George Rouy’s “The Bleed, Part II” is Immersive, Impassioned, and Impactful

On February 18 in Los Angeles, Hauser & Wirth Downtown Los Angeles raised the curtain on British artist George Rouy’s inaugural US solo presentation with the pioneering gallery, on view through June 1, 2025. 

“The Bleed, Part II” unfolds as an intuitive, second phase of his recent exhibition in London, debuting fresh paintings which voyage expressively through physical and emotional planes of life in the digital age. From a spellbinding nucleus of shifting and evolving human mass radiates a primal hunger for connection and for the safekeeping of the mortal soul. 

George Rouy Illuminates “The Bleed, Part II” at Hauser & Wirth Downtown Los Angeles

“How I approach my painting and the figure is that they exist within the abstract,” said Rouy. “They exist within a non-space. It’s purely about the human form, psychologically and physically, and also about the space around the human form, temperature, touch, and this sensation of being fully ourselves, how certain parts of our own anatomy feel weighted, exaggerated.”

“How I approach my painting and the figure is that they exist within the abstract,”

George Rouy

“The space around each work is also very important to allow the form to exist. It creates ‘The Bleed,’ as I call it, that’s where the title of the show partly comes from. It’s the sense that we are mortal with a fixed anatomy, but also the sense that there is this bleeding of space around us and into each other.”

Offering the Beauty of the Undefined Through Art 

Within hallucinatory landscapes of indistinct faces, bodies are reborn as central purveyors of our fundamental and sacred story. Melodic hands appear as gentle guides into the works, unveiling profound yearning, disillusionment, and solidarity, while ascending into the fluctuating  “surrounds.” In both a reflection of the artist and ourselves, as well as an apparition of what was and what might be, Rouy generously gifts the beauty of the undefined. 

“The figure has multiple meanings throughout time and is forever in flux,” said Rouy. “There’s nothing defined about our relationship to ourselves.”

“There’s nothing defined about our relationship to ourselves,”

George Rouy

“We constantly try to define everything in life. I think with these paintings there is the undefined, the space between thought, between physicality, and also our relationship to time, time within oneself, and in time within a greater perspective, where these paintings, to a certain extent hopefully, will exist further than I will.”

New Colors and Energies Arise in George Rouy’s Studio 

Rouy’s “phantom paintings” unfurl in grounding earth tones, launching beacons of blue, red, yellow, and even a sublime moment of neon green effervescing potently from an index finger. Further, in artworks deftly fusing silver pigment and black charcoal, Rouy stirs a tangible glow that both bows to the forces of gravity yet clearly cannot be contained by it. 

“I really enjoy working on this at the same time as the oil works,” said Rouy. “But the oil works demand a different type of energy, a different type of concentration. This for me is very, very physical and very energized. And it’s a really nice way of also changing my approach to the studio.”

The US Premiere of “BODYSUIT” with Sharon Eyal Launches in Los Angeles 

In yet another magnetic layer, the opening week of “The Bleed, Part II” exhibits the US premiere of “BODYSUIT,” an immersive and impassioned live event. Conceived by the artist and renowned choreographer Sharon Eyal, five dancers move in both meticulous and unrestricted fashion to haunting electronic music composed by Rouy. 

Commissioned by Hannah Barry Gallery and co-produced with Hauser & Wirth, the work is centered by the artist’s sweeping silver and graphite painting, an ethereal gateway, with avant-garde costumes designed by British fashion house 16Arlington in dynamic collaboration with Rouy. 

 “My second passion is music,” said Rouy. “I love making music. It’s more of a secret thing, I haven’t released anything. To approach Sharon Eyal and have a dialogue through sound rather than image for once has been really, really great as well, and a new experience.”

 “My second passion is music,”

George Rouy

“How we kind of started was, I brought a selection of music to her, and then we went through and she responded,” added Rouy. We picked out chapters almost, and then that became a larger sound piece. The painting was the final piece and actually a reflection on that larger process that happened over about a year.”

Here, the artist’s creative prowess escalates and transcends in an ode to the nuanced manners in which we care and collide.