why we linger at site festival
‘Why We Linger’ at Site Festival 2024 in Stroud. An exhibition showcasing all the artists that the Gallery represents.
New York Outsider Art Fair
It’s that time of year again when the New York Outsider Art Fair opens its doors to artists, new and old, and I am excited, once more, to be part of it. I have a vast array of talented artists to showcase including: Kate Bradbury, Nek Chand, Miguel Ángel Hernando, Carlo Keshishian, Pradeep Kumar, Cara Macwilliam, Mohammed M’rabet, Chris Neate, Valerie Potter, Shinichi Sawada, Marie Suzuki, Yoshihiro Watanabe, and Terence Wilde.
RWA Annual Open Exhibition
The 169th RWA Annual Open Exhibition offered a stunning variety of work from emerging and established artists. This dynamic, varied and uplifting exhibition included a stunning array of painting, drawing, printmaking, photography, sculpture, installation and mixed media artworks, and it showcased some of the most exciting artists from across the country and beyond.
Hybrid Creatures
About the Exhibition
Miguel Ángel Hernando was born in Madrid in 1965, and started to attend the Carabanchel Occupational Centre in 1989, where he worked in the ceramic and drawing workshops. Since 2011 he has attended the Debajo del Sombrero workshop in Matadero, Madrid. He attends twice a week, for four hours each time. Whenever someone new comes into the studio, he has a need without exception, to know their birth date and day of the week they were born. It is clear that its meaning hides something that fascinates him. In this way, Hernando shows the same urgency that we all feel to decipher the enigma of time in our lives. This interest in time also manifests in his eagerness to collect calendars and take them everywhere with him. They seem to be much more his property than the clothes that he wears. He can often be found asking others to bring him calendars – but they must be from the current year. He also has a daily ritual of singing the birthday song, which the whole studio has come to accept.
Hernando’s artwork features a world of tiny patterns and imagined animals and figures, arranged around the page. He loves to work in glitter gel pens to create his colourful works. It is believed that he draws things to be admired in heavy detail, but due to his limited speech, the studio cannot be exactly sure what he is drawing. Over time his drawings have increased in their delicacy and in the precision of his detail. Hernando has refined his style of a complicated network of streaks and dots that he uses as decoration on the figures and animals. No one knows just how much detail or ornamentation will feature in a piece of work. The studio views many of the pieces as extravagant works, but love the variation in what he creates. He often repeats the phrase “I paint very well”, so perhaps he feels we do not need to know anymore.
Click here to view the exhibition →
Click here to watch a video of Jennifer in conversation with Artistic Director Luis Saez from Miguel’s studio in Madrid, and Gorka translated into English. BSL was recorded as part of the discussion. It is one hour long. (NOTE: If you click on the 4 arrows next to the word vimeo it will make it full screen)
Staff members from Debajo del Sombrero talked about the supported studio, its history, how it works with intellectually disabled artists and a little about Miguel's practice in particular. This studio is just one of many studios across Europe that supports disabled artists.
ART | UNLOCKED | UNEARTHED
About the Exhibition
The Jennifer Lauren Gallery held a two-week callout in April 2020 for artists that self-define as disabled and/or Deaf to submit one artwork for selection that has been made since January 2020, with no theme or art material specified. This call-out culminated in this rich and vibrant online exhibition and zine that can be viewed here: ‘ART | UNLOCKED | UNEARTHED.’
With the help of artist and adult survivor Terence Wilde and curator Lisa Slominski, we selected the work of 30 artists from 194 submissions. As part of the funding from Manchester International Festival, five of the selected artists were Greater Manchester based – highlighted by the word *MANCHESTER.
Art provides a much-needed distraction and connection point for so many disabled and/or Deaf artists in order to combat the loneliness and isolation that many are currently facing. Many of those featured were from supported studios who were doing an incredible job to move their programming online to continue supporting disabled artists from a distance during covid-19.
Supporting artist’s wellbeing is of utmost importance to me and this call-out was just one way of providing a boost to artists during this time. Please get in touch should any works be of interest to you.