Category: Exhibitions

The University of Kent’s Studio 3 Gallery held an exciting and nuanced exploration of black British culture through art: the exhibition Where are you From, From? Black British Culture in Print: 1800s-now (Kent Print Collection 10^th Exhibition). It ran from 10 – 26 May 2023 with high attendance and extensive acclaim.

Curated by a dedicated team of 3rd year art history students and made possible by generous loans and volunteers from Canterbury, London and the surrounding area, the works present a range of influential Black British artists engaging with concepts such as: class, race, music, dress and religion in their work.

Artists in the exhibition include household names – such as Sonia Boyce and Tam Joseph with a print of his brilliant ‘Spirit of the Carnival’ on display- and emerging artists like Kamlah Kew and Yvadney Davis, pioneering Black representation in the art industry.  Alongside these contemporary artists and prints, we are pleased to unveil a range of archival pieces donated by Autograph Gallery charting the course of Black British history. The body of work displayed, uncovers how culture is reproduced, maintained and passed down through the generations.

The exhibition chronicles the changes and continuities of Black diasporic identities in Britain from the black Victorians of the 19th century to predictions on the future state of black culture and representation.

What does it mean to be ‘from’ somewhere, and how do answers to this question change and evolve as globalisation complicates and hybridises identity, belonging and origin? The name of the exhibition contemplates a common question many are familiar with. While seemingly innocuous, it reflects a microaggression that suggests a lack of belonging in this country. It simultaneously creates a personal debate for the person of which it is asked, usually a Black person or person of colour. The exhibition repurposes an interrogative statement, seeking instead to connect Black people both back to Caribbean and African ancestry, and common histories in Britain, as we examine the true multicultural nature of the nation.

The University of Kent’s Studio 3 Gallery is located in the School of Arts Jarman building, at the heart of the Canterbury campus. Join us as we reject simplistic and linear narratives, and navigate the treacherous scopes of self- expression and identity. Follow us on our social media pages and follow the link to our website to keep up to date with the exciting events and talks we are in the process of planning during the exhibition’s run!

Instagram: @/Whereareyoufromfrom_

How does America become a game? Come and find out at our wonderful interactive exhibition GAmerica – open until 27th April 11am to 3pm

Studio 3 Gallery, School of Arts, Jarman Building, University of Kent, Canterbury, CT2 7UG

We are grateful for MA Curating, who provided curatorial support for the exhibition.

YouNome 

Your personalised genome in 25 portraits 

We were delighted to host Keith Robinson’s extraordinary exhibition YouNome: 4th July to 14th August 2022 Monday to Friday 10am-4.30pm.

Studio 3 Gallery, School of Arts, Jarman Building, University of Kent, Canterbury, CT2 7UG

Keith Robinson, a renowned portrait artist, has produced 25 portraits, each representing the 24 human chromosomes (plus mitochondria DNA) by altering his self-image.

YouNome is a unique science-art collaboration designed to engage, educate and inspire the general public about ‘personalised genomics’. Collaborating with Darren Griffin (Professor of Genetics at the University of Kent), Dr Gary Robinson (Kent Innovation and Enterprise) and Robbie Sutton (Professor of Social Psychology, Kent), Keith aimed to facilitate genetic understanding and reference art history, popular culture and effects on the viewer.

The portraits each represent a human chromosome. Each depict an aspect of genetics (e.g. disease, variation, evolution, gene-environment interaction) and reflect certain artistic style (e.g. Van Gogh, Hieronymus Bosch, Cindy Sherman, Fernando Botero, watercolour, hand touched photograph.

Students, school children and the public loved this thought provoking show.

A massive thank you to all those involved.

https://keithrobinsonpainting.com/Younome

If you have queries, please contact Dr Catherine Hahn c-hahn@kent.ac.uk

The story of twenty-one Italian squares, told in words and photographs by Italian authors.

Olivo Barbieri, Piazza del Popolo, Rome, February 3, 2004

Creator and Curator, Marco Delogu

Studio 3 Gallery, Jarman Building, University of Kent.

Invisible Squares features photographs of twenty Italian piazzas, taken between the end of March and the beginning of May, when Italy, like much of the rest of the world, found itself in the difficult confinement phase. These photographs [along with Barbieri’s above] are accompanied by short original texts by Italian writers connected to those places and piazzas by memories, experiences and literary references.

Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Luigi Di Maio

The “state of exceptionality” that was initiated in the spring of 2020 has resulted in a series of upheavals in practically every aspect of everyday life.
We have suddenly found ourselves shrouded in a sense of expectation and suspension, which has engulfed the very places that we formerly inhabited and filled. Joseph Rykwert states that “Italy is the land of a hundred piazzas”. These piazzas, the symbol of Italy’s widespread beauty, now return to being – perhaps for the first time in our lives – imaginary places “seen” like this only by the great artists and the minds who designed, planned, built and adorned them.

An online exhibition of art prints curated by undergraduate art history students at the University of Kent’s School of Arts will take place from 10 May to 10 August 2021.

Entitled Fascinating Fears (trigger warning: some artworks display scenes of violence and sexual violence; we do not recommend the exhibition to children), the virtual exhibition will feature works by artists such as the Old Masters Albrecht Dürer, Salvator Rosa, and Francisco Goya; modern artists like Salvador Dali and Michael Ayrton; great Japanese masters like Katsushika Hokusai;
and the contemporary artists Ana Maria Pacheco, Marcelle Hanselaar, Marcus Rees Roberts, and Jake and Dinos Chapman.

