- Venue
- Bowery
- Starts
- Sunday, May 22, 2022
- Ends
- Sunday, July 3, 2022
- Address
- 54 Otley Rd, Headingley, Leeds LS6 2AL
- Location
- Yorkshire
- Organiser
- Bowery Leeds
Where Pieces Belong
Hannah Merrill & Sarah Francis
22nd May – 3rd August
‘Where Pieces Belong’ brings together Hannah Merrill and Sarah Francis, two mixed media artists who use collage and assemblage to rebuild themselves and build worlds in which ideas, memory and belonging manifest. Both artists reinvent worlds from items that have been thrown away creating new environments where dreams and hopes can be rebuilt, recycled and rethought.
This conceptual framework draws parallels between artists from different worlds, whose work follows similar lines in metaphysical realms.
When Sarah decided to curate the show, ‘I was fascinated by how similar and yet different my own work was from Hannah’s. Where I use ‘thrown’ and ‘discarded’ material with paint to explore the notion of my experiences of feeling hidden, making work which evokes beauty within what is often disregarded, Hannah uses ‘recycled’ and ‘reused’ materials with paint to explore a sense of being rooted, of rebirth and a connectedness grounded in nature.’
Both artists evoke beauty with found objects by reconstructing their own worlds and making sense of where the pieces belong.
‘PHASES’
Hannah Merrill
Hannah is fascinated by the relationship between the innately feminine and the natural world. In this body of work Hannah tells the story of mother nature giving birth to the moon. She uses her own interpretation of classical myths, mythology, fables and moral stories to communicate the connection between the phases of the moon and that of life.
Feminine energy is sacred, a goddess culture which connects our body to nature, to the cycles of creation, and is one of transformation. The shapes of femininity and nature mirror one another and create a deep relationship of understanding. Hannah Merrill uses found, reused and recycled art materials with secondhand paint to communicate the notions of her experiences and to tell a powerful story of femininity.
Hannah is American but now lives and works in East Leeds. Hannah has shown and sold works internationally. In addition to her practice, Hannah is an associate artist at Aire Place Studios, and teaches painting from her home studio.
www.hannahmerrill.com
@hannahmerrillart
‘ L A N D S H A P E S ’ Sarah Francis
My body, the land, my home.
‘Landshapes’ is an exploration into finding a sense of authenticity with the self. Sarah is an award-winning Welsh born, Leeds based mixed media artist whose work looks at the ideas of reality and representation. Sarah gathers and relocates particular events that were once lost, forgotten or left behind and reworks them with found objects, wood and paint. Sarah concentrates on intertwining traces of dreams and memories to create physical landscapes and portraits, her work centres around her neuro diverse 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, 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.
www.sarahfrancis.art
@sarahfrancis.art
EXHIBITION DATE – 22nd May – 3rd August
MEET ARTIST DATE – 17th June – 6-8
COFFEE MORNING DATE – July 31st 11am-1pm
