Programme September – November 2013 www.ikon-gallery.co.uk Free entry Hurvin Anderson reporting back Exhibition 25 September – 10 November 2013 First and Second Floor Galleries Ikon presents the most comprehensive exhibition to as ‘slightly outside of things’. Later paintings of the date of paintings by Birmingham-born artist Hurvin Caribbean embody this kind of perception with Anderson (born 1965), evoking sensations of being verdant green colour glimpsed behind close-up caught between one place and another, drawn from details of the fences and security grilles found in personal experience. It surveys the artist’s career, residential areas, or an expanse of water or desolate including work made while at the Royal College of approach separating us, the viewer, from the point Art, London, in 1998, through the acclaimed Peter’s of interest in the centre ground. 1 series, inspired by his upbringing in Birmingham’s Afro-Caribbean community, and ongoing works Anderson’s method of composition signifies at arising out of time spent in Trinidad in 2002. Filling once a kind of social and political segregation, a 2 Ikon’s entire exhibition space, reporting back traces the smartness with respect to the business of picture development of Anderson’s distinct figurative style. making, amounting to a kind of semi-detached apprehension of what he encounters. Anderson arrived on the international art scene with Peter’s, an ongoing series of paintings depicting the A catalogue accompanies the exhibition priced interiors of barbers’ shops, in particular one (owned £20, special exhibition price £15. It includes an essay by Peter Brown) visited by Anderson with his father by Jennifer Higgie, writer and co-editor of Frieze. as a boy. A converted attic serving as an improvised Anderson has also made a limited edition print, salon for conversation as well as for cutting hair, this B side (2013), edition of 100, priced £100. was a social retreat vital for many male members of the local Caribbean community; a place he equates Visit Ikon’s online shop at www.ikon-gallery.co.uk to an English garden shed. By painting this subject, for the full range of Ikon’s catalogues and limited the artist was exploring a formative psychological editions. moment, and by returning to it pictorially he takes us with him on a journey that is as sentimental as it is a faithful representation. It is significant that Anderson depicts sites of leisure, where the mind is usually free to wander. He talks often of being in one place ‘but actually thinking 1 Hurvin Anderson Country Club: Chicken Wire (2008) about another’, a fact of his life arising out of his Oil on canvas cultural background. He grew up in the English Collection Gordon Watson Midlands preoccupied with visions of a warmer, more 2 Hurvin Anderson Double Grille (2008) colourful ‘other country’ and from this experience Oil on canvas has developed a way of seeing which he describes Collection Janet de Botton Associated Events Nina Könnemann Exhibition opening Bann Wednesday 25 September, 6–8pm – FREE Join us for a glass of wine to celebrate the opening Exhibition of our new exhibition. 25 September – 10 November 2013 Tower Room Drawing Short Course: People and Places Please note the Tower Room is only accessible via Wednesdays 9 October, 16 October, 23 October, a number of steps 30 October, 6–8pm £40 for all four sessions £32 concessions: students, unwaged, 60 + Reflecting Hurvin Anderson’s interest in abstraction and observation, this short course explores patterns – spatial, decorative, personal and evocative – and how people and places relate to each other. Tutor Tom Jones, Regional Associate for the Campaign for Drawing, systematically guides participants through observing and drawing significant details and unexpected arrangements in the gallery and in various locations around Birmingham. Booking essential. Places are limited, to book please visit 3 www.ikon-gallery.co.uk or call Ikon on 0121 248 0711. Hurvin’s Handsworth Saturday 19 October, 1–2.30pm Lunchtime Lecture Series £4/£3 concessions: students, unwaged, 60+ Understanding Art Part III: Join Ben Waddington from Birmingham’s Still Making Places and Spaces: Interiors and Exteriors in Art Walking Festival for this 90 minute tour of the Thursday 7 November, 2–3pm Handsworth known by Hurvin Anderson. The tour Ikon Gallery visits locations that shaped the artist’s life and Thursday 14 November, 2–3pm inspired his paintings. Booking essential, places are Wolverhampton Art Gallery limited. Please visit www.ikon-gallery.co.uk or call Thursday 21 November, 2–3pm Ikon Shop on 0121 248 0711. The New Art Gallery Walsall 4 Thursday 28 November, 2–3pm Exhibition tour with Hurvin Anderson The Barber Institute of Fine Arts Tuesday 29 October, 6.30–8.30pm £20 for all four sessions German artist Nina Könnemann uses photography, £5/£4 concessions: students, unwaged, 60+ £16 concessions: students, unwaged, 60 + film