Lehmann Maupin is pleased to announce now protected, I step forth, an exhibition of new and recent paintings by British artist Billy Childish. On view from July 4–August 17, 2024 at the gallery’s Seoul location, the presentation features a series of quietly beautiful landscapes, including peaceful spring forests, dark moonlit waters, and heavenly snow-capped mountains. Devoid of any human presence, the scenes in now protected, I step forth feel timeless, equally likely to depict the far past as the distant future. Each canvas is imbued with a sense of remoteness and removal, reflecting Childish’s enduring interest in the natural world as a space of respite from modernity.

Based in Chatham, Kent, Childish’s artistic practice is all encompassing, spanning poetry and prose, punk rock music, and photography, printmaking, and painting. Known for his vivid, emotionally charged work, Childish’s career has been prolific. Over the last four decades he has recorded more than 170 LPs, published several novels, and written more than 40 volumes of poetry in addition to creating numerous paintings, prints, and multiples. While his music and writing are often frank and confrontational, Childish’s paintings tend more towards the sacred than the profane. Painted on warm linen canvas, the artist works quickly and intuitively to realize each work, sketching the underlying composition in charcoal within a hand-drawn frame and using a rich palette of oil paint to render light, shadow, volume, and form.