Laura Footes unveils a striking new series of unique monotypes inspired by her solo show A Healing Dream. While echoing the language and imagery of her paintings, printmaking offers Footes a creative playground—embracing spontaneity and exploring a looser, more abstract style. Colours reassume symbolic values; dark purples evoke pain and sadness, but also symbolise luxury and sumptuousness. Reds are associated with the body and flesh, while dark greens are linked to mysterious English landscapes and journeys.

“Making monotypes is a really beautiful way to unlock new ideas, especially after working so intensely on paintings for such a long time for a show, it offers a freedom and a playground to test out new composition ideas, and looser as well, to see how it is to be more abstract. The imagery is all again based on experience, emotions, memories, feelings, and lots of cinematography is there. All the images are haunting my brain, to pull an image out something needs to happen on the outside.”   — Laura Footes

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An Uncommon Thread features 10 contemporary artists living and working in the UK. The group exhibition highlights the transformative power of unconventional mediums in evoking personal and collective memories.

“The final gallery is dedicated to a new solo installation by Lindsey Mendick, titled I Asked You Not to Hurt Me (2025), drawing inspiration from Greek mythology and themes of mistreatment, exploitation and revenge. Through this powerful interplay of personal and mythological pain, Mendick creates a compelling commentary on the intersections of love, betrayal and the unseen cruelty that permeates both human relationships and our treatment of sentient beings.

A wide variety of sea creatures lie frozen in their final state, their unsettling stillness evoking a sense of quiet decay. Upon closer inspection, the viewer can observe that their lifeless bodies are getting eaten by roaches, worms and flies, the flesh ripped apart from the inside out, illustrating nature’s revenge for our senseless overconsumption. The work prompts us to reflect on the deeper implications of our actions and the narratives we choose to embrace”.

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We are please to share that the work Cadena (Chain), 2025 by artist Studio Lenca has been selected for the Art Icon Auction 2025, presented by Whitechapel Gallery in collaboration with Phillips.

Now in its twelfth year, the prestigious Art Icon Gala and accompanying contemporary art auction provides essential support for Whitechapel Gallery. In collaboration with Phillips we are delighted to offer an exceptional online auction which presents a thoughtfully curated selection of works by artists who push the boundaries of contemporary art. This year’s Art Icon Award will be presented to the renowned Doris Salcedo. The auction will feature other acclaimed artists such as Tunji Adeniyi-Jones, Michael Armitage and Julie Curtiss.

Studio Lenca’s work will be on display at Whitechapel Gallery from 26 February to 5 March 2025, with bidding opening online on 26 February.

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Watch the conversation between the artist Laura Footes and the curator Dame Tracey Emin discussing Footes’ solo exhibition A Healing Dream.

This talk presents a unique opportunity to hear from both artist and curator as they discuss Footes’ distinctive artistic practice, the evolution of their mentor-mentee relationship, and the shared experiences that have profoundly influenced Footes’ work—from the challenges of chronic illness to their mutual passion for art.

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Hot Mess is an exhibition of new ceramic works by Lindsey Mendick, created for the Sainsbury Centre as part of a six-month season of interlinked exhibitions and events that explore the question Why Do We Take Drugs?

In her most personal work to date, Mendick explores her intertwined relationship with alcohol, mental illness and antidepressants. Through mythology, pathos and humour, she unpacks her (at times) debilitating anxiety and the ways in which society has learned to self-medicate by taking drugs and drinking socially.

“This is a self-portrait of how I am now, with the desperation to join the party and to get drunk, and the utter shame and self-loathing when I’ve lost my inhibitions and let myself go. I want the work to show the desperate attempts at trying to piece myself back together.”

Mendick’s work has been positioned around The Sainsbury Centre display, directly juxtaposed with artists in the collection such as Francis Bacon, Leonora Carrington, Rebecca Warren, Giacometti and Picasso, disrupting the calm museum aesthetic to represent the hungover aftermath of a party.

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As the 2024 recipient of the Museum’s prestigious Artist-in-Residence program, Raw created a major new four-panel piece during her residency, which will be unveiled in the exhibition along with six large-scale new works acquired by the Rubell Museum. See more here.

