ALMA PEARLArtists
Exhibitions
Fairs
Publications
News 
Contact 

prelude
IVAN SEAL 
30 January  – 22 March 2025
Alma Pearl, Unit T, Reliance Wharf, London
Alma Pearl is pleased to announce prelude, an exhibition of new works by Ivan Seal and his first with the gallery. Opening 30 January, the exhibition features a suite of new paintings and a sound piece. The title, prelude, often refers to a shorter piece of music, which may serve as an introduction to succeeding movements of a work that are usually longer and more complex. Similarly, the exhibition functions as a preamble to a larger presentation which will take place in the autumn of 2025.

The recited text of the audio piece is a looped excerpt lifted from Carl Jung’s “Memories, Dreams, Reflections: An Autobiography” describing his dream disorientation after the split from Sigmund Freud. The sample is then altered by the addition of the word “but” which functions as a hinge swinging between disturbance and submission. The accompanying 20-minute drone is created from the vocal recording and generates an immersive soundscape within the enclosed room.

On the walls is a selection of small-scale paintings featuring subjects sitting in theatrical, uncanny and ambiguous spaces marked by gradual shifts in shade. Always painted from intuition, free association and altered memories, the paintings of Ivan Seal turn traditional painterly styles into charged psychological spaces.

Learn more about the Artist