A solo exhibition by London-based Filipino artist Nicole Coson opened on 7 March 2024 at Silverlens’ Chelsea location, marking the artist’s debut in the US.

Exhibition view: Nicole Coson, In Passing, Silverlens, New York. Courtesy Silverlens

In this presentation, Coson showcases a new series of works that investigates the symbolic qualities of the container as a pragmatic metaphor for the circulation of people, capital, and consumer goods in a world intricately connected through the movement of food.

Exhibition view: Nicole Coson, In Passing, Silverlens, New York. Courtesy Silverlens

Through the mediums of printing, painting, and sculpture, Nicole Coson: In Passing draws inspiration from the artist’s personal experience of moving from the Philippines to the United Kingdom at a young age. Her distinctive multidisciplinary approach blends the traditions of painting and printmaking to explore inquiries related to globalisation, belonging, and the self.

Central to the exhibition are expansive monochromatic linen pieces crafted from industrial-grade crates typically utilised for transporting and storing food. These modular containers, commonly found in the culturally diverse East End of London where Coson operates her studio, undergo a distinctive and labour-intensive transformation. Employing a combination of printmaking techniques, meticulous indexical mark-making, and the physical movements of her own body, the artist constructs and organises these crates into tightly stacked rectangular structures.

Exhibition view: Nicole Coson, In Passing, Silverlens, New York. Courtesy Silverlens

Nicole Coson (b. 1992, Philippines) constructs metaphoric narratives attempting to connect the viewer with something simultaneously familiar and alien. The resulting experience is the unsettled nervousness of Freud’s Uncanny. She seeks the contemplation of something caught mid-flight, incorporating unexplained natural formations; shapes resembling animals in the clouds, Chinese scholar’s rocks or an arrangement of an ancient Japanese rock garden. Working with a restrained palette, her works are often refined documentations of various fleeting encounters and experiences.

Coson’s signature technique employs painting and printmaking in equal measure. Using a cylindrical printing press, the artist rolls over metallic printing plates loaded with oil paint. A canvas is sandwiched between the plates and roller and bears the resultant colours and formats. graduated with a BA in Fine Art from Central Saint Martins with first-degree honours in 2014. She gained an MFA from the Royal College of Art in 2020. Coson was also nominated for the Saatchi New Sensations Award and selected for Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2020. She lives and works in London.

Selected Exhibitions

Silverlens, New York (2024); Ben Hunter, London, UK (2022, 2021, 2020); Fost Gallery, Singapore (2022); Hales Gallery, London, UK (2022); The Artist Room, London, UK (2021, 2020); Silverlens, Manila, Philippines (2021, 2017); Art Basel Basel, Silverlens Galleries, Basel, Switzerland (2021); Art Basel Hong Kong, Silverlens Galleries, Hong Kong (2021); Brigade, Copenhagen, Denmark (2021); Center for Book Arts, New York, USA (2021); New Contemporaries, London (2020); Anna Kultys Gallery, London, UK (2020); Galerie Untilthen, Paris, France (2019); Finale Art File, Manila, Philippines (2017, 2016, 2014); Display Gallery, London, UK (2016, 2015); Stamperia Del Tevere, Rome, Italy (2015); Asia House, London, UK (2015); West Gallery, Manila, Philippines (2013).