Fata Morgana

NISO is pleased to present Fata Morgana, an exhibition by Guy Haddon Grant, continuing the gallery’s focus on practices in which form functions as a structure of thought and the visual field takes shape through process and relation. The exhibition’s title refers to the optical mirage known as Fata Morgana, suggesting a condition in which the perceived image remains unstable—appearing, shifting, and never fully settling.

In his second exhibition with the gallery, Haddon Grant brings together three elements—drawings, vitrines, and studio panels—offering an expanded view of his practice. Each operates as a distinct register within a shared logic in which the subject of the work forms through relation rather than fixed definition.

Working from recognizable elements—heads, hands, feet, organic structures, and sculptural motifs—he arranges them in configurations where representation shifts, forming through material, optical, and perceptual relations. Form exists in continuous variation, without consolidating into a closed figure.

Drawings operate as an active matrix within this process. Their consistent framing and format establish a shared framework that suggests a system while allowing the significance of each image to remain open. Their rendered subjects constitute a typological vocabulary in flux, generating meaning through proximity, repetition, and displacement. At times, relations read clearly; at others, combinations appear arbitrary. In both cases, connections form.

Relationships arise through decision, inertia, duration, and accident. Elements that remain together over time acquire a sense of necessity. The drawings make this developing logic visible, recalling a cabinet of curiosities in which disparate elements come together within a shared framework, revealing an oblique coherence.

This logic extends into the vitrines. Initially conceived as structures of containment and unification, they take on an optical role that broadens their function. Fluted glass introduces distortions that transform the appearance of the objects inside, softening material differences and allowing diverse elements to coexist. The image shifts—at times legible, at times elusive, never fully fixed.

From certain angles, forms recede; at others, fragments and details amplify and repeat. Sculpture retains its condition as object, while its presence depends on the viewer’s position, light, and the mediation of the device. Perception moves between clarity, distortion, and disappearance.

The studio panels introduce a third register—accumulative, contingent, and extended in time. Present in the studio for over a decade, they carry traces of drawings, notes, and fragments arranged through use, impulse, and necessity, bringing moments of thought directly into the exhibition space.

Drawings, vitrines, and panels operate in parallel within a shared structure. Image, fragment, and residue interact within an open system without producing a fixed resolution. Each instance of fixation introduces new combinations and variations that merge into the viewer’s experience. Seeing becomes a process of adjustment and reorientation in which the image remains in formation. The work moves away from stable definition while remaining present—held in fluctuation, always partially open.