Bodies in Space

Multiple artists

PNI FB 10 — Flo Brooks, 'To Be or No To Be' (crop) (2020). Courtesy of the artist and Project Native Informant, London

MIRROR presents Bodies in Space, a group exhibition curated by Ben Borthwick.

Nicola Bealing / Flo Brooks / Andrea Büttner / Andrew Pierre Hart / Nick Jensen / Claudette Johnson / Joy Labinjo / Bruno Pacheco

*Sat 27 Nov 2021 - Sat 26 Feb 2022
Christmas closure 24th Dec 2021 - 9th Jan 2022

Ben Borthwick is an independent Curator and Head of Creative Programme at KARST. He combines working internationally with grass roots artist development and community engagement in Plymouth. He was previously Artistic Director of Plymouth Arts Centre, CEO of Artes Mundi and Assistant Curator at Tate Modern.

Dm21 pca bodies space 300dpi 1041 — Bodies in Space installation image (incl works by Bruno Pacheco, Nicola Bealing, Flo Brooks, Claudette Johnson & Joy Labinjo). Photo: Dom Moore.

Dm21 pca bodies space 300dpi 0978 — Bodies in Space installation image (including works by Claudette Johnson & Joy Labinjo, from left to right). Photo: Dom Moore.

Dm21 pca bodies space 300dpi 1057 — Bodies in Space installation image (including works by Andrew Pierre Hart and Bruno Pacheco, from left to right). Photo: Dom Moore.

Dm21 pca bodies space 300dpi 1032 — Bodies in Space installation image (including works by Nicola Bealing, Flo Brooks, Bruno Pacheco & Flo Brooks, from left to right). Photo: Dom Moore.

Bodies in Space presents work by artists using the figure in painting and drawing to question and understand how we occupy, move through and negotiate the public and private spaces of daily life. The exhibition also reflects how figurative painting and drawing becomes more visible at times of wider social and political change.

This exhibition, itself hugely delayed due to the Covid 19 pandemic, has been adapted to reflect on the impact of social distancing and the wider disruption of social conventions on issues of representation and equality such as Black Lives Matter and debates around queer and trans rights.

Some artists in this show use the figure in allegorical ways while others treat the figure as an apparition emerging from abstraction. In spite of these differences in approaches, the disjunction between the body, space and time is a common thread across works and forms the basis of this exhibition.

Dm21 pca bodies space 300dpi 0957 — Bodies in Space installation image (including works by Nick Jenson and Andrea Büttner, left to right). Photo: Dom Moore.

Dm21 pca bodies space 300dpi 2 — Bodies in Space installation image (including works by Claudette Johnson & Andrew Pierre Hart, from left to right). Photo: Dom Moore.

Bodies in Space is an exhibition of paintings and drawings by artists working with the human figure. Not all bodies are treated equally and not all bodies are equally represented, whether politically, legally or pictorially. The exhibition draws out the ways that artists use the figure to reflect on intimacy and relationships as well as wider social and political issues through their work

Ben Borthwick

CJ 017 Untitled Hollybush Gardens Photo Andy Keate — Claudette Johnson, 'Untitled' (1982). Courtesy of the artist and Hollybush Gardens, London. Photo: Andy Keate

Bealing 1 — Nicola Bealing, 'Dirty Man, Clean Man' (2014). Courtesy of the artist and Matts Gallery, London. Photo: Steve Tanner

Instagram Posts - Curator's Insights

Artist(s)

Related to Bodies in Space

Short

Gallery Shorts

Bodies In Space, Curated by Ben Borthwick

Multiple artists