Isabel de Vasconcellos in conversation with Henrietta Armstrong

GALLERY46, Sunday 16 June 2024, 2pm

Isabel first showed Henrietta Armstrong’s Throwing Bones II in Tideline in 2022.

In this talk, they discuss climate change and the sea, and Armstrong’s research into the marine defence structures used to protect the land from coastal erosion.

The talk will be followed by a performance by eco musician Jess Gold.

The Garden of Delights on Earth is an Arts Council England-funded group exhibition that invites viewers to imagine a sustainable future through the power of art.

Curated by Tatiana de Stempel, the exhibition features 19 women and non-binary artists whose work addresses conversations and need for action in the climate crisis. Bringing together artists from live performance, film, print, sculpture and installation works seen from a feminist perspective and community care. These artworks offer a new lens to tackle environmental sustainability in this Anthropocene era.

Tickets available via Eventbrite

GALLERY46

46 Ashfield St
London
E1 2AJ

Exhibition: Larger Than Life at Messums Wiltshire opens 14 July 2023

Activating the lawns and landscape surrounding the barn and drawing inspiration from our summer Festival of Dance, Messums Wiltshire presents Larger Than Life, a group exhibition of sculpture by gallery and invited artists.
 
From Laurence Edwards’ six-foot bronze Chthonic Head, fresh from the shores of Lowestoft where it washes up for this year’s First Light Festival in June, to Sophie Ryder’s Dancing Ladies and Helaine Blumenfeld’s pivotal Souls, created in 1985 following her breakthrough exhibition with Henry Moore, the show renders the body as engine of movement in metal and stone.
 
In dialogue with the programme of contemporary choreography, workshops and films inside the barn, it probes the complementary dichotomies of inner and outer, fluid and solid; contingency and constancy, fleeting and timelessness.
 
Featured alongside works by Dame Elisabeth Frink, Sean Henry, Thomas Merrett and Jason Mulligan, these sculptures present movement and stillness as the outward expression inner states of being.
 
The show will be on view throughout the summer months, and is accompanied by an essay by exhibition curator Isabel de Vasconcellos.

Image: Sean Henry ‘Standing Figure (Man)’

SAAD QURESHI SELECTED TO CREATE ORGAN DONATION MEMORIAL AT THE ROYAL LONDON HOSPITAL

Questions with Saad Qureshi on the organ donor memorial

The Organ Donation Committee (Barts Health NHS Trust), Vital Arts, NHS Blood and Transplant and Barts Charity are delighted to announce that British artist Saad Qureshi has been commissioned to create an Organ Donor Memorial for display at the Royal London Hospital, Whitechapel.

The project emerges from a request by the Organ Donation Committee for a permanent artwork that would commemorate donors, as well as raise awareness of organ donation. Vital Arts is the charitably funded arts organisation that commissions artwork for Barts Health NHS Trust. After extensive research, Vital Arts proposed Qureshi, whose response to the brief was innovative and heartfelt.

Memory is one of the central themes running through Qureshi’s practice. Speaking about the project to honour organ donors, and the courageous support of their loved ones, Qureshi said:

‘I want to explore the notion of continuity: of memory over and beyond lifetime, and of the gift of donation, where a person gives an organ so that another can live, but that in doing so, a part of the donor’s body is offered a new lease of life… When we look at people, we see their outward appearance, which is extremely diverse across the world, but inside we are all flesh, blood and bone. What fundamentally distinguishes us is our memory, the events of our lives. The phenomenon of organ donation brings a new imaginative dimension to the notion of what it is to be alive.’

As part of the development of the work, Qureshi will spend time with patients, donors and their loved-ones, asking them to share significant moments in the lives of donors and organ recipients. The artist will use the themes of these stories as inspiration for his final work, intended to be unveiled during Organ Donation Week 2023.

The final work will be permanently sited at the Entrance Lobby to the Renal Unit of the Royal London Hospital, as a space of solace for bereaved families whose loved ones have donated organs—as well as a space for others to consider organ donation. The artwork will be accessible from within the building and also be outward facing, sited behind a glazed frontage, and therefore visible 24/7.  The project is generously funded by Barts Charity.

Over 50,000 are currently alive in the UK today, thanks to receiving the precious gift of life from a donor. However, over 6,000 are still waiting and as recovery from the pandemic continues this number is expected to rise. The more people who register their support for donation, the more lives can be saved. Just one organ donor can save up to nine lives, or improve up to 50 lives if tissue is also donated.

Although the law regarding organ donation has changed, families are always consulted before donation proceeds. This means it is still crucial decisions are registered on the NHS Organ Donor Register, and friends and family are informed. Registration is fast and easy.

