chris Ofili: The Seven Deadly Sins is on show at Victoria Miro, Wharf Road, London N1 until 29 July 2023.
