Goodman Gallery is delighted to present its inaugural exhibition with Caribbean British artist Winston Branch OBE (b. 1947), featuring a new series of abstract paintings that explore colour, light and space. The exhibition coincides with Goodman Gallery’s announcement of the global representation of the artist, in partnership with Varvara Roza Galleries.

Branch moved to Britain from Saint Lucia in the 1960s at the early age of 12 and later studied at the Slade School of Fine Art in London, where he was taught by Frank Auerbach, Euan Uglow, Keith Vaughan and Michael Andrews. He spent his early years studying and painting in London, during a highly productive time of underground movements that broke down social, cultural and artistic boundaries, with London emerging as a major international hub of counterculture. Branch has moved from Saint Lucia to London, to California, Germany and also Italy, all of which provide context for his innovations in the language of paint and colour.

Returning to large-scale paintings for the first time in many years, Branch’s newer works signal a shift in orientation. While earlier works contained a sense of thickness about them, as if paint had been applied, reapplied, and applied again to create a sense of depth and intensity, the newer works are lighter and open themselves up across the surface. The works of the 1980s and 90s highlight extraordinary mark-making that is shorter and energetic, while recent paintings explore the placement of marks through large, dynamic brushstrokes that create a sense of expansion.