TARO NASU is pleased to present After the Spell, a two-person exhibition by Mark Leckey (b. 1964) and Alessandro Raho (b. 1971), on view from April to May.
While both artists are based in the United Kingdom, they have developed their practices through seemingly contrasting approaches. Born in the 1960s, Leckey emerged in the late 1980s, gaining early recognition in the UK.
Since then, he has explored phenomena such as popular culture and consumer behaviour, producing technology-driven video works and collage, as well as performance. By contrast, Raho, born in the 1970s, has consistently pursued a distinct mode of expression within the classical frameworks of portraiture, still life, and landscape painting. From the beginning of his career, he has focused on revealing the enduring possibilities of painting as a medium.
Although their practices may appear opposed, the two artists have, through a long-standing personal relationship, developed a mutual understanding and affinity for each other’s work. In recent years, this dialogue has taken form in a series of two-person exhibitions. The exhibition at TARO NASU can be seen as a further development of this ongoing collaboration, following similar presentations in the UK.
Leckey’s installation presented in this exhibition evokes both the dazzling spectacle of cities driven by human desire and the darker aspects that lie beneath it. Comprising sculpture and moving image, the work features a structure reminiscent of a medieval castle, appearing as a vessel that contains human will and desire. The accompanying video, illuminated with shifting colors, animates the sculptural form and imbues it with a sense of vitality and brilliance, projecting the powerful glow of civilization as a kind of “illusion” that captivates the viewer.
In response, Raho presents paintings of still life and landscape that quietly depict the everyday lives of people living in urban environments. Images of houses under blue skies or sunlit, empty poolside scenes seem to symbolize a calm and tranquil existence. Yet, subtle dissonances emerge through the inclusion of motifs such as burning objects and scenes reminiscent of magic shows, hinting at a shared strategy between Raho and his collaborator, Leckey. The figures depicted by Raho, while seemingly expressionless, contain a full spectrum of emotion within their restrained gaze, returning the viewer’s look and posing a question: is what we see reality, or illusion?
This exhibition is a dialogue between the two artists, conducted through their works. While sharing a focus on fundamental human desires and a deep engagement with the human condition, they each explore the instability of human existence within the civilization we have created. The self that continues to dance with desire, and the self that observes it—what the viewer encounters through this exhibition may well be a vision of the world “after the spell” of civilization has been broken.
Alessandro Raho
Born in 1971 in Nassau, Bahamas. Lives and works in London.
Selected exhibitions include Selected Works (Elliott Templeton Fine Arts, New York, 2024); In the Offing (Turner Contemporary, 2023); I Cheer a Dead Man’s Sweetheart (De La Warr Pavilion, 2014); Knock Knock: Seven Artists in Hastings (Jerwood Gallery, 2013); Great Britons (National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., 2007); Unseen Landscapes (The Lowry; York Art Gallery, touring, 2001); Surfacing (Institute of Contemporary Arts, 1998); and Brilliant! New Art from London (Walker Art Center, 1995).
In 2004, he produced Dame Judi Dench, commissioned by the National Portrait Gallery. His works are held in major public collections including The Museum of Modern Art, the National Portrait Gallery, Seattle Art Museum, the Berardo Collection (Portugal), and the Tate.
Mark Leckey
Born in Birkenhead, UK in 1964. Lives and works in London.
Selected solo exhibitions include: “in situ: Mark Leckey. And the City Stood in its Brightness” (Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Bilbao, 2025–26), “O’Magic Power of Bleakness” (Tate Britain, London, 2019), “He Thrusts his Fists against the Posts but Still Insists he Sees the Ghosts” (National Gallery of Denmark, Copenhagen, 2017), “Containers and Their Drivers” (MoMA PS1, New York, 2016), “On Pleasure Bent” (Hayward Gallery, London; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, 2013), and “Cinema-in-the-Round” (Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, 2008), among others.
His work is held in major collections including the Museum of Modern Art , New York; the Tate Collection, London; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art ; and the Centre Pompidou and Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris.
