Oh dear, it’s been a while since I visited my blog. The dark and the cold get to me every winter and the incessant rain in Kent is close to unbelievable.
Did someone say build an ark?
So – the best bits………
‘Tension’ our co- curated show is drawing to a close and has been really well received. A big thank you to David Minton who wrote a review for a-n which has been tweeted all over the place.
We did manage a great PV party – star of the show being my dog plate which everyone wanted to take home…!
Curating a gallery show is a new departure for me and it’s been a revelation. I’ve always thought that it was something I would like to gain some expereince in and suspected it might suit me. I’m not sure I would have had the confidence a few years ago.
I am at my happiest chatting, connecting, discovering work, talking, discussing with artists that I have met through the organisations I’ve worked with. I have a reputation for introducing them one to another which I enjoy – especially if by doing so I think something positive will come of it for their practice.
In a way this seems an extension of that. A new form of connecting, of using ones knowledge of who is out there and what they are up to, what their practice is about…who knows who, who has a van, who is responsible or articulate or wayward. It all feeds in.
Curating by invitation is magical – new dialogues between works one hadn’t expected. Works that one had seen elsewhere blossoming into new persona in their unfamiliar spaces, works displayed differently unfurling from inward looking to ones that command the space around them………
Next up is ‘A Fine Line.’ Same co- curators – Ros, Barker, Sue Evans and myself. Same great space.
We were offered the gallery time slot and opted for two shows. So here goes…this second one was an open submission….with over a hundred replies!
Looking at some of them I think we realised how sophisticated we have become in the six or so years out of college.
We had an offer of work which wasn’t attached, work that wasn’t in focus, work with no size or media ….but also stonkingly lovely work and exciting work that came to the exhibition title with freshness and surprise.
How very hard it is to judge the quality of unknown work from a digital image ……
I hope we do all our artists justice when we hang on Monday. So much to learn, but what a buzz … and giving me more back at the moment than my own work.
..and I have been approached to co- curate another exciting and qute different show …….more later.
Looks like I will have to add a ‘curated’ bit on my website. How exciting.
