Après-ski, A solo exhibition by Hannah Knox
Apres-ski is a solo show of London-based artist Hannah Knox, hosted by Bebe Leone Art Advisory.
Often exploring themes of materiality, cultural symbolism, and the intersection of art and fashion, Knox’s practice engages with the tactile and visual qualities of fabrics, creating works that evoke the textures and patterns of textiles while maintaining the formal qualities of painting.
Influenced by surrealist art and Magritte’s famous paradoxes, where a pipe is not a pipe, Hannah’s garment paintings provoke a sense of disconnection between expectation and actuality. They exist as objects that reference the familiar but defy usability, challenging the viewer to engage with them as symbols of memory, identity, and desire, rather than as functional items. This duality—at once painting and object, form and illusion—encapsulates the artist’s fascination with the interplay between the tangible and the conceptual.
Knox’s paintings also carry a voyeuristic element: the depicted garments, like windows into the lives of their wearers, appear as fragments of someone else’s existence. These uninhabited clothes evoke a sense of absence and presence simultaneously, as if capturing intimate moments without revealing the full story. Through her work, Knox invites the viewer to imagine the individuals behind the fabric, weaving narratives of identity, memory, and desire
Après-ski marks Hannah’s first exhibition in Italy. The title evokes a post-skiing gathering: a carefully constructed social ritual that exists within the rarefied atmosphere of snow vacations. Often a marker of privilege, where to display wealth and status , these vacations have nowadays evolved into lifestyle statements
Hannah Knox, Brown Fur, Oil on linen, 2024
Hannah Knox, Leather with Buttons , Oil on linen 2024
By recreating some of the chic outfits commonly associated with these gatherings, Hannah's paintings engage with these settings, offering a nuanced critique of the underlying dynamics of such rituals. Her works delve into themes of status, aspiration, and the often-insidious grip of consumer culture. Through her art, she exposes the aspirational nature of these gatherings, where identity is constructed not just through shared experiences but through the conspicuous display of affluence.
The exhibition continues to 12 January in Rome.
Contact www.bebeleone.com bl@bebeleone.com to arrange a visit.