Agency of Realised Worlds - a-n The Artists Information Company

Venue: Aire Place Studios
Starts: Friday, June 23, 2023
Ends: Friday, August 25, 2023
Address: Unit 2c, Aire Place Mills, Kirkstall Rd, Leeds LS3 1JL
Location: Yorkshire
Organiser: Aire Place Studios

APS Gallery in partnership with Ort Gallery and ICF presents the Agency of Realised Worlds.

An exhibition that celebrates the life work of the Artist Clem Archibald. We invite you to take a first look at Clem’s vibrant and bold paintings that span over 60 years. Clem is a skilled self-taught artist in his seventies who has lived in LS4 since arriving from St. Kitts aged 8 years old.

This exhibition is a collaboration between Artist Clem Archibald and Curator Sarah Francis which explores and showcases Archibald’s unseen painting over six decades. Two different creatives, two different socio-cultural perspectives, with a shared sense of the different worlds realised through art and making. The project has spanned 12 months, curating the stories and paintings that represent different stages of Clem’s life and experiences. This is an autobiographical journey of an artist almost left behind by barriers in the cultural world, showcasing his unprecedented talent.

“Art has the power to transport an artist from a world they feel a sense of unbelonging into a world of their own imagination, of safety and where they can share their stories. A world where they can be their authentic selves without the fear of prejudice, and harm from others. A world that is unashamedly the WE we seek. These worlds we create carry transformative powers to be able to translate these stories into the real world, so that we can connect, relate, and be moved with exploration. Agency of Realised worlds explores the talented work of Clem, a proud Leeds artist we should all be celebrating. His art is saturated in Leeds history and an untold personal connection which he explores in his paintings. I have been a privileged guest inside Clem’s world and I am so thrilled to be permitted to showcase his paintings in this exhibition. His artwork should be in collections, and I hope that after 60 years this exhibition can form the start of his legacy and a shift in finding and platforming our hidden voices within Leeds.” Sarah Francis, Curator.

This exhibition stems from Ort Gallery and ICF’s Emergence(y) project for emerging curators, which Sarah Francis was selected to participate in in 2021. As part of the project, Francis undertook a period of research and development towards this exhibition with Clem Archibald. Emergence(y) was funded by Arts Council England.

Come and join us for the public opening event on Friday 30th June 2023, 6:30-9:30pm.

Exhibition Dates: 23 June – 25 August 2023.

Gallery visiting times: Wednesdays & Fridays (11am – 5pm). Please book ahead of your visit here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/agency-of-realised-worlds-exhibition-tickets-648099371667

Sarah Francis

Artist Curator Sarah Francis is a Leeds based Artist Curator who focuses on bringing under-recognised artists and narratives to the public, using empathy and warmth to build self-confidence in creatives left behind by the mainstream system. Fascinated by complex possibilities lying dormant in ‘familiar’ environments, setting a challenging dialogue between cultural identity and the inner worlds which we as artists manifest within our work. This conceptual framework draws parallels between artists from differing socio-cultural worlds, whose work follows similar lines in metaphysical realms. Francis' interpretation of the curator is that of a caretaker of other worlds, working in collaboration as the tour guide and storyteller, bringing these converging manifestations to our physical spaces. Francis’ artwork centres around her neurodiverse and queer identity, building her own language and worlds to explore and understand ‘how I made me’; a reference to an early body of work that investigated her inner trauma and re-articulation of her current self. Her work has been shortlisted for the Saatchi Gallery’s Art of Giving Prize, selected by Richard Billingham for Curator’s Choice Noise Young Talent 2009, and recognised in Aesthetica’s 100 Best Contemporary Artists in Europe. In addition to her work, Sarah Francis is the Founder and Director of Aire Place Studios, Leeds. @sarahfrancis.art & @aireplacestudios

Aire Place Studios CIC

Aire Place Studios is a creative studio which holds spaces of equality and solidarity. We host comfortable studios spaces, hold safer spaces for workshops and a bold gallery space centred around innovation and inclusivity. Aire Place Studios also features a collective of associated artists who exist to radically uplift under-represented creatives with empathy and warmth to realise the potential of those often overlooked by traditional art institutions. This dynamic collaboration builds trust and collective accountability to serve our communities.