Galerie Gomis launches its residency at Sheriff Gallery in Paris with the exhibition ‘New Suns’ by David Ụzọchukwu, curated by Ekow Eshun

Galerie Gomis is excited to announce its new chapter. The gallery embraces a nomadic, collaborative model by moving onto a new residency at Sheriff Gallery in Paris for a series of exhibitions and events.

The inaugural show ‘New Suns’, a solo by acclaimed visual artist David Ụzọchukwu, will be curated by Ekow Eshun and runs from 7 November 2024 to 11 January 2025.

Galerie Gomis founder Marie Gomis-Trezise says:
​"We are incredibly excited to partner with Sheriff Gallery, a space known for supporting emerging artists and fostering diverse voices. This collaboration allows us to continue showcasing innovative work in a place of encounter, exchange and experimentation.”

Sheriff Projects x ​ gallery CEO David Frasson-Botton says:
​“At Sheriff Gallery, with curator Sophie Stroble, we strive to create a space that pushes the boundaries of contemporary art while fostering inclusive dialogues. Partnering with Galerie Gomis for this residency and launching with David Ụzọchukwu’s ‘New Suns’ embodies our commitment to presenting diverse perspectives and engaging with critical social and environmental issues. We are thrilled to provide a platform for artists like David, whose work resonates deeply with our vision of art as a catalyst for change and conversation".
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‘New Suns’ by David Ụzọchukwu

The exhibition will present a series of photographs by Ụzọchukwu that depict Black figures within haunting natural landscapes, from charred forests to midnight seas and saffron deserts. These surreal works reflect on the historical marginalisation of people of colour in narratives about the natural world, often depicted as wilderness to be conquered by settlers and adventurers. At once intimate and apocalyptic, the works also evoke climate change and its disproportionate impact on the Global South. Through this reimaging of the relationship between Blackness and nature, the artist offers speculative visions of coexistence and renewal.

Eshun takes inspiration from Afrofuturist writer Octavia E. Butler's parable, “There is nothing new under the sun, but there are new suns”, to position the show as an invocation to go beyond the everyday in order to embrace new and hopeful possibilities for the future.

Ekow Eshun says:
​David Ụzọchukwu is a visionary photographer. He brings the speculative and the fantastic to life with thrilling veracity and immediacy. New Suns conjures exhilarating states of Black being, Black possibility, Black dreaming, that only an artist of David’s accomplishment could successfully realise.

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About the artist

David Ụzọchukwu (b. 1998 in Innsbruck, Austria) is an artist and filmmaker living in Berlin. In his practice, he explores notions of (be)longing and the post-human, visualizing new relationships between othered bodies and environments.

Ụzọchukwu’s photographic work has has been exhibited in group shows at Bozar(BE), V&A (UK), Bamako Encounters —African Biennale of Photography (ML), Triennial of Photography Hamburg (DE), and MOCA Toronto (CA). His short films, video installations, and episodic work screened at Filmfestival Max Ophüls Preis (DE), CPH:DOX (DK), and Tribeca Festival(US). ​ ​
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About the curator

Ekow Eshun is a renowned writer and curator, currently serving as Chairman of the Fourth Plinth—the UK's leading public art program—and formerly Director of the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London. In 2023, he won the Curatorial Prize from the Association for Art History. His books include Black Gold of the Sun (Penguin, 2006), shortlisted for the Orwell Prize, and In the Black Fantastic (2022), which was nominated for a Locus Award.
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About Galerie Gomis

Founded by Marie Gomis-Trezise in 2016, Galerie Gomis (originally Galerie Number 8) began as an online platform dedicated to emerging photographers, primarily from the African diaspora, whose work challenges cultural barriers. Through its participation in leading art fairs (1-54 London & New York, Paris Photo, Photo London and more), the gallery has been instrumental in launching acclaimed talents such as Campbell Addy, David Ụzọchukwu, Djeneba Aduayom and Mous Lamrabat, as well as emerging artists including Delali Ayivi and Bettina Pittaluga. In 2020, Gomis-Trezise also became creative director of Nataal magazine, where she continues to champion underrepresented voices in visual arts.

About Sheriff Gallery

Sheriff Gallery, located in the Marais district of Paris, is a contemporary art space that broadens the conventional definition of a gallery. Through its ongoing series of socially and ecologically engaged happenings, it acts as a hub for creative dialogue within the artistic community.