Mark Neville: London/Pittsburgh, Alan Cristea

Mark Neville’s first solo show with the Alan Cristea, London should provide a tonic to gallery goers sick of the glamour glare cast over contemporary art by the hangover from Frieze week. Mark Neville, artist and photographer, is most empathetic in his practice. He uses his camera to document society, drawing on the most recent social science research to explore how inequalities are exacerbated and perpetuated by all of us.
In London/Pittsburgh Neville exposes, the, perhaps familiar, division between the haves and have nots in suburban America. What the photographs make abundantly clear, with their richly coloured surfaces, is that the colour of one’s skin is as good as any statistical indicator for wealth and opportunity. London too is revealed to be a two track city, riven still with class divides solidified since the seventies. In polarised shots of the west London hang out, Boujis, and the community centre in Tottenham, this division is made plain. It might make for uncomfortable viewing at Alan Cristea, Cork Street, but it is a necessary medicine.