SOUTHAMPTON .- John Hansard Gallery, part of the University of Southampton, announced its reopening programme, presented in its new purpose-built home in Studio 144, Southampton’s Cultural Quarter.
This programme showcases leading UK and international artists alongside creating a platform for emerging artists within a global context. The programme reflects on John Hansard Gallery’s relocation to the city centre, re-contextualising previous commissions, exploring narratives of migration and reconsidering the history of art through an alternative lens.
Featuring a dynamic series of overlapping and parallel exhibitions, events and engagement projects, highlights of the 2018–2019 programme include: a major presentation of the work of Gerhard Richter, one of the world’s most significant artists; a new digital video commission by the author Philip Hoare, celebrating the life and work of poet Wilfred Owen and marking the centenary of his death; and a series of new collaborative commissions responding to early 20th century female and queer designers, artists, photographers, writers and editors, curated by Alice Maude-Roxby and Stefanie Seibold.
John Hansard Gallery is led by Director Woodrow Kernohan, who was appointed in 2017. Previously Director/CEO of EVA International, Ireland’s biennial of contemporary art, Kernohan will lead the Gallery into an exciting new phase alongside Head of Programme and Senior Curator, Ros Carter.
Alongside the programme, structural and strategic developments are announced, coinciding with the move and the expansion of the Gallery’s funding from both Arts Council England and the University of Southampton. A new Strategic Board will be appointed to advise on programming, oversee operations and inform future organisation development. Members will be drawn from peer and stakeholder groups that include artists and curators, community representatives, stakeholders and business leaders. The Strategic Board will be complemented by the new Your Voices community panel, representing audience voices within the Gallery’s programming.
The long-awaited move, from the Gallery’s historic home at the University of Southampton’s Highfield campus to the new purpose-built Studio 144 in Southampton’s Cultural Quarter, triples the space available for public programming, community-focused projects and active learning opportunities.
The city-centre Gallery will dramatically increase opportunities for the public to experience and be inspired by great art, as well as for creative collaboration with its new cultural neighbours in Studio 144 – City Eye and Nuffield Southampton Theatres.
The relocation of John Hansard Gallery to its new home in the heart of the city centre increases the University of Southampton’s presence in that area, close to its Mayflower Halls student residence and administrative offices in Guildhall Square.
The opening of Studio 144 symbolises an extraordinary moment for Southampton and the University in working closely with John Hansard Gallery, City Eye and Nuffield Southampton Theatres to deepen public engagement and further the ways in which research supports artists and creative innovation, through multidisciplinary research, access to facilities and collaboration between researchers and artists.
12 May – 18 August 2018
ARTIST ROOMS: Gerhard Richter (all Galleries)
ARTIST ROOMS, Tate & Atelier Richter
A major solo exhibition that celebrates the huge breadth and impact of the work of one of the world’s most significant living artists. All spaces within the new gallery are being devoted to Richter’s artworks drawn from the ARTIST ROOMS collection, Tate and Atelier Richter. This exhibition includes significant examples selected from Richter’s wide-ranging practice over the past five decades, including painting, photography, print and tapestry. The exhibition brings Richter’s work to new audiences and demonstrate his immense ongoing influence and significance to subsequent generations of artists.
