past exhibition | Jacob Wolff: Bal Tik Tak | 15 June - 31 August 2023

Jacob Wolff presents an installation in homage to Giacomo Balla's wall paintings in legendary 1920s futurist cabaret and nightclub Bal Tik Tak in Rome.

Almost a century after it was painted, a mural by Giacomo Balla was discovered under wallpaper in a building on the Via Milano in Rome. This was the site of the Bal Tik Tak, a Futurist nightclub from 1921. 

Jacob Wolff was invited to visit the mural while it was being restored. This experience, along with the surviving photographs and sketches of Balla’s designs provide the framework for this exhibition. 

Wolff’s work combines pattern and chance with techniques he has developed using glass and spray paint. His work is concerned with how forms come into being, manual intelligence and crystallisation of time. 

The Bal Tik Tak installation includes murals, sculpture, paintings and neon.

Jacob Wolff (b.1986, Winchester) studied at The Ruskin School of Art, University of Oxford, before receiving an MA from the Royal College of Art in 2015. 

In 2019 he was awarded the Fellowship in Contemporary Art at the British School at Rome. 

Recent group exhibitions include New Breeders, Grölle Gallery, Wuppertal and Rainbow’s Edge, Tin Man Art, London. 

His work has been shown at the New Art Centre at Roche Court, Camden Arts Centre and Museion, Bolzano.

The private view, on Thursday 15 June 5-8pm, includes live music by saxophonist Wes Frankel.

There will be other events during the exhibition, including a private view on Tuesday 18th July, the date of Giacomo Balla’s birthday in 1871, and a closing view on Thursday 31st August 7-9pm, when the artist will be in the gallery for informal chat and a last opportunity to view the exhibition.

Images: Andy Keate (installation shots) | Jacob Wolff (documentation)

Press release