Erotic Ecologies
8 February - 11 February 2024
Thurs to Sun, 12-5pm
Private View :
8 February, 6-8pm
Wall-based work by four artists has been selected and curated to build relationships of material, image, surface and light that become apparent as the viewer moves within APT’s gallery space.
Events
Scroll down for further information about the events programme.
Introduction
The title of the show Erotic Ecologies is borrowed from Matter and Desire: An Erotic Ecology by bio-philosopher Andreas Weber. Weber urges us to live with a perspective from ‘the inside of life’ by paying attention to the corporeal experience of being alive rather than as analysing machines standing apart from the world. The drive toward both attachment and autonomy is the fulfilment of what he calls an ‘erotic encounter, an encounter of meaning through contact, an encounter of being oneself through the significance of others’ (pxiii). Far from a straightforward or romantic idea, this is a challenging and complex relationship of opposites, which, when in “proper balance” creates sparks of “enlivenment” – enlivenment is the sign of creative breakthrough beyond the mindset of measurement and comparison.
Weber’s ideas seem to resonate with processes of making an individual work, which has autonomy as a ‘work’ but only works through contact, touch, desire and the enfolding of all that is outside. We have thought about his ideas as we put our exhibition together, as we have tried to create new contacts and relationships between work, gallery space and viewer.
Artists Eirini Boukla, Catherine Ferguson, Rebecca Partridge and Sarah Kate Wilson will explore these ideas in relation to the works on display at a discussion event 7pm Thursday 8th February.
Participating artists
Events
Biographies
Eirini Boukla lives and works in Leeds. Her background is in Fine Art for Design, with a specific focus on Drawing as an expanded practice. Her work is exhibited internationally at galleries, museums, art festivals and public art projects. Beyond her practice, she has developed, organised, and curated art projects and residencies in the UK and Europe. She completed her Fine Art PhD Ichnographia: Arrogation and Alteration in 2014.
She is a lecturer in Art and Design at the University of Leeds since 2014.
Catherine Ferguson is an artist, curator and writer based in London. Recent projects include Green Spaces Filet Gallery, London (solo exhibition) 2023, The Undersides of Practice (catalogue) APT, London (2020) and Hard Painting, Pheonix Gallery, Brighton (2020). Publications include ‘The Façade and the Picture Plane’ in the Journal of Contemporary Painting (2017). She is a Research Tutor at The Royal College of Art and a visiting tutor at Chelsea College of Arts. She completed a Fine Art PhD Deleuze and the Art of “Surface Effects” in 2007.
Rebecca Partridge is an artist currently based in London. Since graduating from the Royal Academy Schools in 2007 she has exhibited internationally. Solo exhibitions include: On A Clear Day Informality Gallery, (UK), In The Meantime, at Kunsthalle CCA Andratx (Spain), Notations Kunstverein Springhornhof, (Germany), and Painting Fast, Painting Slow at Konstkraft Ljusne (Sweden). She has been awarded several international scholarships including from The Nordic Kunstnasenter Dale, (Norway), The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation (USA), and The Terra Foundation for American Art (summer Fellowship in Giverny, France). Over the past ten years she has curated a series of exhibitions taking place in Germany, Norway and the UK: including Scaling The Sublime at Nottingham University, followed by In Pursuit of Elusive Horizons at Parafin Gallery, London and most recently, Expanding Landscapes: Painting After Land Art at Hestercombe Gallery curated with Joy Sleeman. She is an Associate Lecturer on the BA Painting at Camberwell.
Sarah Kate Wilson lives and works in London. Her practice is crystallised around the subjects; shapeshifting, animal mimicry, atmospheric phenomena, and the Earth's history. She exhibits her paintings, drawings, ceramics, performances, prints, costumes, and tapestries internationally. She has presented work at Palais de Tokyo, Paris, Royal Academy of Arts London, BALTIC 39, Newcastle, Bauhaus Museum, Dessau, Newlyn Gallery, Cornwall, Tetley, Leeds. Artist residencies include the Xenia Creative Retreat, West Dean College, and in 2024 she will undertake a residency at Koba Chika, Tokyo, Japan. She has an MFA in Painting, Slade School of Fine Art (2008-2010), and Practice based PhD at University of Leeds (2017). She is Senior Lecturer of BA Painting at Camberwell College of Arts, UAL.
Thursday 8 February 2024 6-8pm
Private view with an artists discussion at 7pm with all exhibitors.