October 23 2020 #186
Galerie Atelier Herenplaats:
Co-Founder Frits Gronert to Retire
After working at the outsider arts studio Galerie Atelier Herenplaats in the Netherlands for thirty years, co-founder Frits Gronert is retiring.
Galerie Atelier Herenplaats was founded by Frits Gronert and Richard Bennaars in 1991. Today, it is a creative and lively organisation with more than forty amazing artists working in their studio.
Frits Gronert; photo: Herenplaats
From Galerie Atelier Herenplaats:
"Frits has committed himself to Herenplaats, as an artistic leader and mentor. Out of love for the arts he has provided together with others for Outsider Art to take a more prominent role in the world of art, in the Netherlands as well as internationally. The borders of Outsider Art have become more fluid because of this effort, the art that is being made has moved to the foreground."
Galerie Atelier Herenplaats artists and staff; photo: Herenplaats
Frits’s last working day at Herenplaats will be 5 November ; his official retirement starts on 9 November 2020. As a celebration of his retirement we are preparing an exhibition named 'Memories of Tomorrow'. It will be overviewing the first years of Herenplaats with an addition of recent works, looking ahead to the future. More data and info will be posted soon.
We here at Raw Vision would like to that Frits for his long-standing dedication to the field of outsider art and his infectious enthusiasm for the work of all of the wonderful Herenplaats artists. We wish Frits the best for the future!
The Gee’s Bend Quiltmakers:
First Solo European Exhibition
From 26 November, 2020 until 16 January, 2021, Alison Jacques Gallery will present the first solo exhibition in Europe devoted to three generations of women artists living in Gee’s Bend, now known as Boykin. The women of Gee’s Bend—a small, remote, Black community in Alabama—have created hundreds of quilt masterpieces dating from the early twentieth century to the present.
'Pig in the pen' - block style, Rita Mae Pettway (2019). Cotton / polyester blend, 210.8 x 210.8 cm (83 x 83 in.)
The exhibition provides a survey of quilts spanning nearly 100 years from the 1930s through to 2019 with some of the artists still living and working in Boykin today. Audio of some of the songs sung passed down through the generations of artists in Boykin are included as a backdrop to the show.
Big Wheel, Stella Mae Pettway (1986). Double knit, cotton and polyester, 218.4 x 193 cm (86 x 76 in.)
The geographic isolation of Boykin, and the tightly knit community within it, has created a unique environment for the women’s art community and their chosen language of quilting. The experimental processes and compositional language of these quilts has been passed through many generations of Gee’s Bend residents from grandmothers to mothers to daughters.
The Gee’s Bend quilts were not originally created as art works but out of necessity. The very culture that these women were raised in taught them that everything had a use. When the nights became cold each winter, the women would use scraps of fabric and stitch a quilt to put on the beds of their children.
Work-clothes strips, Loretta Pettway Bennett (2003). Denim, 200.7 x 152.4 cm (79 x 60 in.)
The idea of handing down or passing on knowledge through generations of the same family is a key part of the artists work, and in the show we see members of the same family’s work exhibited side by side.
A quilt by Aolar Mosely (1912 - 1999) from the 1950s is shown alongside her daughter Mary Lee Bendolph (b. 1935), and her granddaughter Essie Bendolph Pettway (b. 1956); both of whom continue to make work today. A quilt from the 1930s by Annie E. Pettway (1904 - 1972) is shown alongside her granddaughter Rita Mae Pettway (b. 1941). The residents of Gee’s Bend are almost all descendants of the slaves working on the original Pettway plantation.
Two-sided quilt: 'Blocks' and 'One Patch', stacked squares and rectangles variation, Essie Bendolph Pettway (1973). Cotton, polyester knit, denim, 223.5 x 203.2 cm (88 x 80 in.)
This exhibition is organised in partnership with the Souls Grown Deep Foundation, a non-profit organisation dedicated to documenting, preserving, and promoting the contributions of African American artists of the South, and the cultural traditions in which they are rooted.
Learn more at alisonjacquesgallery.com and soulsgrowndeep.org.
