Description
Discover Margate with us, the vibrant new UK art destination! We will visit Turner Contemporary’s current exhibition “We Will Walk – Art and Resistance in the American South” featuring a selection of the world-renowned quilts of Gee’s Bend, Alabama, on view for the first time ever in the UK. Then on to Carl Freedman Gallery to view the exhibition of Belgian artist Nel Aerts. We’ll also take a look at the Counter Edition printing operations before going on to visit Tracey Emin’s studio with her studio assistant.
- We Will Walk – Art and Resistance in the American South is the first exhibition of its kind in the UK and reveals a little-known history shaped by the Civil Rights period in the 1950s and 60s. It brings together sculptural assemblages, paintings and quilts by more than 20 African American artists from Alabama and surrounding states. This art is characterised by the remaking and reuse of materials through necessity, custom, culture and innovation as well as a vital connection to place and nature. In an era of worldwide protest on the streets, We Will Walk addresses issues of race, class and resistance through a diverse range of works developed outside of the mainstream.
- Belgian artist Nel Aerts’ practice combines painting, sculpture, drawing, collages, performance and film. Her often figurative work is populated by tragi-comic figures that she renders in simple lines and large blocks of colour. These characters, which appear across diverse media, function like masks that the artist uses intentionally to reveal or to conceal her own persona.
- Founded in 2000 Counter Editions commissions and produces prints and multiples by leading international contemporary artists, including Tracey Emin, John Baldessari, Howard Hodgkin, Rachel Whiteread, Martin Creed and many others. Counter Editions has has worked with over 50 leading artists and has become the UK’s leading website for buying contemporary art.
- In 2019, Tracey Emin decided to return to Margate, the town where she grew up, setting up a new studio space and residence. At the time she told a local newspaper “I do not want to wake up to London, I want to wake up and be inspired by the same things that inspired Turner.” Guided by her studio assistant, we will visit her 30,000 sq. ft space, housed in the old Thanet Press site, which includes a sculpture studio big enough for Emin’s monumental bronzes, and a painting studio, as well as living accommodation and a winter garden.
After the visits we will enjoy a self-treat lunch before returning to London.
PARTICIPANTS ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR MAKING THEIR OWN TRANSPORTATION ARRANGEMENTS. We will take the 8:12 Southeastern High-Speed Rail service from St. Pancras to Margate, arriving 9:42. If you plan to stay for lunch you should book a return on the 14:55 train, arriving at St Pancras at 16:21.
Image: Annie Mae Young, ‘Bars’, (c. 1965). Image Stephen Pitkin, Pitkin Studio
