Curation
In addition to facilitating studio sessions, I have curated exhibitions with ActionSpace, a charity organisation that supports artists with learning disabilities across London, and provides access to creative studios, professional guidance, and the support they need to grow as artists. Below are some curatorial projects I have done with the artists of ActionSpace within the flagship studio site.
Crystallising Worlds
14 – 16 June 2024
ActionSpace Studio, Cockpit Bloomsbury, Cockpit Yard, Northington Street
Crystallising Worlds was the new group exhibition showcasing artworks by ActionSpace artists Sharon Adokorach, Evan Bond, Ali Kamalati, Thomas Owen and Amita Ramchandani for the Cockpit Bloomsbury Summer Open Studios. Curated by Isabel Jones and Nicola McEvoy, the exhibition featured work made in the ActionSpace Cockpit Bloomsbury studio. Drawing upon themes of dystopian futures, technicolour abstract fields and pattern, Crystallising Worlds examined the individual practices of the exhibiting artists.
Responding to current social and political happenings, Evan Bond’s drawings imagine dystopian futures. Transformed into experimental animations, Evan narrates wonderous science fiction that are interwoven with the absurdity of day-to-day humdrum. Thomas Owen constructs complex and layered worlds of patterns, figures and jumpers that call attention to often overlooked details. Amita Ramchandani paints with large gestural movements. Implementing recurring motifs, she builds a register of original marks that identify her painting practice. Ali Kamalati’s paintings and drawings express technicolour abstract fields of colour. Faces and figures peek out of these painterly planes, where mixed media material and figuration cross over. Sharon Adokorach creates a catalogue of forms in her paintings. Glyph-like shapes emerge from each work as we are drawn into the patterned constellations Sharon constructs.
Gathering In Likeness
22 – 24 November 2024
ActionSpace Studio, Cockpit Bloomsbury, Cockpit Yard, Northington Street
As a part of the Winter Open Studios and art market at Cockpit Bloomsbury, ActionSpace presented a new exhibition Gathering in Likeness, showcasing the work of nearly fifty ActionSpace artists from across our three flagship London studios in one space.
Gathering in Likeness presented recent artworks by ActionSpace artists in a display exploring correspondences across individual practices. Curated by Nicola McEvoy, this exhibition invited us to hold time and find likeness when the buzz of daily life makes it hard to feel connected.
Connectivity can be found in similar means of creation or by exploring themes of familiarity and the universal experience. Be it Nicky Harris’ superheroes, Thomas Owen’s jumpers and horses peeking through chequered patterns, or the use of common phrases in Patrick Moses’ textual compositions, appreciating what is recognisable fosters a sense of community and shared space.
Adam Crown, Birds, 2023, watercolour on paper.
