[Many thanks to Peter Jordens for bringing this item to our attention.] Katharine Hay (Belfast Telegraph) stories on the exhibition “AfroScots: Revisiting the Work of Black Artists in Scotland by New Amassing,” now on view at Glasgow’s Gallery of Fashionable Artwork (GoMA, Scotland).
A brand new exhibition exploring the contribution black artists have made to Scotland’s tradition has opened in Glasgow. AfroScots: Revisiting the Work of Black Artists in Scotland by New Amassing has been created in response to the “whiteness” of current Scottish artwork historical past narratives and is on show on the metropolis’s Gallery of Fashionable Artwork (GoMA).
It brings collectively post-Sixties artwork which attracts on conversations round race, empire, independence and post-colonial legacies.
Curators mentioned whereas lots of the featured artists wouldn’t essentially determine with “AfroScots”, individuals of African and black-Caribbean descent in Scotland, the time period has been used as a unfastened title for the gathering of paintings on show.
The exhibition contains the work of Barbadian-Scottish movie director Alberta Whittle, who lives and works between Glasgow and Barbados; Maud Sulter (1960–2008), an award-winning artist and author of Scottish and Ghanaian heritage who lived and labored within the UK; and Glasgow-based artist and DJ Matthew Arthur Williams, who has self-published plenty of artist books and whose work was displayed at Edinburgh Artwork Pageant final 12 months.
Additionally featured within the show are: Donald Locke (1930-2010), a Guyanese-born artist and sculptor whose artwork is included in varied collections, together with the Victoria and Albert Museum in London; Aubrey Williams, a Guyanese-born artist who travelled to Britain in 1952 to review portray and was additionally a founding member of the Caribbean Arts Motion within the Sixties; artist and researcher Lisandro Suriel, whose mission Ghost Island explores the id of slave descendants who traversed The Center Passage throughout the Trans-Atlantic Slave Commerce; and Ajamu, whose work centres on his sexuality and explores the tales of these within the LGTBQ+ group, significantly black males. [. . .]
Katie Bruce, of GoMA, mentioned the exhibited paintings has “amplified the work” of black artists in Glasgow Life Museums’ assortment.
She added: “It’s also thrilling that the fee with Barby Asante, which we have now been attempting to understand since 2017, is being premièred right here throughout the context of this exhibition alongside work of her friends that I’ve had the pleasure of bringing into the gathering.
“I’m additionally grateful to all of the artists, artist estates, collaborators, colleagues, Artwork Fund and significantly Mom Tongue who’ve made AfroScots doable, regardless of the pandemic.”
A spokesperson for Mom Tongue mentioned: “The archival and collection-based analysis that preceded this mission largely took us to analysis supplies based mostly, even displaced, outwith Scotland.
“A giant a part of this mission was in search of to carry the AfroScots artists, their work and life tales collectively, and to provide them an area, accessible residence for future audiences, arts practitioners and researchers.”
The exhibition, which is now open to the general public, is housed in the principle gallery at GoMA.
For full article, see https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/leisure/information/new-exhibition-explores-black-artists-cultural-influence-in-scotland-41434168.html
The exhibition:
“AfroScots: Revisiting the Work of Black Artists in Scotland by New Amassing”
March 11 – July 3, 2022
Gallery of Fashionable Artwork, Royal Change Sq., Glasgow, G1 3AH
https://www.glasgowlife.org.uk/occasion/1/afroscots-revisiting-the-work-of-black-artists-in-scotland-through-new-collecting
[Photo above by Tiu Makkonen/PA)]