Framing Our Future: Making it in 2022

ArtCan will be hosting a virtual exhibition for International Women’s Day 2022 from March 5-26 with a Virtual Private View: 8 March at 18.00 UTC. Building on ArtCan’s international membership and founding principle of fair pay for artists, the exhibition will focus on the incredible art our women members are producing.

Framing our future will showcase artists Siusan Patterson (recipient of the Royal Scottish Academy’s 2021 SABA Award), Emma Copely (Shortlisted for The Ashurst Emerging Artist Prize), Catalina Chirstensen (co-founder of The Wilderness Art Collective), Laura Parker (shortlisted for the 2022 New Emergence Art Prize) and Heloise O’Keeffe (2022 British Contemporary Art Award finalist). With works spanning sculpture, photography, watercolour, textiles and print, this exhibition is an opportunity to view the work of emerging front runners in the contemporary art scene. 

Curated by Yeside Linney and Wilma Woolf, this exhibition is a presentation of what women artists have been inspired to create and compelled to respond to in a time of unprecedented global change. We witness responses to international events impacting women’s rights across the globe; psychological impacts of curtailed lives due to pandemic lockdown; navigations of identity; bodily autonomy and a righteous claiming of space. The selected works reflect the confidence and assurance of the artists. Together these works create both an exhibition of depth and importance and a platform for women’s lived experiences through the art they create.

It is with great pleasure that we invite you to view the works of women artists making it in 2022.

ArtCan will be delivering an associated programme of interviews as well as a panel talk on fair pay, financial equality and artistic representation within the arts. 

Participating artists: 

Andrea C Morley, Caroline Wheaton, Catalina Christensen, Catherine Fenton, Christine Manderla, CS Moncrieff, Ellie Bird, Emma Copley, Fiona Pearce, Francesca Ciaudano, Heather Burwell, Hedy Parry-Davies, Helen Shulkin, Heloise O'Keeffe, Hilary Rosen, Jen Wiggle, Kristin Rawcliffe, Laura Parker, Laurence de Valmy, Melanie Jordan, Molly Lambourn, Patricia Bidi, Richa Vora, Sandy Layton, Sara Reeve, Siusan Patterson. Susan Clare, Wendy Brooke-Smith

About ArtCan

ArtCan is an artist-led, non-profit arts organisation with members across Britain and internationally. ArtCan’s work is supported by the efforts of artist-member volunteers, contributions from Founder Friends and Friends of ArtCan and with the valued guidance of the Board of Trustees.

ArtCan has expertise in producing collaborative art exhibitions in London, across Britain and internationally. The exhibitions complement the work of established galleries by enabling talent to gain experience and skills. ArtCan work with galleries, but also seeks new spaces where art becomes a part of everyday life and with the aim of involving audiences in an organic and personal way.

ArtCan’s artist-centred ethos means that the model does not involve charging membership fees or commissions on sales, to help artists focus on developing a sustainable practice.

For more information about ArtCan head to www.ArtCan.org.uk

For further information please contact:
Contact/ Website & social media: info@artcan.org.uk / www.artcan.org.uk / @ArtCanOrg
Virtual PV: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/framing-our-future-virtual-exhibition-private-view-tickets-266354552637

The Gallery

ArtCan’s own virtual gallery is a virtual space that enables ArtCan to develop their hybrid model of exhibiting, which provides both offline and online programming and viewing opportunities. Initially, the hybrid model was a response to the limitations of COVID-19. However, in recommitting to its online reach ArtCan has seen its involvement with both its membership and audience broaden and deepen and for these reasons will remain.

About the Curators

Wilma Woolf: Wilma is a visual artist with a specific interest in data and testimonials pertaining to injustice and inequalities. In 2020 she completed a Masters in Fine Art at Central Saint Martins and has exhibited her work at The Tate Modern, Lethaby Gallery and the Apairy Gallery. Most recently she has had a solo exhibition at the Richard Saltoun gallery in Mayfair

Woolf's core concern is the extrapolation of political injustices told through data, collected testimonials and the communication of this through artistic means. Utilising a successful career as a policy professional in similar fields, her work manifests information in physical form. 

Woolf's work is noted for being repetitive, organised and often comprising of grids or grid like structures. It is multi-disciplinary in its approach, incorporating installations, sculptural and 2D work, through diverse materials such as concrete, photography, glass, light and ceramics.

Yeside Linney: Nigerian born, Yeside has spent over 65 years living in the UK, and is now retired from having been a successful Secondary School English teacher. She holds a passion for languages and literature, particularly myths and legends.

Yeside is mostly a self-taught artist whose practice is eclectic. Despite breaking onto the art scene only two years ago she’s had considerable success and was recently awarded runner up in the Surrey Artist of the Year competition. She is currently exhibiting at the notable Watts Gallery near Guildford, Surrey. She proves that being a late starter isn’t a barrier to success.

Her love of the countryside informs most of her work. She focuses primarily on semi-representational landscapes and vibrant abstracts and is using these to develop an ongoing project examining her sense of identity and referencing her heritage.