67 Great Titchfield St.
London W1W 7PT
Jake Aikman’s first solo exhibition close to the sun with The Finch Project, London, presents a suite of new paintings that capture a present moment seeped in nostalgia; a quality inherent to the sea: always changing, yet enduringly familiar. The origins of this exhibition’s title lie in Alfred Tennyson’s poem "The Eagle." The line "close to the sun" prompted Jake Aikman to reflect on his late father and the subtle tonal shift in his work since that personal loss. In these new seascapes, warm, uncanny sepia light bathes tidal horizons, inviting us to gaze backward into the past, into memory, and invites questions about the nature of perception itself.
The ocean being vast, tireless, and planetary, links us to the present moment while carrying echoes of ancient time. It is both a place of refuge and a vessel for longing: we scan the horizon, and our minds drift into reverie, memory, and dreams of both what was and what could be. Standing before Aikman’s lucent, watery paintings, the imagination is left to wander; we filter memories of distant shores or lost loves, whether separated by geography or time itself. Waves pull us seaward, the horizon beckons skyward, and with his expansive, symmetrical diptych's the mind slips into contemplation of the infinite.
“When I was doing my degree, I asked my father to stand in a rock pool between St James and Dalebrook. I was looking at vulnerability, so I painted him from above, looking up. I didn’t know then that water would become such an enduring subject, as I was still focused on the figure. Now that portrait hangs in my mother’s home: my father, uncomfortable in the water, looking up. That feeling has carried through, even now, without the figure present.”
That discomfort - contained, diffused - endures and transforms through the paintings. By removing the figure, which once "burdened the paintings with narrative," Aikman opens his work to new possibilities, allowing viewers to directly experience the ocean as subject. This commitment to water has proven inexhaustible; just as the ocean holds unfathomable depths, so too does his imagery. The evolution is evident from the subtle hush of his signature seascapes, to the turbulent, abstract impasto of recent canvases, signalling a renewed vitality and a resonance shaped by personal immensity. The ocean becomes both literal and symbolic: a shared space, reflecting our deepest, often inexpressible emotions.
For Aikman, and for us, the ocean is at once abstraction and reality; an unknowable, mutable presence. With this show, which also represents a homecoming of sorts (Aikman lives in South Africa but was born in London), the artist offers a space of transcendence, accessible to all who feel the pull of what lies beyond and the perpetual search for a place in this mutable world. Through these works, we invite you to share in that search, to hold space together at the edge of land, mind, and memory.
Nico Kos Earle
August 2025