The Rubell Museum, which opened in Allapattah in December 2019, is housed within six interconnected former industrial warehouses transformed by Selldorf Architects. The Museum’s collection includes over 7,700 works across diverse media, amassed over many years by founders Mera and Don Rubell.

The Museum’s Artist-in-Residence program, established in 2011, offers emerging artists like Raw the opportunity to deepen their practices. Each residency culminates in a year-long solo presentation at the Rubell Museum, with new works created during the residency added to the Museum’s collection. Previous artists-in-residence include Amoako Boafo (2019), Oscar Murillo (2012), Jonathan Lyndon Chase (2018), Sterling Ruby (2011), and Sonia Gomes (2015).

We’re pleased to announce the representation of Laura Footes. The Gallery’s first presentation of new works by the artist will be at Frieze London 2024 followed by a solo exhibition at Carl Freedman Gallery in November 2024.

Lindsey Mendick wins the Visual Arts Award for ‘SH*TFACED‘, the artist’s first solo exhibition in Scotland, at Jupiter Artland. Huge congratulations to Lindsey and to Nicky & Robert Wilson who commissioned this major exhibition.

We’re pleased to announce the representation of Vanessa Raw and Studio Lenca. The Gallery’s first presentation of new works by both artists will be at Frieze London 2023.

Vanessa Raw preposed by Tracey Emin to have solo presentation at Frieze London 2023 Artist-to-Artist section.

I like Vanessa’s work because it’s free and liberating. When I first saw her work I was shocked. I found the subject matter intense but I also found the paintings incredibly beautiful. They were like a happy place, a Shangri-La, other-worldly, and seemed to emphasise love. They are unapologetic and pretty radical. She is a woman making images about women. This has a really strong and important place for our society. But I don’t have to read any of these paintings politi- cally, I see them from an emotional perspective, her real and imaginary landscapes with both real and imaginary moments. A world within a world.

– Tracey Emin 

Studio Lenca’s new solo exhibition ‘El Camino’ at Soho Revue, London opens on Wednesday 4th October. The exhibition will run until 4th November 2023.

Taking up both floors of Soho Revue, ‘El Camino’ will be the artist’s largest scale UK show to date.

An evening of Medway poetry and folk – Vipers Tongue Press in collusion with Tangerine Press.

The event will also include a book launch for Billy Childish ‘Self Portraits in a Broken Glass’. Poetry from Billy Childish, Bill Lewis and Wolf Howard. Along with music from Billy Childish and The Singing Loins. Tickets available here (click here)

Billy Childish, along with seven other leading international artists, were asked to create a print to celebrate the ICA’s 75th anniversary. A third of the profits from the sale of each print will be benefit the ICA’s programme. View print here (click here).

Usually Miller transfers his photographs to canvas using oils, but for his large-scale mural ‘Lago di Homo’ for C/O Berlin, he chose a matte emulsion. Sometimes he thinks carefully about how to fill in the figures and forms he has sketched, and other times he works more intuitively, with his characteristic full-coverage colour applications. In addition to the primary colours red, yellow, blue, and green—a group of colours often used for children’s toys, which Miller chooses deliberately and re-contextualizes—he also mixes other shades to achieve harmonic nuances. Occasionally, divergent colours are seen in the skin, hair, textiles, and plants.

GALLERY EVENT: Saturday 3rd June at 2pm, we will host an intimate poetry and short story reading by Margaret Mckenzie, followed by a Q&A with Ronan Mckenzie.

Within the current ‘To Be Held’ group exhibition, Ronan Mckenzie presents a new video work titled ‘I Didn’t Know’, part three of project ‘Be Good Now’ started in 2022 with her mother Margaret Mckenzie.

Free entry, no need to book.

To Be Held
Curated by Ronan Mckenzie
Exhibition runs until 25th June 2023

2023 promises to be another exciting year in Margate! Our forthcoming exhibitions highlighted in @guardian today. Solo show of new paintings by #DaisyParris @daisyparris previews on 25th February followed by a major group exhibition curated by #RonanMckenzie @ronanksm @home_by_ronanmckenzie opening on 29th April.

