Baroque Anarchist: Nor Dread Nor Hope Attend

Baroque Anarchist: Nor Dread Nor Hope Attend

Paintings by Alexandra Suvorova and the reimagining of a modern vanitas

2nd June 2025 - 5th September 2025

Private View 29th May 2025 (RSVP)

2 Gresham Street, London, EC2V 7BX

We are pleased to present Nor Dread Nor Hope Attend, a collection of paintings by Baroque Anarchist, the alter ego of artist Alexandra Suvorova. Exploring the existential struggle with mortality, Baroque Anarchist evokes the historical legacy of vanitas and memento mori, reinterpreting them through contemporary perspectives. 

Whilst memento mori serves as a moral reminder of mortality -encouraging reflection on the afterlife and the importance of living a virtuous life- vanitas paintings focus more specifically on emphasizing the inevitability of death and the futility of earthly pleasures. Particularly popular during the Dutch Golden Age, vanitas paintings often featured symbolic objects like skulls, hourglasses, and wilting flowers to emphasize the transient nature of existence and the ultimate emptiness of material wealth. 

In Nor Dread Nor Hope Attend, Suvorova reimagines these enduring themes of death and mortality through a contemporary lens, incorporating elements of modern science, personal loss, and the human body’s inherent fragility. Her paintings blend traditional old master techniques such as tenebrism and grisaille with contemporary subjects, creating a dialogue between past and present. Through these layers of compositions, techniques, and woven references, we’re encouraged to look beyond the surfaces of her paintings and see deeper truths; that even in an age of technological advancement and scientific wonder, the human struggle with impermanence and mortality remains universal. In doing so, she invites viewers to confront their own mortality and consider the enduring relevance of these historical themes in a rapidly changing world.