SHOWNews: Your Weekly Arts Bulletin

EXHIBITION

Artist Laura Footes Brings Tracey Emin on Board To Curate Her Debut Solo Exhibition at the Carl Freedman Gallery, A Healing Dream

The magic of one's own interior world has provided endless inspiration for artists past and present and Margate-based painter Laura Footes - who is also part of Tracey Emin's TKE Studios program - is no different. 'We are all islands inside our bodies – nobody can ever know what it is like to be us, but there is so much beauty and relatability in our different experiences and perspectives', Footes noted in a statement to press about her latest exhibition, curated by Emin, A Healing Dream which reflects on Footes' own experiences living with a chronic illness since childhood. Sharing the 'shadows and magic' of her inner world, Footes has just one goal: 'the hope that others will see something of themselves in it too and feel less alone.'

A Healing Dream at the Carl Freedman Gallery in Margate opens to the public on 17 November, 2024 until 16 February, 2025.

EXHIBITION

New Charleston Exhibition Traces The Life and Work of Cedric Morris and Arthur Lett-Haines

Stephen Hawking once said, 'behind every exceptional person, there is an exceptional teacher' and boy was he right - a teacher's legacy does indeed lie in the strength and success of their pupils; a measure that catapults lovers and artists Cedric Morris and Arthur Lett-Haines to meteoric heights. After all, who would the greats of the British art scene be if it weren't for the East Anglian School of Painting and Drawing founded in 1937 (which later went on to become the infamous Benton End)? A revolutionary institution founded by Morris and Lett-Haines, whose previous pupils and mentees include Prunella Clough, Lucian Freud, and Maggi Hambling.

Marking the first exhibition in over 50 years to show over 80 works by Morris and Lett-Haines side by side, Charleston's upcoming exhibition Cedric Morris and Arthur Lett-Haines: A Radical Art School has picked up their story from where they left off, choosing to focus on their lives and great love by starting with the pair meeting on Armistice night, 1918. Featuring pieces from both private collections and public institutions, the exhibition follows the two artists and the journey they took to establishing one of the most important art collectives of the 20th century.

The exhibition Cedric Morris and Arthur Lett-Haines: A Radical Art School is open to the public from 16 November, 2024 until 23 February, 2025.

EXHIBITION

London Performance Studios Platforms 20th Century Feminist Theatre

Reflecting on the transience of performance art while beckoning the permanence of women who've helped its existence thrive, London Performance Studios' new exhibition Radical Rediscovery: Feminist Theatre in Britain 1969-1992 acts as a love letter to the women who have long been relegated to the wings of avant-garde theatre - despite their irrefutable input helping to change the landscape of feminism and art combined. Based on the research of the exhibition's own curator Dr. Susan Croft, the showcase traces the histories of different women involved in the theatre scene to paint a well-rounded picture of women-led defiance in the face of adversity. Thought theatre belonged to men? Croft is telling you to think again. Read more about the exhibition here.

Radical Rediscovery: Feminist Theatre in Britain is open to the public every Friday - Sunday until 1 December.

EXHIBITION

Homecoming Gallery Presents the Work of Amsterdam artists Aldo van den Broek and Johnny Mae Hauser at Park Modern, Hyde Park

Amsterdam-based artists Aldo van den Broek and Johnny Mae Hauser aren't just partners in art but in life too, as intimately reflected in their first ever large-scale duo exhibition which will take place at Hyde Park's Homecoming Gallery this weekend. As both artists reflect on their first summer spent living and creating as a new family, their work follows two unique paths, wholly different from the other but connected in not only theme and experience but time and memory, too. As van den Broek explores themes of growth and decay in Postpartum Garden, the fragility of new life and resilience of motherhood is laid out bare for all to interpret while Mae Hauser takes a differing approach that sees her redefine the boundaries of identity, using motherhood as a catalyst for self reflection. Opening up the dialogue for how parents' experiences can be worlds apart despite their similarity, the exhibition looks to redefine society's singular vision of motherhood, taking into account all journeys and the artistic responses as a result.

Open to the public at Homecoming Gallery 16 and 17 November only.

EXHIBITION

Inner Heat At Goldsmiths CCA

Examining the dynamic between private image consumption and the public realm, Louis Blue Newby and Laila Majid's Inner Heat exhibition at Goldsmiths CCA questions the way in which we consume digital images in the 21st century, particularly those equipped with an underlying sexual nature. Trippy yet sexy, intimate yet distant, the series of drawings on show all take from the internet's abundance of reconfigured visuals, all of which have been scraped from sources such as online forums, social feeds, subreddits and even - to some viewer's delight and equal dismay - Pornhub, and painstakingly redrawn, every grain, pixelation and accident combined. As for what Inner Heat confronts us with personally, nothing quite makes sense, at least when it comes to the order of the works presented... but does that matter? Have we ever been able to make sense of attraction? What does a new fragmented desire look like? If you're looking for an answer to these questions then Newby and Majid have done their job. All you need to do is yours.

Inner Heat at Goldsmiths CCA is open to the public until 12 January, 2025.

EXHIBITION

Artist Tabita Rezaire Explores the Connection Between Technology, Spirituality, and Decolonisation In New Exhibition Calabash Nebula

From Da Vinci to Einstein, philosophers and scholars alike have delighted in continuing to remind us of how everything is connected whether it be within nature or the man-made but a question that still remains is how - something that artist Tabita Rezaire hopes to answer in her upcoming exhibition Calabash Nebula at the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid. Drawing on Afro-diasporic and indigenous knowledge systems to investigate how spirituality, ecology, and technology intersect in today’s world, Calabash Nebula invites audiences into a sensorial journey that links water’s biological and spiritual roles in life’s origins and overall interconnectedness by bridging ancestral and digital realms.

ANNOUNCEMENT

Bow Arts Announce 2025 East London Art Prize Shortlist

East London has long been considered a creative haven and community for the arts, but only last year was its reputation in this field cemented thanks to Bow Arts founding the first-everEast London Art Prize. Geared towards helping artists living and working in the E postcode, this year's chosen 12 were shortlisted by a panel including Jonny Tanna, founder of Harlesden High Street, Louise Benson of ArtReview and artist Phoebe Collins-James, with the winner (who will receive a prize of £15,000 and a solo exhibition at Bow Arts’ Nunnery Gallery in early 2026), announced on 31 January, 2025.

Shortlisted artists include: Darcey Fleming, dmstfctn, Eugene Macki, Fatima Ali, Gusty Ferro, Joseph Ijoyemi, Kuda Mushangi, Laisul Hoque, Liang-Jung Chen, Lydia Newman, Mo Langmuir, and Yang Zou.