Edward Thomasson

Burning Desires is an exhibition of painting, video, installation and performance by Edward Thomasson. Informed by his experiences of living in the city, these new works are about coming into relation with others, or longing to.

Security (2023), a new performance with music by Robbie Ellen, will be performed every Saturday by performer and artist Josh Andraos throughout the duration of the exhibition.

Performances will take place every Saturday throughout June and the first Saturday of July at 16.00 and 17.30. Each performance is limited to an audience of 12 people. To book a space, please visit: tinyurl.com/xxv6tkpz

Edward Thomasson makes performances, plays, videos and paintings about the complexity of social and sexual interaction. His work uses song, dance and enactment to describe the ways people come together and and try to build relationships. He writes dialogues, texts and lyrics which are brought to life through collaborations with composers, performers, musicians and friends. His drawings and paintings depict figures performing with each other to build situations and words. These choreographed images show attempts to perform within pre-existing systems of living together and imagine moments of collective transgression.

Thomasson lives and works in London. He has had solo institutional shows at Chisenhale Gallery and South London Galleries, 2014 and 2011 respectively, and performances at Migros Museum of Contemporary Art, Zurich, Switzerland (2019) Studio Voltaire, London, UK (2019), West Space Melbourne, Australia (2018), DRAF Studio, London, UK (2016) and the Indian YMCA, London, UK, produced by Southard Reid (2014), amongst others. Selected group exhibitions include Testament, Goldsmiths CCA, London, UK (2021); Other Rooms, Artist’s Association Gallery, Vilnius, Lithuania (2020); United by AIDS - An Exhibition about Loss, Remembrance, Activism and Art in Response to HIV/AIDS, Migros Museum of Contemporary Art, Zurich, Switzerland (2019); Condo, Southard Reid, London, UK (2018); Bloomberg New Contemporaries, The A Foundation, Liverpool, touring to ICA, London, UK (2010); The Life Room, Chelsea Space, London, UK (2010). Selected collaborative work with Lucy Beech include Together, Art Now, Tate Britain, London, UK (2017), Frieze Live, London, UK (2015) and Camden Art Centre, London, UK (2014), amongst others.