Boo Saville: interview

Boo Saville’s fields of colour shimmer, each massive painting drawing you in and, once you are up close, their surfaces seem to conjure immersive spaces, as though the air has suddenly been coloured and there is space to fall in. Such a physical and emotional impact is reminiscent of Rothko’s Chapel in Houston, where his 14 black and coloured hue paintings cover the internal space

The exhibition True Colours, curated by Damien Hirst at his Newport Street Gallery (opened in 2015 to display Hirst’s expansive collection to the public), brings together three female painters, Helen Beard, Sadie Laska and Boo Saville, whose practice encompasses interestingly different usages of colour, form and subject. For those who have not visited Newport Street, the gallery spaces are cathedral-like in scale and use the idea of a white cube to maximum effect. There is room to view every work from a good, airy distance, and while taking a first look at this exhibition, it is impossible not to be astonished at the immersive colours of the works.

Boo Saville. Perseus (The Hero), 2018. Oil on canvas, 335 x 274.3 cm. © Boo Saville. Courtesy Newport Street Gallery. Photograph: Prudence Cuming Associates.

True Colours: Helen Beard, Sadie Laska and Boo Saville
Newport Street Gallery, London
6 June – 9 September 2018

Interview by MK PALOMAR
Filmed by MARTIN KENNEDY