In the Studio, Outside Mall Galleries

Ottelien Huckin banner.jpg

As busy as our In the Studio programme is, the artists have a whole lot going on outside of what they do at Mall Galleries. It’s wonderful to see them flourishing and pursuing their own projects. We are so impressed by all of the wonderful exhibitions, projects and prizes they’re cooking up that we wanted to share them with you. Be sure to mark these events in your diaries!

Suzon Lagarde, A Painted Touch of Life, 29 May to 3 June

Alongside her friend Inma Garcia-Carrasco, Suzon Lagarde will be exhibiting over 20 figurative paintings which delve into their immediate world: relationships, universal feelings, inner minds and memories. Both Lagarde and Garcia-Carrasco “use the human figure as a device to explore life’s fascinating experiences.”

These works were created over the course of a year starting when the pair first met. A collaborative work between the two artists, informed by their burgeoning friendship, will be unveiled at the Private View (29 May). This piece is inspired by the legend of the red thread, a story in Japanese folklore which says that individuals who are tied to one another by invisible scarlet string are destined to meet and that this encounter will profoundly affect them.

Anna Kenneally with a recent work The Execution Party II, photographed by Peter Mallet

Anna Kenneally, Unvoiced Group Show, 14 June to 16 June

Anna Kenneally will be exhibiting in a group show at St Augustine Tower in Hackney alongside Pedro Miguel Baeta, Rachel Campbell, Fabienne Jenny Jacquet, Anna Kenneally, Rosielea, Jennifer Smith, Noriko Watanabe and Chloe Wing.

Organised by Tainted Glory art blog, Unvoiced is a multi-disciplinary exhibition featuring emerging UK-based and international artists. The show gives a platform to creative individuals including those who are still under-represented in the art world because of their gender, age, sexual orientation or background.

Painter's Dog Resting by Owain Hunt 

Owain Hunt, Royal Society of British Artists Annual Exhibition, 4 to 14 July

Owain Hunt was recently awarded the Minerva Best Portrait Prize at the 114th Bath Society of Artists Annual Exhibition for his pensive self-portrait, "Reflection at 24". He will also be exhibiting a new work titled "The Painter's Dog Resting" at the RBA’s Annual Exhibition at Mall Galleries in July – of course we couldn’t miss an opportunity to plug one of our own shows!

 

No 7 by Anna Stevenson

Anna Kenneally and Anna Stevenson, Finalists in The Ashurst Emerging Art Prize

Both Anna Kenneally and Anna Stevenson are finalists in The Ashurst Emerging Art Prize which awards £9,000 worth of prizes and exhibitions to burgeoning artists. 

In Kenneally's selected work, fashion masquerades as meaningful political discourse. Using symbols of wealth to embellish her painting, she raises questions around our definitions of status. "Original imagery is collaged and cannibalized in order to reflect references of both art and fashion within western culture," explains Kenneally, "collaging together different styles of painting ranging from realism to expressive modes of working."

Combining the ordinary with the surreal, Stevenson's "No 7" explores the lines between imagination and realism. Inspired by the artist Paul Nash, Stevenson simultaneously depicts the representation of an area while also evoking the feeling and mood of a place or situation. "Using a simplistic composition plan and a limited range of colour the viewer is led through the painting by visual indicators of blue lines and orange forms that aim to act as signals to the focal point whilst also providing perspective and depth to the piece," Stevenson shares.

Nowy Theatre's Lolita poster, designed by Paulina Kwietniewska

Paulina Kwietniewska, I Long for Some Terrific Disaster, 1 June

Last year, Paulina was contacted by the managing director of Nowy Theatre in Lodz to design posters for the first ever staging of Vladamir Nabokov's Lolita in Poland. “As I love literature and as a fan of Nabokov's work, it was really easy for me to feel inspired by the subject. The chosen poster refers to Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel masterpiece in which God passes on the spark of life onto human,” says Paulina. “In Lolita, Humbert Humbert dreamed of 'converting' a girl into a woman, passing the spark onto her, he was fascinated by how larvas turn into butterflies,” she explains.

The girl in Paulina’s artwork is inspired by Rose Finn Kelcey's 1975 photograph, “The Restless Image - a discrepancy between the felt position and the seen position". I love the playfulness of the pose,” Paulina shares. “It's not obvious if she's doing a handstand or standing on her feet at first. I think it's a good reference to Humbert's uncertainty if Lolita is still an innocent child or a nymphette.”

Lolita opens at Nowy Theatre on May 31. A solo exhibition of Paulina’s work will coincide with the show, exhibiting at Nowy Theatre from 1 June and will feature all four versions of the Lolita poster alongside some other illustrative works.

Renda / Mirrored by Will GC Brown

Group Show, In the Studio Exhibition, 12-17 August

Did you know the In the Studio artists are holding their own exhibition at Mall Galleries this summer?

This group show will feature work by all 22 artists from our In the Studio programme here at Mall Galleries. These artists, all aged between 18 and 26, have collaborated as a group in creating this exhibition. Viewers can expect everything from hyper-realistic portraiture by Will GC Brown to Rebeka-Louise Lee's study of memory and place to feminist representations of the female figure in paintings by Erin Lee and Ottelien Huckin. See you there!

 

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