'Art's Ugly Right?'
Terry Atkinson - Mieke Bal - Caroline Bergvall - Edward Chell - Joy Gregory - Leon Golub - Michelle Williams Gamaker - Steph Goodger - Stephen Lee - Rosa Nguyen - Nancy Spero - Peter Suchin - Will Pham
Curated by Stephen Lee

 

Nancy Spero Victims: Crawling Woman 1990. Handprinting on paper, 53x71cm. Courtesy of Jon Bird.

 

The title, ‘Art’s Ugly Right?’ is a quotation from a lecture in which Leon Golub and Nancy Spero humorously questioned the audience concerning assumptions about the beautiful. The problematic relationship between aesthetics, violence and attendant trauma is addressed in this show through a focus on artistic methods of artists from varied age-groups and backgrounds.

The exhibition is structured around a series of questions. What strategies might be adopted to understand an aesthetics of violence today in our post Cold War era? How might a spirit of protest be applied to a politics of landscape or the natural world? What form might art take that is engaged with communities or that which facilitates human agency when encountering colonial or structural violence? Which approaches might be more efficacious in terms of a critique of the structures of power?

Arranged as comparative study through juxtaposition of artworks this show aims to foster critical judgement, appreciation and even some answers.

Stephen Lee is an artist and writer who has exhibited widely in the U.S. and is now based close to London.

Click here to visit the virtual tour

A leaflet featuring an essay by Stephen Lee is available during the exhibition and on this link.

Mieke Bal's essay Lessons in Looking to Resist Violence published to coincide with 'Art's Ugly Right?' is available here.

The exhibition will include a curated events programme:

- Saturday 29 March - 4 to 6pm - a conversation between Stephen Lee and Jon Bird - Click here to view the talk
- Saturday 12 April - 2 to 5pm - Vietnamese community cookout

For further information please contact danielle@daniellearnaud.com.

 

'Art's Ugly Right?' installation view

From left to right: Nancy Spero Victims: Crawling Woman 1990. Hand-printing on paper 53x71cm
Torture in Chile 1975/1979, Hand-printing on paper 57 x 77cm. Courtesy of Jon Bird

Mieke Bal Elena, from the installation Nothing is Missing 2006 DVD 32’

'Art's Ugly Right?' installation view

'Art's Ugly Right?' installation view

Mieke Bal Refugeedom: Lonely But Not Alone 2023. Directed by Mieke Bal and Lena Verhoeff. Single channel installation 24’41”

Will Pham Chillin’ 2025. Paint on canvas

From left to right: Rosa Nguyen Immolation 2 2024 Glazed porcelain, black stoneware, combusted botanicals 26 x 19 x 33cm
Immolation 1 2024 Glazed porcelain, black stoneware, combusted botanicals 26 x 19 x 33cm