For more information or to register organ donation decisions, visit www.organdonation.org.uk, use the NHS app or call 0300 123 23 23. Users of the NHS app can also check or amend their decision.

 

 

About Saad Qureshi:

Saad Qureshi lives and works in London and Oxford. He received his BA in Fine Art from Oxford Brookes University in 2007 and an MFA in Painting from The Slade School of Fine Art, London, in 2010.

Recent solo exhibitions include Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Wakefield; Nature Morte Gallery, New Delhi; Aicon Gallery, New York; and Gazelli Art House, London. Group exhibitions include I’Institut des Cultures d’Islam, Paris; Museum Arnhem, Netherlands; Kunsthall 3,14, Bergen; Drawing Room, London; and White Project Gallery, Paris.

Qureshi has had public commissions at Oxford Brookes University, Oxford and Victoria, London and his work has been acquired by public collections including the Dipti Mathur Collection, California; The Farjam Foundation Collection, Dubai; the UNESCO Creative Cities Collection, Beijing; The Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, New Delhi; the Boston Consulting Group; and the Almarkhiya Gallery, Qatar as well as British and international private collections.

Qureshi was shortlisted for the 2021 SkyArts LANDMARKS public art commission. He has received two ACE awards; the Celeste Prize, Rome; the Royal Society of British Sculptors bursary award; the Red Mansion Foundation Prize; and he was shortlisted for the Lecturis Award, Amsterdam. He features in the 2020 Thames & Hudson book 100 Sculptors of Tomorrow.

www.saadqureshi.com | @saad_qureshi_studio

 

About Vital Arts:

Vital Arts is the charitably-funded arts organisation within Barts Health NHS Trust. Established in 1996, Vital Arts has an international reputation for innovative and ambitious art projects that support patients and staff, while raising the standard of art in hospitals – and public art in general. Vital Arts views hospitals as key civic spaces that are ideal to introduce new audiences to the transformative power of art.

 

About Barts Health NHS Trust:

With a turnover of £1.5 billion and a workforce of around 17,000, Barts Health is a leading healthcare provider in Britain and one of the largest NHS trusts in the country. The Trust’s five hospitals – St Bartholomew’s Hospital in the City, including the Barts Heart Centre, The Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel, Newham University Hospital in Plaistow, Whipps Cross University Hospital in Leytonstone and Mile End Hospital – deliver high quality compassionate care to the 2.5 million people of east London and beyond.

www.bartshealth.nhs.uk | @nhsbartshealth

 

About NHS Blood and Transplant:

NHS Blood and Transplant is a joint England and Wales Special Health Authority. NHS Blood and Transplant provide the blood donation service for England and the organ donation service for the UK. This includes managing the donation, storage and transplantation of blood, organs, tissues, bone marrow and stem cells and researching new treatments and processes. NHS Blood and Transplant is an essential part of the NHS, saving and improving lives through public donation.

 

About Barts Charity:

Barts Charity funds exceptional healthcare for the people of East London and beyond. It funds ground-breaking medical research, state-of-the-art equipment, and innovative healthcare projects which go above and beyond what the NHS can provide. Its work supports staff and patients at the five hospitals within Barts Health Trust, as well as clinicians and researchers at Queen Mary University London.

www.bartscharity.org.uk | @Barts_Charity

RSS Summer Show 2022: In Conversation with Isabel de Vasconcellos | Cromwell Place

The Royal Society of Sculptor’s Summer Show is just around the corner and so last week we had the chance to speak with the show’s curator, Isabel de Vasconcellos.

As partners of the Royal Society of Sculptors, we asked Isabel a few questions to find out what we can expect from this year’s show at Cromwell Place.


Tell us a little bit about yourself and what you do.

The common thread that runs through everything I’ve done since I started out, is working with artists. Whether it’s representing and championing their interests, curating exhibitions, project managing commissions, interviewing them (as I’ve done with the RSS’s Behind the Studio Doors series) or writing, it all begins with curiosity, dialogue and a connection.

How did you get into curating?

When I finished my MA in Contemporary Art in the mid-90’s, my tutors were all agreed that I should become a curator and art critic in the traditional vein, which would have involved applying for a job in a public museum or similar, and taking it from there. And having started down that path by doing an internship in the Visual Arts Department of the British Council, it looked like things would go that way, until I had an unexpected medical emergency that took me out of circulation for a while.

Coming back from it, the first thing I was offered was a job as Artist Liaison at what then still a relatively small gallery in St James’s called White Cube. At that stage, I just wanted to get on with it, so I jumped at the chance. It was there that I realised how much I enjoyed working directly with artists, and I’ve been doing so ever since.

