2022 Programme Announcement

The Art House in Wakefield has announced its 2022 artistic programme featuring an exciting range of exhibitions that will explore important social issues alongside major residencies, artist support programmes, and new site-specific commissions.

Highlights include the major presentation of HOME by internationally acclaimed artist Permindar Kaur – including new work made especially for this show during a summer residency at The Art House – exploring a common central question in her practice: ‘where is home?’; and the first solo exhibition by recent Leeds University Fine Art graduate Hang Zhang.

A new project, Dreamland by Mohammad Barrangi, marks the first time the Iranian-born artist has translated his evocative illustrations into sculpture, developed using pioneering 3D-printing technology with the support of XPLOR, Production Park’s state-of-the-art research and innovation centre for entertainment technology and production, based in Wakefield. The exhibition is a celebration of Barrangi’s working relationship with The Art House, having originally been introduced in 2017 as part of its Studio of Sanctuary residency programme; a one-of-a-kind initiative that supports artists with experience of the asylum-seeking system to continue their artistic work.

Other major shows throughout the year will explore important issues surrounding disabled bodies and societal restrictions, including alabamathirteen, a Leeds-based artist who will showcase work developed during her time as an artist in residence in 2021, the result of a partnership with national arts charity Outside In. Encompassing photography, embroidery, and sound her work highlights the limitations and barriers she encounters whilst navigating the spaces she occupies as a disabled, working-class woman. Sam Metz’s Making Solid Unpredictable Bodies features sculpture, drawing, animation and film to investigate the relationship between disability, the body, and neurodivergence.

Award-winning creative director and producer, Hassun El-Zafar presents HEAR – Hearing Extinction and Audiological Relapse, a brand new immersive installation exploring the intersections between human hearing loss in underrepresented communities and the diminishing sounds of endangered species due to climate change.

Photography will also take centre stage – with My North, an exhibition by Wakefield photographer Robert Broad, documenting the city and his family since 1990 and Only the Lonely? featuring the latest images in an ongoing photography project by artist Tony Fisher that captures moments of hope during the 2020 national lockdowns. The Art House will also host The Disabled Photographers’ Society (DPS) annual photography competition exhibition – having worked closely with the organisation to design The Art House’s accessible darkroom which opened to the public in 2021. This year’s judging panel will be led by internationally renowned photographer and Honorary Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society, Sunil Gupta.

The Art House will also partner with The Hepworth Wakefield and international photographer Hannah Starkey to support a creative professional development programme for Yorkshire-born or based photographers this summer. The group will create new work for an exhibition at The Art House that runs alongside Starkey’s major retrospective at The Hepworth, opening this autumn.

Other highlights across the year include a show by Leeds-based artist, Paula Chambers and an exhibition of painters responding to their natural environment curated by Wakefield-based artist and Art House Studio Holder Helen Thomas, featuring her own work alongside pieces by contemporary painters Alison Critchlow and Natalie Dowse.

Damon Jackson-Waldock, Programme Director at The Art House comments: “Supporting local, national, and international talent, from all walks of life, has informed the passions of The Art House for many years. I am thrilled to be working with a wide range of creative artists to present such an engaging, diverse, and exciting series of projects this year.

 “The programme brings together so many things that excite, inform, and inspire me. Not only is it a celebration of high-quality art, but it will share important ideas and conversations about the world we live in. I am excited to be presenting a range of amazing local talent, as well as hopefully introducing several artists previously unknown to Yorkshire.”

 The Art House continues to support creatives with some of the UK’s leading residences for risk-taking work and experimental practices, as well as supporting pop-up projects across the city as part of the long-running Artwalk, which celebrates creativity across Wakefield city centre.

Its Artist in Residence programme includes CUTTER // NASH who will investigate the history of rebellion and activism in pirate radio in relation to disabled bodies and voices. The programme will also see several site-specific commissions as part of The Art House’s work to put artists in the heart of the Wakefield community. Drawing on her own lived experience as a Chinese Northern Vietnamese migrant who fled persecution in the aftermath of the Vietnam/American war of the 1970s, multidisciplinary artist, Moi Tran will invite local diaspora communities in Wakefield to contribute personal testimonies that usually fall outside of mainstream archives to help reshape of how future histories are told.

The Art House’s international work continues through a partnership with the Royal Over-Seas League, which will see Mumbai-based Madhu Das and Nigeria-based Samuel Nnorom take up a two-month residency in Wakefield, to explore the history and connections of textiles in Yorkshire and their residing countries.

Sydney Thornbury, CEO/Artistic Director at The Art House comments: “Like every arts centre in the country, The Art House has experienced an extraordinary two years of complex challenges and unexpected opportunities. Thanks to our intrepid team and amazing visitors, we were able to finish 2021 on a real high with FRED TSCHIDA: CIRCLESPHERE. The exhibition marked a new phase for The Art House, not only in the level of our artistic ambition but in the quality of our programme and the potential it has to empower the communities we work with.

Our 2022 programme truly reflects our belief that everyone should be able to experience ambitious, high-quality art and that artists, especially those who are underrepresented and facing barriers, have the power to change the world we live in. I am immensely proud that with this year’s programme, we will have the opportunity to work with so many artists and partners to do just that.”

Visit our Exhibitions & Events page for detailed information on our 2022 Programme.

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