A new exhibition conjures a voluptuous unearthly realm where transgression gives way to fantasy in disorientating works that dazzle the viewer
Which deity presides over the hallucinatory, outrageously fecund realm that the British artist Chris Ofili conjures in the septet of large paintings that comprises his latest solo exhibition? Given that each canvas features the figure of a satyr – all burnished horns and luxuriously shaggy fetlocks, carob-toned skin and swishing, serpentine tail – we might assume that this is the domain of Dionysus, god of wine, fertility, ritual madness and religious ecstasy.
Image: Chris Ofili, The Crowning, 2021-2023
Oil and charcoal on linen
200 x 310 cm
78 3/4 x 122 in
© Chris Ofili
Courtesy the artist and Victoria Miro
