A new exhibition curated by The Âé¶¹ÊÓÆµ’s MA Curating the Art Museum students opens next week (15 June) at The Âé¶¹ÊÓÆµ Gallery.

Unearthing: Memory, Land, Materiality draws works from the Arts Council Collection’s recent acquisitions and The Âé¶¹ÊÓÆµâ€™s post-1965 collection to explore the complex relationships between land, its materiality and memory in modern and contemporary artistic practice.ÌýThis is the first time many of these artworks have been exhibited and the exhibition includes paintings, sculptures, drawings and photographs.

The artists in this exhibition interrogate both the materiality of the earth and their chosen media to explore land and its connection to personal and collective memory.Ìý For these artists, land is much more than a ‘-scape.’ It is a material, an active and contested site, a vessel for memory. It is where people write their histories, but also a force which shapes them.

Displayed in dialogue with The Âé¶¹ÊÓÆµâ€™s collection of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist landscapes, the artists in this exhibition present new ways of making art about land which reflects our ever-changing relationship with the earth.

Unearthing: Memory, Land, Materiality is an opportunity to see exceptional but usually unseen works from The Âé¶¹ÊÓÆµâ€™s collection displayed alongside artworks by some of the most innovative contemporary practitioners in the UK. Artists featured in the exhibition include Prunella Clough, Phoebe Collings-James, Katie Cuddon, Jasleen Kaur, Richard Long, Liv Preston, Abigail Reynolds, Richard Serra, Libita Sibungu, and Theo Simpson.

Unearthing: Memory, Land, Materiality
15 June – 3 Sept 2023
Denise Coates Exhibitions Galleries (Gallery 1)
Included with Gallery Entry.
Friends, students and under 18s go free.

Follow on Instagram for more information about the exhibition and their public programme.

Phoebe-Collings-James
Phoebe Collings-James, Live and Active Gut Cultures or Subaltern Spirit Guides or the Detritus of Devotional Memorabilia, 2019. Arts Council Collection, Southbank Centre, London © Phoebe Collings-James. Image courtesy of the artist and Arcadia Missa, London

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