Starting this way meant that I got a very different, and often more intimate, perspective on what is involved conceiving and exhibiting works of art, and I’ve enjoyed the independence of working largely outside institutional contexts, and directly with artists. It’s a very good grounding in working intuitively, and trusting the creative alchemy that takes an idea and an energy, gives it form and presents it to the world.

What do you like most about the work that you do?

It’s inspiring to be there, oftentimes before the work of art even exists; but it’s also wonderful to set out on the trail of something you sense is there to be discovered and bring it to light.

What do you think are the main issues that currently exist in the art world?

As someone who’s been conscious of climate change since my teens, and observed the ballooning footprint of the art world with anxiety, I’m very happy about the founding of programmes like the Gallery Climate Coalition, to explore new blueprints and share more sustainable ways of working. Artists, museums and galleries can do a lot to invite people to think and act differently, and to value the earth’s resources in more equitable ways.

Tideline, which is on at Messums Wiltshire until 3 July, features artists (a few of them members of the Royal Society of Sculptors!) working with climate change and the marine environment, and we programmed a day of talks with scientists, designers, writers and activists as part of the exhibition. What emerged was how much common ground and creative thinking there is across disciplines; and the huge reserves of ingenuity there to be explored and put into practice. There is agency, and much we can all do as we recalibrate our priorities and actions.

Another pressing issue is to do with nurturing the wellspring of the art world – emerging artists – at a time when studio spaces and the economic demands of rent, and cost of living in general are putting time to think, experiment and establish a career out of the reach of too many. The quality, diversity and risk-taking that make for truly interesting and vibrant work will suffer.

As partners of the Royal Society of Sculptors, we’re looking forward to The Summer Show at Cromwell Place. What’s in store this year?
I had such a great time looking through the submissions to the Royal Society of Sculptors Summer Show this year. The quality was amazing, and curatorially, there were several directions I could have taken in my selection. Given more space, I would’ve chosen 2 – 3 themes to explore, but in the end, there was a particularly strong confluence of works that touched on landscape and the natural world. I think together they will make for a poetic and transporting exhibition, with a touch of humour thrown in.

Source: https://www.queensfineart.com/blog/royal-s...

Messums Wiltshire Gallery Talk: Public Sculpture – What’s the Point?

A talk during Messums Wiltshire’s Elisabeth Frink 'Man is an Animal' exhibition. Frink created much public art in her lifetime, a genre dominated by men.

With ongoing discussions over the statues in our cities, we invite a panel to discuss 'Public Sculpture - What's the Point?

Public art adds enormous value to the cultural, aesthetic and economic vitality of a community. It is now a well-accepted principle of urban design that public art contributes to a community's identity, fosters community pride and a sense of belonging, and enhances the quality of life for its residents and visitors. But with more and more public art, who decides and who commissions?

The panel includes Isabel de Vasconcellos (author of Fourth Plinth: How London Created the Smallest Sculpture Park in the World) and sculptor Laurence Edwards who has recently completed public commissions in Suffolk and Doncaster.

DATE

Friday 5 November 2021

TIMES

6.30 - 7.30pm

TICKETS

Ticket link https://bit.ly/2ZOQLf3

Isabel de Vasconcellos In Conversation with The Sinistry, James Putnam and Irving Finkel

Live panel discussion: Chaired by Isabel de Vasconcellos in conversation with Curator James Putnam, Irving Finkel and The Sinistry

The Sinistry is a creative partnership between contemporary artists Bert Gilbert and Izzet Ers who explore the themes of ritual, myth and altered states of being. Blurring the boundaries between art and fashion, their works involve the use of finely crafted textiles and mixed media.

The Game of Life, their first UK exhibition, proposes that existence is a multi-dimensional game, one in which the rules have been long forgotten or misappropriated. Questioning the mind games we play on others and ourselves, the show references the ancient Egyptian/Indian board games Mehen and Snakes and Ladders.

THE SINISTRY: THE GAME OF LIFE The exhibition curated by James Putnam will be open to public 4 - 7 June from 11 am till 7 pm.

Free booking link here: https://bit.ly/33RzTCC

Sun, 6 June 2021, 17:00 – 19:00 BST

2 Sheep Lane, London E8 4QS


———

Isabel de Vasconcellos

Isabel de Vasconcellos is an independent curator and cultural producer. She writes on sculpture, painting, conceptual art, photography and design, and is the author of Fourth Plinth: How London Created the Smallest Sculpture Park in the World.

www.idev-art.com

Irving Finkel

Irving Finkel is a British philologist and Assyriologist. He is currently the Assistant Keeper of Ancient Mesopotamian script, languages, and cultures in the Department of the Middle East in the British Museum, where he specialises in cuneiform inscriptions on tablets of clay from ancient Mesopotamia. Finkel studies the history of board games, and is on the Editorial Board of Board Game Studies. Among his breakthrough works is the determination of the rules of the Royal Game of Ur.