Drawing Room:
Not Without My Ghosts: The Artist As Medium
Currently running until 1 November, 2020, Drawing Room's "Not Without My Ghosts: The Artist As Medium" is a major exhibition of artists and works inspired by mediumistic methodologies and their deep cultural history.
The Spiritual Crown of Annie Mary Howitt Watts, Georgiana Houghton (1867). Watercolour on paper on board, 33 x 23 cm (13 x 9 in.)
Drawing Room, a London-based organisation which helps people of all ages and backgrounds to discover contemporary drawing, was initiated by curators Mary Doyle, Kate Macfarlane and Katharine Stout in 2002 and is a non-profit public organisation that relies on the support of individuals, organisations and trusts, alongside the funding it receives from Arts Council England.
Toy, Ithell Colquhoun (1947). Watercolour and ink on paper, 42 x 31.5 cm (16.5 x 12.5 in.)
Bringing together 26 international artists from the 19th century to the present day, [this exhibition] explores the changing historical and aesthetic terms of artistic engagement with mediumship, from perceived spiritual inspiration and creation during séances and trances, to practices of automatism, channelling, and paranormal investigation, whilst also considering clairvoyant practices in relation to the history of feminism.
GL 28 (Naivete), Pia Lindman (2016). Pen, China ink and felt pen on archival paper, 29.5 x 21 cm (11.5 x 8 in.)
Visitors should pre-book free timed entry slots for the exhibition. Time slots are available from 12–6 pm, Wednesday through til Sunday, with late opening until 8 pm on the last Thursday of every month.
Learn more at drawingroom.org.uk.
Art in Quarantine: Greg Bromley
Greg Bromley is a self-taught mixed media artist hailing from Hull, East Yorkshire, England. He has worked as a social worker for 20 years and began painting 8 years ago after experiencing significant life stressors.
Bromley’s 2020 work has absorbed living through the COVID crisis, issues of loss, dominance, hope and resilience and his very recent journey into fatherhood.
You are the cub who was washed out to sea on a crimson tide, Greg Bromley (2020). Mixed media on canvas, 100 x 80 cm (30 x 31.5 in.)
Much of his work is meant to be read, as there can be multiple narratives at play; many of the ‘hidden’ narratives appear to be subliminal messages to the artist only realised on completion of a piece.
For example, the 2020 piece The Viral Load (above) suggests the two central characters are in epic conflict, surrounded by viral transmission, however, the hidden narrative indicates gestation and rejection.
The Viral Load, Greg Bromley (2020). Mixed media on canvas, 150 x 100 cm (59 x 30 in.)
Bromley defines his work as mythologizing his anxieties through colourful biomorphic creatures and black and white "dread devils".
"The standard theme throughout all of my paintings over the last few years are the ‘aquatic’ black and white creatures that circulate many of the main colourful characters. I have come to realise over time that the creatures represent anxiety, painful thoughts and overthinking; I call them dread devils. I feel that many of these ‘aquatic’ black and white characters look like a variation on deep sea marine life (such as angler fish and viper fish)."
The Tree of Strife, Greg Bromley (2020). Mixed media on canvas 100 x 80 cm (30 x 31.5 in.)
Bromley has focussed greatly on the composition and "dance of the dread devils", adding that they increasingly represent the nebulous flow of negative thought. His colourful central characters tend to be in conflict with the black and white devils, as the main characters flow they are surrounded by the "plague of thought".
Of late, Bromley has added repeated star/virus motifs as part of his composition that reflect his interest in the grandeur of the macro cosmos but also the fear of the unseen micro cosmos.
An infraction beyond the sorrow clouds, Greg Bromley (n.d.). Acrylic, ink, marker, pencil, paint on canvas, 150 x 100 cm (59 x 39.5 in.)
See more of Greg Bromley's work on his website, cosmicwormhole.com, and also on Outside In's website.
Raw Vision 106 Out Now
Raw Vision #106 features: Gwyneth Rowlands, Joe Coleman, Patrick Hackleman, Jean-Marc Renault, Nellie Mae Rowe, Monique Mercerat, Albert and La Fabuloserie.
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