“Where Were You?” group show at Lisson Gallery, London

When I was waiting in a bar, where were you?

When I was buying you a drink, where were you?

When I was crying at home in bed, where were you?

When I watched you from a distance, did you see me?

Taking its title from a 1978 song of the same name by British punk band The Mekons, “Where Were You?” is a group show of paintings, prints, relief objects, and works on canvas that seem to require minimal intervention on the artists’ behalf, but actually belie the often complex ideas or extended periods of time spent contemplating, reworking and refining these processes. Although Minimalism has been presented in many of its guises at Lisson Gallery over the decades, through exhibitions of Peter Joseph, Robert Mangold, Robert Ryman, Donald Judd, and Sol LeWitt among others, “Where Were You?” focuses on the work of nine artists, five of which have not shown in the UK before: Allora & Calzadilla, Cory Arcangel, N. Dash, Robert Janitz, Paulo Monteiro, David Ostrowski, Michael Rey, Julia Rommel, and Dan Shaw-Town. Each of them articulates a minimalist aesthetic through abstraction, repetition or interruptions in surface and structure, foregrounding the intention, scale and execution of their gestures as both subjects for their work and as performative records of transient actions or incomplete thoughts. Photo Ekaterina Bazhenova

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