Read the article at The Guardian (Click here)

SOLD OUT! For those who can’t attend, we are filming this special event and will broadcast on IG live.

Surprise talk this Saturday 16th July 5-6pm @CarlFreedmanGallery, Margate! Book now via @EventbriteUK (Link in Bio): Artist @LindseyMendick in conversation with Singer/Songwriter @SelfEsteemSelfEsteem & Curator @Zoe.Whitley.

#LindseyMendick received an MA in Sculpture from the RCA, London in 2017. Mendick works predominantly with clay, a medium that is often associated with decoration and the domestic, subverting these historic connotations to create skilled monuments to ‘low culture’ and the contemporary female experience. Often culminating in elaborate installations, Mendick’s autobiographical work offers a form of catharsis, encouraging the viewer to explore their own personal history through the revisionist lens of the artist. Her work challenges the male gaze, promoting instead an unapologetic, humorous and, at times, grotesque femininity.

#RebeccaLucyTaylor, known professionally by her stage name #SelfEsteem, is an award winning British singer-songwriter. On her recent hit album, Prioritise Pleasure, Taylor states “I suppose this record is just me going, what if this isn’t failure? What if this is actually pretty good?” Pretty good feels like a modest estimation as Taylor was nominated for a BRIT award and winning numerous other recent accolades including BBC Music Introducing’s Artist Of The Year, Attitude Magazine’s Music Award and South Bank Sky Arts Award.

#ZoéWhitley is an American art historian and curator who has been director of Chisenhale Gallery since 2020. Based in London, she has held curatorial positions at the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Tate galleries, and the Hayward Gallery. At the Tate galleries, Whitley co-curated the 2017 exhibition Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power, which was described by ARTnews as one of the most important art exhibitions of the 2010s. Soon after she was chosen to organise the British pavilion at the 2019 Venice Biennale. #ZoeWhitley‘s research interests include contemporary artists and art practices from Africa and the African diaspora. Whitley was a judge of the Turner Prize in 2021.

For her first solo exhibition with the gallery, Lindsey Mendick has created a fully immersive installation including new ceramic sculptures, furniture, live performances, film and large stage sets that transform the gallery space.

Preview: Saturday 2nd July, 5:30 – 8 PM.

Live Performances: 6:30 and 7:30 PM.

All welcome, free entry.

Singer, songwriter and producer Denai Moore shares a powerful and intimate 12-minute performance of three songs from her critically acclaimed new album “Modern Dread”.  Filmed at Carl Freedman Gallery, Margate and directed by filmmaker and multi-disciplinary artist Nadira Amrani, Moore and her band perform ‘Too Close’, ‘Grapefruit on the Porch’ and ‘To The Brink’ live from Carl Freedman Gallery. Part of the gallery’s commitment to sharing our space with leading talents from multiple arenas including music, dance and film. Moore and Amrani both live and work in Margate so it’s been especially inspiring to collaborate with such visionary local artists. Available to view at YouTube (click here).

We are excited to announce that Benjamin Senior’s work Portals is currently being featured in Southbank Centre’s Hayward Gallery Touring exhibition Slow Painting; a presentation of paintings that take their time, and invite us to do the same.

Curated by the writer and critic Martin Herbert, the exhibition features 19 artists, primarily British or UK based, whose work spans a myriad of styles and applications, from figuration to abstraction. Opening at Leeds Art Gallery ( 24 Oct 2019 – 12 Jan 2020), Slow Painting then travels to The Levinsky Gallery in Plymouth (25 Jan – 29 Mar 2020).

Art has reacted, like everything else, to digital technology, both on the level of making and reception. The speed at which art is consumed has been transformed by shorter attention spans and the desire to make images that ‘pop’ on smartphone and computer screens. Yet painting has historically been both created and received patiently, offering a space of pause, contemplation and gradual unfurling. Slow Painting offers a counterbalance to an increasingly accelerating world, comprising works that illustrate the role of painting as a rewarding repository of time.