Jonathan Wateridge - Artists - Nino Mier Gallery

A Complex and Colourful Last Hurrah for the Rennie Museum at Wing Sang August 2022

Four works feature young Black swimmers, referencing a lack of access for Black people to beaches and pools. In Derek Fordjour’s magnificent Pool Boys (2019), the central figure, diving into the water, is collaged from material that includes newspaper stock market listings. It stands next to Lilo (2018) by Jonathan Wateridge, a white artist who is from Zambia.

Mousse Magazine

Jonathan Wateridge “Inland Water” at Nino Mier Gallery, Los Angeles March 2021

Inland Water presents a series of Wateridge’s recent paintings through which the Zambian-born artist provides a glimpse into private and intimate scenes of poolside affluence visually echoing Wateridge’s memories of his suburban upbringing during an era of immense racial and economic inequality in his birth country. While tied to the artist’s own history, the imagery escapes the limits of personal narrative and geographic location as Wateridge’s cinematic compositions establish a familiar and uncanny atmosphere permeating the façade of comfortable leisure.