The exhibition addresses four sub-themes:

‘Nightmares Creatures’, which explores how monsters have personified various fears, and induce the uncanny feeling of horror

‘Face of Fears’, which displays the facial and bodily expression of human fears and explores the various shades of this feeling, allowing for an audience to see fear expressed in others

‘Japanese horrors’, exhibiting the ghosts and natural forces that have haunted Japan for centuries, becoming an essential part of its cultural folklore.

‘Female Fears’, which explores violence against women and the fear of their sexuality in both historical and contemporary prints, allowing the viewer to reflect upon the differences provoked by gender and social inequalities and of who is afraid, and of what.

Fascinating Fears is the result of the ‘Print Collecting and Curating’ module in Art History. Introduced in 2006, this module gives students the opportunity both to curate a museum-quality exhibition of their design and to acquire prints for the Kent Print Exhibition. This is the 9^th exhibition resulting from this course.

For the exhibition students interviewed leading contemporary artists Marcelle Hanselaar and Marcus Rees Roberts, whose works are included, and the expert on Japanese prints Ellis Tinios, who taught a class for the module.

Dr Ben Thomas, convenor of the module, said: ‘Fear is a feeling we all share and understand, perhaps particularly during the current pandemic. The students have curated an exhibition that explores this fundamental human emotion, and how it has been expressed through art in different times and cultures. They have adapted brilliantly to the constraints of lockdown in devising this online exhibition.’

You can follow Fascinating Fears on Instagram.

Are You Local? is now open to the public (under Covid restrictions). The opening times are:

Wednesday 16 June, 11am – 2pm

Friday 18 June, 11am – 2pm

Monday 21 June, 11am – 2pm

Wednesday 23 June, 11am – 2pm

Friday 25 June, 11am – 2pm

Monday 28 June, 11am – 2pm

Wednesday 30 June, 11am – 2pm

Friday 2 July, 11am – 2pm

Please pre-book your visit by emailing: ac2030@kent.ac.uk or mib23@kent.ac.uk

Access to the exhibition is via the double doors at the rear of Studio 3 Gallery. You must wear a mask, sanitise your hands, and scan the QR code on entry into the NHS track and trace app.

Postgraduate students from the Curating MA at the School of Arts have launched a new virtual exhibition entitled ‘Once upon a time, and Now!’.

The exhibition was due to take place in the School’s Studio 3 Gallery but has moved online due to COVID-19. It can be viewed here until Thursday 18 June 2020.

Through the exhibition, curators Diletta D’Antoni, Inês Mourato and Junwei Chen invite viewers to rediscover the history of women with the influence of the goddess Isis, an Ancient Egyptian deity.

Featured artists include Nancy Spero, David Deweerdt, Nooji Studio, Alaa Awad, James Putnam, Ana Maria Pacheco, Silvia Paci, Claudia Niarni, Bin Luo, Nicole Wassall, Almagul Menlibayeva, Bin Zhao, Lu Han, Crisia Constantine and Mary Kelly.

Inês Mourato said: ‘Isis was an omniscient deity endowed with magical powers. Her supremacy over all the gods reflected the recognised status of Egyptian women. “Wiser than a million gods”, Isis had a complete knowledge of the heavens and the earth. Yet she also incorporated human qualities – a natural balance of good and evil – that ordinary women could relate to. This exhibition combines and juxtaposes different historical cultures and beliefs in order to rethink women’s liberation by listening to their glories and sufferings throughout history.’

The curators have also produced an exhibition catalogue, which can be viewed here:
www.onceuponatimeandnow.com/3d-flip-book/catalogue/

With work by
Marina Abramović, Sonia Boyce, Sonya Clark, Monique Goossens, Yuni KIm Lang, Zhu Tian, and Jayoung Yoon.

Curated by Dr Eleen M Deprez and Dr Sweta Rajan-Rankin

Due to Covid-19 the exhibition had to close on 18th March 2020

In this exhibition, we engage with hair as a material as well as metaphorical space by which questions of gender and racialized belonging can be explored. It is a conversation between the artist and their use of hair as material and allegory, and the audience, who can become aware of their own entanglements with the art work, each other and the wider world.

Hair is not just hair. This exhibition reflects on the social, political and aesthetic significance of hair. With its different textures, grooming practices, interpretations, and symbolic values, hair provides a unique and timely entry point to understanding racialised and gendered belonging among different communities. Artists have long used hair as a material in art practice. Here, they explore hair as a material with affective potential and as a signifier of identity.

Hair can be a treasured and celebrated expression of personal identity. Grooming or presenting hair (shaving, styling, colouring, braiding, covering, curling, straightening, weaving, etc.) is a performative element in social enterprise and a visible, powerful marker of identity and belonging to one’s community.

But, hair as beauty practice can also be an instrument of social control. Eurocentric and sexist aesthetic beauty norms fuel an in industry that sees many people enduring painful, expensive, dangerous procedures to attain so-called ‘good hair’.

In Hair: Textures of Belonging, we explore hair as a material artefact but also a narrative tool to explore stories of belonging, exclusion and collective identity.

Supported using public funding by Arts Council England.