Group Exhibition at Southwark Park Galleries, London
Curated by George Vasey in conversation with Holly Argent and Workplace Gallery in response to the Great Exhibition of the North 2018.
18th July – 26th August 2018
At the mid point of the Women Artists of the North East Library exhibition at Workplace Foundation in Gateshead (22 June – 9 September 2018) key elements of the library were repositioned in the parallel exhibition The Everyday Political at CGP Gallery in London. Curated by George Vasey, The Everyday Political brought together artists and art collectives from the North East of England. It expanded on Holly Argent’s Women Artists of the North East Library exhibition alongside new work including audio, text, painting and photography.
The exhibition resists neat thematics and foregrounds a series of questions: How can we articulate a strategic regionalism? How do we frame the messiness and intimacy of the social? What are the current and localised urgencies felt within the North East and can they be transferred to another city? And where is North from here?
Taking inspiration from Joy Labinjo’s paintings of her family, the exhibition forms a type of portrait of this art scene. Central to the exhibition is a series of photographs by Kuba Ryniewicz who has created a set of new narrative portraits in collaboration with the artists Deborah Bower, Jo Coupe and Janina Sabaliauskaite. These artists were nominated by Holly Argent and Jade Sweeting as influences on their respective practices and, through citation and homage, articulate the core values of the exhibition.
The Everyday Political included works by Foundation Press, Emily Hesse, Joy Labinjo, Toby Phips Lloyd, Gayle Meikle with Ciara Lenihan, Kuba Ryniewicz with Deborah Bower, Jo Coupe and Janina Sabaliauskaite, Mark Pinder, Matt Antoniak, Jade Sweeting with Keano Anton, Holly Argent and Harriet Sutcliffe with the Women Artists of the North-East Library.
George Vasey is a curator and writer. His writing has been published in Art Review, Art Monthly, Frieze, Kaleidoscope and Mousse. He was Co-Curator of the 2017 Turner Prize, Ferens Art Gallery, Hull and was curator at Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art, Sunderland from 2014 to 2016. He is currently a Teaching Fellow in Curating at Newcastle University and Curator at BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead. Recently selected curated exhibitions include; ‘Potholes: Drawings by Eric Bainbridge, 1981-201 at Workplace, London’ and ‘These Rotten Words’, Chapter Art Centre, Cardiff (both 2017), ‘Breakin’ Up is Hard to Do’ (co-curated with Ned McConnell) KARST, Plymouth (2015) ’Jo Spence & Alexis Hunter’, Richard Saltoun, London and ‘A Small Hiccup’, Grand Union, Birmingham (both 2013).
CGP London was Founded in 1984 by The Bermondsey Artists’ Group, CGP London is a non-profit art organisation set across two contrasting spaces in the heart of Southwark Park, Bermondsey. Over the past 33 years CGP London has commissioned over 140 free exhibitions by emergent, overlooked and established British and international artists. CGP London is an Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisation. It exists to champion artistic practice across all disciplines, supporting the careers of both artists and curators alike. www.cgplondon.org