Bow Arts has announced the artists selected for the 2016 Bow Open Show. Taking place at the organisation’s Nunnery Gallery in East London, the exhibition will feature 24 artists chosen from the 500 working in Bow’s ten studio sites across the city.
Selected and curated by the painter Anj Smith, the show features a range of work, including painting, collage, drawing, photography, sculpture and performance.
Sophie Hill, gallery director at the Nunnery Gallery, said: “I think the work selected says a lot about the force and energy artists have, in enabling open and confronting comments on subjects such as gender and difficult history.
“There are probing and evocative questions in this exhibition, deliberately and simply put through the quality and power of art.”
The breadth of work includes Nitin Amin’s Selfhood Series of photographs, which explore his family history through restaging childhood memories from his hometown Mwanza in Tanzania.
Victoria Burgher‘s ceramic sugar shakers are decorated with the open-mouthed faces of those who were enslaved in the sugar trade.
Elsewhere, Anna Ilsley explores sexuality and gender with her oil painting Call me, Call me Any, Anytime, a subtle presentation of female eroticism.
Artist Lizzie Cannon, who works in drawing and sculpture, said: “The Bow Open is a fantastic opportunity to be part of a carefully curated exhibition. Each year reveals a unique and coherent show from a diverse range of artists at Bow Arts.”
The full list of artists exhibiting is: Michael Achtman; Nitin Amin; Marta Bakst; Victoria Burgher; Lizzie Cannon; Jessica Jane Charleston; Matt Gee; Michael Gurhy; Rachel Haines; Denise Hickey; Ryan Hodge; Anna Ilsley; Matthew Krishanu; Felicity McCabe; Lauren Mele; Laura Napier; Ellie Nicholls; Marcus Orlandi; Mette Sterre; Rys Thomas; Emily Tracy; Jaime Valtierra; Emily Whitebread; Emily Wolfe.
The exhibition will be accompanied by an events programme that includes an evening of performances in Bow Arts’ courtyard for July’s First Thursday. There will also be a talk from artist Nye Thompson, and the inaugural performance of Desire Caught by the Tail, a rarely produced play by Pablo Picasso, which will be directed by Cradeaux Alexander.
Last year Bow Arts celebrated its 20th anniversary. Previous curators of the Bow Arts Open include Mark Wallinger, and Bob and Roberta Smith with Skye Sherwin.
Bow Arts Open 2016 takes place 18 June to 28 August 2016. www.bowarts.org
Images:
1. Matt Gee, Chrome Sun, 2015. Courtesy the artist
2. Victoria Burgher, Suiker Piet, 12 x 8cm each, porcelain and ceramic decals, 2016
3. Lizzie Cannon, Corrosion: Study with beads, found object, beads, embroidery, silk, 23 x 23 x 3 cm, 2013
More on a-n.co.uk:
Bow Open 2016: painter Anj Smith announced as curator
Venice and Northern Ireland: No show at Biennale is holding country’s artists and curators back
