The Art House in Wakefield is delighted to announce its 2023 Spring and Summer artistic programme, which features an exciting range of exhibitions, residencies, and artist support programmes.
The Art House (TAH) presents a season of bold exhibitions that proudly supports emerging or mid-career artists, most of whom are working in the field of sculpture or showcasing work for the first time. A major highlight includes the new collaborative project, Her performance is taking place at the beginning and end of the world. This exhibition features seven exciting emerging artists and recent Goldsmith’s graduates; Farrah Akbarali, Hannah Moulds, Krystle Patel, Maria Joranko, Mariette Moor, Stela Brix and Vanessa Walters.
2023 will also see major firsts for artists, including the showing of Kate McDonnell’s first solo exhibition, Processing, which explores how the symptoms of mental illnesses can act as a mechanism for creating artwork. A premier solo presentation of work will also come from Jessie Davies, following her 2021 residency at TAH. Davies is a predominately non-verbal artist who uses the language of paint to highlight the importance of the UK’s fragile ecosystems, as seen in her show Perspectives.
TAH welcomes a new partnership with The Royal Society of Sculptors. Perfectly situated in Wakefield as a place with a renowned reputation as a city of sculpture, we will present the Gilbert Bayes Award Exhibition; a collaborative exhibition bringing some of the most outstanding practices of artists who work in the field of 3D production. The ten exciting artists include Catriona Robertson, Emily Woolley, Iwona Rozbiewska, Lewis Davidson, Louisa Johnson, Rosalie Wammes, Sasha Tishkov, Veronika Neukirch, Yambe Tam and Zara Ramsay.
Yorkshire-based Ryoko Akama will take up residency and present her new project, Cultural Fluidity. Describing herself as a ‘culturally fluid’ female of Korean-Japanese-British nationalities, the artist will explore her untold family history and collaborate with invited female artists of Asian heritage to develop new work for an exhibition later this summer.
TAH is committed to supporting and promoting the practices of artists who have not yet exhibited in the UK. Our international representation continues with the first major presentation by Nigeria-based Samuel Nnorom, who creates bold and colourful installations using Ankara fabric to explore African socio-political issues. TAH will also spotlight a brand-new solo project, fragile / fragment / fermentation, by Madhu Das, marking the artist’s first and most comprehensive collection of new work in the UK. Das, who lives in Mumbai, India, creates work inspired by oral history and the uncovering of stories connected to geography, history and community. Our programme places artists at the heart of our community. Both Nnorom and Das spent two months at TAH last winter as part of a partnership with The Royal Over-Seas League, and worked closely with the Studio of Sanctuary community to make new work for their shows.
The Studio of Sanctuary initiative plays an important role within our programme, using creative processes to bring people together in Wakefield, and contribute to building a cohesive community that values diversity and acceptance. We are delighted to present the new film and project, The Time While Waiting, by Mohamad Hafeda; an artist who focuses on issues of displacement, representation and rights. This new work, set in the backdrop of an asylum seekers’ accommodation centre opposite a high-security prison in Wakefield, invites displaced protagonists to record their experiences, as well as coping mechanisms, during their time while waiting for settled status in the UK.
TAH is a hub for creativity, housing a wide variety of artists in over 50 studios throughout the building. This year we will support two new ambitious projects with our Studio Holders Tony Wade and the duo Dreaming Methods, led by artists Judi Alston and Andy Campbell.
Dreaming Methods will present their brand-new immersive experience, The Abandoned Library, combining virtual reality and gaming to introduce a futuristic world, adversely affected by climate change. Wakefield-based Tony Wade, who investigates missed moments and stories of everyday life in Yorkshire, will bring to life Andromeda; the fascinating true story of the community at Bagley Glass – a leading glass manufacturer in the Victorian era. Its workers would steal a small sought-after figurine, known as Andromeda, and attempt to hide them in the Knottingley canal. Wade’s exhibition will creatively reveal this hidden story through musical composition, performance and sculpture.
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 as part of Artwalk Wakefield, which celebrates creativity across the city. Our Artist in Residence programme and Artwalk will make a return in the new year.
“At The Art House, we recognise and value the importance of supporting local and international artists at all stages of their practice. Having hosted Jessie Davies, Samuel Nnorom and Madhu Das as Residency Artists in 2022, I am thrilled to see their ongoing practices evolve into their first major exhibitions in the UK. To be a part of these journeys is incredibly special, and I am excited to build more relationships with artists in the new year.
The Spring/Summer exhibition programme presents an exciting platform for new collaborations in 2023. From supporting graduates of Goldsmith’s University to a new partnership with The Royal Society of Sculptors, I feel honoured to build such important connections across the country for Wakefield, and am delighted to be presenting these shows alongside the work of such inspiring local talent next year.”
– Damon Jackson-Waldock, Programme Director at The Art House
The start of 2023 offers the last chance to visit recent Leeds University graduate Hang Zhang’s first major solo show Through the Party Ring, and Reframing, Reclaiming, an exhibition bringing together the works of seven artists living, or with roots, in Yorkshire. The artists include Amy D’Agorne, Caitlin Hall, Emily Ryalls, H. Feather, Joanne Coates, Níamh Donnelly, and Sally Barton. Both shows are not to be missed!
View the full Spring/Summer listings
Coming Up
Samuel Nnorom: The Politics of
Immigration and Integration
11 February-12 March 2023
Jessie Davies: Perspectives
4 March-9 April 2023
Enquiries
For further information please contact Olivia Savage, Marketing and Communications Officer.
olivia@the-arthouse.org.uk
01924 312002