and animation to convey her observations on A rare opportunity to hear artist Hurvin Anderson In week one at Ikon Gallery, we explore the paintings human behaviour, especially that happening in discuss the inspiration behind his work as he takes of Birmingham-born artist Hurvin Anderson and his subcultures. Her video Bann (2012) features workers you on a walk through his exhibition reporting back. colourful representations of domestic spaces. In week in the City of London smoking, hidden in shadows Advance booking essential as places are limited, two at Wolverhampton Art Gallery, we compare of the marble-lined exterior alcoves and alleyways please visit www.ikon-gallery.co.uk or call Ikon Shop interiors as backdrops to Georgian portraits and of their office-blocks. Characteristic of Könnemann’s on 0121 248 0711. Victorian paintings of women from the Romantic work, Bann is candid and direct, capturing behaviour era. In week three at The New Art Gallery Walsall, we that exists on the edge of social order since look at allegorical landscapes by Ged Quinn referring the recent European ban on smoking in public 3 Hurvin Anderson to various historical and cultural events, and in week places. Smartly dressed men and women are now Peter’s Sitters II (2009) Oil on linen four at The Barber Institute we explore the exhibition compelled to seek out covert locations so that they Zabludowicz Collection John Monks: The Process of Painting, placing Monks’ can satisfy their cravings. The work alludes to the work into a historical context. Booking essential, kind of contemplative state that smoking induces 4 Nina Könnemann Bann (2012) All events take place at Ikon Gallery please visit www.ikon-gallery.co.uk or call Ikon Shop in the smoker, corresponding to Könnemann’s way Video unless otherwise stated. on 0121 248 0711. of seeing. Courtesy the artist Slow Boat to Navinland 5 6 Support Slow Boat is an innovative project (2011–2013) Associated Events Gillian Wearing exploring in-depth and sustained work with 15–19 A Real Birmingham Family year olds. This group of Birmingham-based young people, known as the Ikon Youth Programme (IYP), A Real Birmingham Family have produced, presented and promoted their own Breaking Through: Get That First Start in work as well as that of other artists on board a the Creative and Cultural Sector A Real Birmingham Family is Ikon’s ongoing project We need to raise £100,000 to fund Gillian Wearing’s converted 22-metre canal boat. Tuesday 1 October, 6–8pm – FREE (2011–2014) with Birmingham-born, Turner Prize bronze sculpture of the chosen family, and we can This session for young people, aged 16–24, provides winning artist Gillian Wearing: a quest to find a ‘real’ only do this with your help. Any donation welcome. Slow Boat to Navinland, led by Slow Boat 2013 artist information and guidance about presenting yourself Birmingham family and immortalise it in bronze. Navin Rawanchaikul, involved a journey from effectively: on paper, online and in person. Find out The sculpture will be located in Centenary Square This is a crucial time for Ikon. For a limited period, Birmingham along the Canal & River Trust’s how to get your CV, portfolio or application noticed outside the new Library of Birmingham in 2014. from now, every donation we receive will be West Midlands, Central Shires and East Midlands by employers. Only 16 places available, please book doubled through the Arts Council England Catalyst Waterways. Navin and IYP spent time exploring via www.breaking-through.eventbrite.com or From hundreds, one family has now been selected. Scheme. For example, this means a donation of £5 Nottingham, Loughborough, Leicester and Coventry, contact Sam at Creative Alliance on 0121 224 7308. The Jones family consists of two sisters, Roma and from you will be worth £10 to Ikon. meeting other young people, artists and the diverse Emma, both single parents, and their two sons Kyan communities based around the waterways. Slow Boat at the BCNS Bonfire Rally and Shaye. The judging panel was impressed by In addition, those giving amounts of £250 and more and Firework Display their commitment to Birmingham and the evolving become part of Friends of the Family, a published To celebrate our collaboration with the Canal & River Saturday 2 November, 6.30–8pm – FREE concept of family. list of supporters. Some with longstanding links to Trust we present a new film, Slow Boat to Navinland. Boat Gathering on the Engine Branch (Adjacent to Ikon are amongst the first, as follows: Adrian Bland Visit www.ikon-gallery.co.uk for screening details. the Smethwick Enterprise Centre off Rolfe Street) “We feel truly amazed and honoured to be chosen & family, Associated Architects, John Crabtree, Jean Rolfe Street, Smethwick B66 2AR to represent what it means to be a family in Denning, Antony & Vicken Gormley, Mark Hodgkins, www.ikonslowboat.com Members of IYP join members of the Birmingham Birmingham.