Out of Shape

OUT OF SHAPE presents the work of three artists who graduated from MA courses at London-based art colleges in 2018 and who have just completed a yearlong studio residency at Acme’s Warton House studios in Stratford. This exhibition marks PEER’s fourth year of partnership with Acme, to offer emerging artists the chance to exhibit at an acclaimed gallery and benefit from mentoring and guidance provided by PEER’s team. This year each of the graduate’s practices centre on large-scale installation and sculpture.

Greta Davies (Adrian Carruthers Award, 2018/19) makes site-specific installations and works in a multitude of media including: paint, print, digital photography, stop motion and projection. Her work is a graphic exploration of space that particularly examines the architectural volumes and voids in our everyday lives that are often overlooked or unnoticed. Through use of lines, patterns and optical illusion, the work invites the viewer to notice these spaces and observe them in a new light, opening them up to new experiences and playfully questions how her interventions and the space are viewed.

Kate Howard’s (Goldsmiths MFA Award, 2018/19) sculptural practice investigates notions of gender and sexuality; fed by their own identity struggles and non-conformity to gender binaries and stereotypes. The work playfully challenges and undermines prevailing sculptural traditions, particularly that of monolithic masculine modernist sensibilities, with a sardonic humour. Aiming to address contemporary and historic feminist issues, the work questions the role of pornography within society, and whether a more inclusive repertoire of desire can be encouraged.

Marylyn Molisso (Helen Scott Lidgett Award, 2018/19) creates installations that explore the artist’s anxious relationship with her own practice, her apprehensions around temporality and the future, and her sense of ‘guilt that comes with being a creator of meaningless objects’. Molisso uses her old clothes, scaffolding, floorboards from her family home and bedding among many other materials to probe at the inherent essence of things. Destined to outlive their maker, these materials were intended for use but have now been warped into impractical creations, their meanings constantly in flux.

Acme’s early career programme provides artists in their first five years of practice with a variety of support structures, including financial subsidy, rent relief, professional development, mentoring, presentation and exhibition opportunities. The programme aims to make a substantial intervention at a critical moment in artists’ careers, as they transition from the supportive environment of an arts institution into lifelong professional practice.

The Goldsmiths MFA Award is a partnership between Acme and Goldsmiths College and generously supported by Jane Hamlyn. The Helen Scott Lidgett Award is a partnership between Acme and Central Saint Martins (UAL) and generously supported by the family of Helen Scott Lidgett. The Adrian Carruthers Award is a partnership between Acme and The Slade School of Fine Art and is generously supported by the family of Adrian Carruthers.