A Ciel Ouvert

Overview

William-Guillame Saussay's big, energetic, squiggle-circuits are very 80s New York. Like abstract cityscapes seen from above, their palette oscillates between energetic and virulent, and the flashes of text that are scrambled into the canvases refer to advertising and media saturated environments as well as the evident graffiti influences. Saussay, seen at the preview in a rather wonderful purple coat and on the cover of Mx the day the show opened, has some fairly Basquiat hair going on, too.

The works on show are described as "maps to get lost in" — encouraging subjective exploration of the maze of pathways through them and a metaphor for this: they could well be electrical impulses travelling through the brain. There's something zippy and fizzy about the big paintings that makes them a little hard to concentrate on one at a time.  They're attention-getting paintings that could do with some elbow room — all together here they're maybe a little too much for the space despite being well-hung within it. A couple of 'straighter' landscapes — smaller works on paper — manage to hold their own with some surprisingly Van Gogh-y crayon effects in amongst the bigger pieces and are very much worth keeping an eye out for.