'The artists Gary Hume and Georgie Hopton have been a couple for nearly 30 years, yet they have always kept their respective practices separate. But now, for the first time, they are showing together with two joint exhibitions in London and New York. Both are devoted to works-on-paper and the first, Hurricanes Hardly Ever Happen (until 3 April), opened last week at Lyndsey Ingram Gallery in Mayfair, with a packed opening of guests including the musician Jarvis Cocker and the artists Jeremy Deller, Gavin Turk and Deborah Curtis, who gathered to salute what turns out to be a highly symbiotic double vision. The second shared show will be unveiled on Ingram’s stand at New York’s Armory Show this week.
“When the idea of exhibiting with Georgie was mooted I jumped at the chance,” says Hume, who adds that while he felt he had seen Hopton’s work alongside his before, “somehow the connections between us were not explicit.” Hopton, who was in charge of selecting and curating both the shows, noticed that once she started to put their works together these connections quickly became very evident. “The works built instant bridges between themselves… a mark in a drawing by Gary echoed a line, a thread or piece of organic matter in a work by mine. Photographs by me echoed drawings by him. Abstract compositions by each of us were distant twins.”'
