Ryan Hewett: Untitled

This April, London’s breakthrough artist-led gallery space, The Unit London, presents ‘Untitled’, an exhibition of contemporary portraiture by Ryan Hewett, one of South Africa’s leading artists.

The exhibition focuses on the depiction of leading figures from the past and present who have somehow shaped the world in which we live. Alongside such revered icons as Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi and Abraham Lincoln, Hewett also portrays such infamous persona as Adolf Hitler, Josef Stalin and Osama bin Laden.

Untitled presents these figures through a markedly honest, unbiased lens; any judgement on them is made by the viewer. Whilst the paintings are loaded and complex, Hewett does not prescribe his works with a political message, and this is reflected in the exhibition’s title. The theme was inspired by a recent quotation on gay marriage from Pope Francis I, “Who am I to judge?”

The pictures are both brooding and evocative and mark a significant development in Hewett’s 12-year career as an artist. Self-taught, he began with realistic pencil drawings before evolving to a looser, more modern style in oil, with multi-layered surfaces and hard mark making. Edward Lucie-Smith sees echoes of a British painter.