"A WOLF IN SHEEP'S CLOTHING" TYRRELL WINSTON: Brussels

It is not often I encounter an artist who manages to generate an archive of personal and situated histories which resonates seamlessly with the masses. But for the artist Tyrrell Winston, his work renders as a future nostalgia of the past and present. Detroit, a city coined for its industrialisation, automotive history and Motown music, is fundamental to the materiality of A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing. This is a form of “Future Nostalgia”, Winston explains to me – a term he has coined, that demarcates a future which hasn’t quite arrived. Viewing Winston’s work, I was reminded of Mark Fisher’s idea of hauntology or no future, where the desire and impetus for newness, and cultural revitalisation of the past in art is just a regurgitation of the past. In this exhibition, the old renders serve as a reminder that it is impossible to imagine an alternative or different iteration of the future.

 

Winston’s new body of work is inspired by the artist Christopher Wool’s paintings, particularly his screen-printed aluminium enamel works, such as If You, 1992-2005, where stencilled hard truths and nods to capitalism are stark reminders of society’s absurdities. A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing is composed of ten works, constructed with materials collected from Detroit, the artist’s home. A re-narrativisation of the everyday and farcical, generating unexplored parallels of Americana. 

 

Paintings largely comprise this exhibition. Their aesthetic sensibility encompasses Jenny Holzer-esque block letters and semantics, rendered in primary reds, greens and yellows, and ebony black. Instilled in these pieces is a layering of text and reference, instruction and nostalgia. The titles speak to the irreverence of concealment, their gritty aesthetics mimicking hidden histories of street culture and life. Shotgun (Black and Green) 2025, Home Run (Navy and Red), 2025 and Drop Kick (Green and Yellow), 2025, starkly reference easily recognisable slogans from sports. The overlapping between words acts as a double bind of referentiality, and while viewing them, I think – despite the materials deriving from Detroit, they hold a universal semantic motif.

 

This sense of artifice inscribed in the exhibition refers to the title, which irrevocably insinuates states of rebirth, disguise, bravery and illusion. Indeed, if wolves are found under the guise of the sheep, then the true nature of intentionality is concealed within an appearance of innocence and purity. Winston has cultivated a canon comprising a multitude of histories, transfixed in an aesthetic of simplicity and impact. It is up to us to look beyond iconography to locate meaning and nuance.