About the Curator

James Putnam is an independent curator and writer and Senior Research Fellow: Exhibitions at University of the Arts, London. He studied Art History at London University, was Visiting Scholar in Museum Studies at New York University, and Senior Lecturer in curating at Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts, London (2004-2011). He founded and was curator of the British Museum‟s Contemporary Arts and Cultures Programme from 1999 to 2003. He also curates an ongoing series of critically acclaimed projects with contemporary artists at the Freud Museum, London. His book „Art and Artifact – The Museum as Medium‟ (Thames & Hudson, 2000/10) surveys the interaction between contemporary artists and the museum. Since 1994, he has organised a number of critically-acclaimed exhibitions for major museums, juxtaposing the work of contemporary artists with their collections. In the last decade, he has regularly curated projects for biennials, both in Asia and Venice.

About the Artists

Izzet Ers

Former Creative Director of Hockley (2003 – 2016), Izzet Ers is a graduate of Central St Martins. He has spent the past two decades working and collaborating with British designers such as Christopher Kane, Walid Al Damirji, Roksanda Ilincic, Erdem, Jonathan Saunders, Richard Nicoll, Luella Bartley, Stuart Vevers, Matthew Williamson, Giles Deacon, Clements Ribeiro, and British Heritage brands Purdey’s, Holland & Holland and Hackett.

Bert Gilbert

An award winning British contemporary artist, a first class graduate from Central St Martins (2003) where she formed a subversive art brand, Bert Industries. Gilbert has been prolific across the worlds of art, fashion, film and music as a creative consultant for many brands and bespoke art, design, print, product and installation commissions for private collectors and celebrity clients including : Cara Delevingne, Roisin Murphy, Depeche Mode, Joe Lycett, Dua Lipa, William Orbit, The Pet Shop Boys, The Cure, Coco De Mer, Alexander McQueen,Terry De Havilland, Marissa Tomei, David Thewlis, Jet, Sting, Girls Aloud, Bob Geldof, Scissor Sisters, Mark Moore and Howard Marks.

She is an affiliate MAL at UCL and has for the past 7 years alongside her practice taught fine art and textile practice at UCL, UEL, Bedford to name but a few.

Recently supported by the Arts Council of England and The Peruvian Embassy she is producing an immersive sound sculpture using fieldwork made in collaboration with indigenous communities in the Peruvian Amazon using 3D sound and scanning, collaborating with and expert in psychoacoustics, a neuroscientist and analytical hypnotherapist to create AR healing portals exploring ancient understanding of the heart‟s capacity for sensory perception and cognition.

Gilbert sees the artist as the “sensor” that picks up shared information and feeds it back, via interactions and interventions, to the collective mind; making the invisible, visible.

Her work is currently on show in Shamanism at Galleria Mimmo Scognamiglio Artecontemporanea, Milan, from 7 May - 2 July 2021.

bertgilbert.co.uk

Royal Society of Sculptors IN CONVERSATION: Fabio Lattanzi Antinori and Jeremy Hutchison, chaired by Isabel de Vasconcellos [re-scheduled due to covid19]

First Plinth: Public art award winner Fabio Lattanzi Antinori will be in conversation with multidisciplinary artist Jeremy Hutchison.

The conversation will be chaired by curator, author and art consultant, Isabel de Vasconcellos.

This award is generously supported by the Mirisch & Lebenheim Charitable Foundation

DATE

28 Apr 2020

TIMES

6.30 - 8.30pm

TICKETS FROM

£8, £5 students, Society Members and Fellows free

Ticket link http://bit.ly/39IJTzG

ADDRESS

Royal Society of Sculptors, Dora House, 108 Old Brompton Road, South Kensington, London SW7 3RA

Isabel de Vasconcellos In Conversation with Stefan Dickers at the Saatchi Gallery

Aesthesia in partnership with Saatchi Gallery Education present:

How do we archive a new history? How can we avoid false or revisionist narratives?  

Discussion between archivist Stefan Dickers of the Bishopsgate Institute & curator Isabel de Vasconcellos (writer, Fourth Plinth: How London Created the Smallest Sculpture Park in the World).

Chaired by Laks Mann, The Mayor of London's EDI LGBT+ Lead.

Saatchi Gallery, Saturday 31 August 2019, 12.00 – 1.00 pm

Saad Qureshi in 100 Sculptors of Tomorrow

Congratulations to Saad Qureshi on being selected by Kurt Beers and a prestigious panel of artworld professionals for 100 SCULPTORS OF TOMORROW.

Published by Thames & Hudson on 5 September 2019, the book is the definitive survey of the most important sculptors working across the world today.

www.100sculptorsoftomorrow.com