PRESS RELEASE
‘oxbow’
Chloe Boston, Hannah Rowan, May Hands, Poppy Keating and Sophie Mei Birkin
Curated by Olivia Grace Middelboe
15th September to 16th October 2022
Private View: Thursday 15th September 5-9pm
Projektraum London is pleased to present ‘oxbow’, a group exhibition curated by Olivia Grace Middelboe featuring work by Chloe Boston, Hannah Rowan, May Hands, Poppy Keating and Sophie Mei Birkin. The exhibition is part of the gallery’s cooperation with the Department of Art's MFA Curating class at Goldsmiths, University of London. Olivia Grace Middelboe’s exhibition was the winning proposal submitted by 1st year students of the MFA Curating class and selected by a jury advised by Chris Hammond.
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‘Employing sculpture, ceramics, photography, film, and installation, the work in oxbow explores materiality, using glass, clay, organic matter and synthetic materials, whilst also considering our relationship to the Earth and its ecological systems. oxbow creates an environment in which the lines between man-made and natural forms blur, where the work on display could be encountered in the ocean, in a river, on a beach, as if it is existing in or being altered by bodies of water.
The notion of vessels is an overarching theme which runs through the body of work featured, both as having the capacity to hold water and living forms, but also as holding memory and as a space for storing and recording layers of temporality. The work emphasises transformation, tactility and materiality through melting, fragmentation, oxidation, burning. There are traces, residues of memory in found objects, photographs, the movement and changing form of water from ice, material forms shifting. It is not static, it develops and changes with the influence of its external environments.
There is a symbiotic relationship between the practices of the artists exhibited. In their approach, both materially and thematically, an interconnectedness permeates which echoes the natural flow and balance in bodies of water and the ecosystems which exist within them. As we face climate breakdown, considering our relationship to the surrounding ecological systems is fundamental. The artists in oxbow are using synthetic and naturally occurring materials to address this relationship, whilst also exploring the past and potential futures.’
(Olivia Grace Middelboe, September 2022)
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Chloe Boston (b.1999, New York, USA) is a multidisciplinary artist currently based in London, UK. This is her first exhibition since graduating with a BA in Fine Art from City and Guilds of London Art School in 2022. @chloebostonengland
Hannah Rowan (b. 1990 Brighton, UK) is a multidisciplinary artist based in London, UK. She studied MA Sculpture at the Royal College of Art, London and BA (hons) Fine Art at Central Saint Martins, London. Hannah has exhibited across North America and Europe. Solo exhibitions include Chrysalis, 2021, Galerie Sebastien Bertrand, Geneva; Triple Point, 2020, Belo Campo, Lisboa; Prima Materia, 2019, Assembly Point, London; Bodies of Water: Age of Fluidity, 2018, White Crypt, London. She has exhibited in group shows at Galerie Sebastien Bertrand, Geneva; Yours Mine and Ours Gallery, NY; Below Grand, NY; Walter Philips Gallery Satellite Space, Canada; Taipei Artist Village; Well Projects, Margate and across London including Assembly Point, Koppel Project, Enclave Lab, Guest Projects, Arcadia Missa, Filet Space. She has been awarded residencies at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, Alberta; The Vermont Studio Centre, VT; The Scottish Sculpture Workshop, Aberdeenshire; the Wassaic Project, NY; Taipei Artist Village, Taiwan. www.hannah-rowan.com @rowanhannah
May Hands (b.1990, lives and works in Folkestone) graduated with an MFA in Fine Art from Goldsmiths in 2020 and a BA in Fine Art Painting from Camberwell College of Art (UAL) in 2013. Selected exhibitions include: All That is Left, Bosse & Baum, London, UK (solo); The material substance of their origin, Collective Ending, London, UK (duo); Wish Lush, Kravitz Contemporary, London, UK (group); Field Blend, Art at Tillingham, Rye, UK (solo); Eastbourne Open, Volt, Eastbourne, UK (group); Ecdysis, Staffordshire Studios, London, UK (group); Best before end, White Crypt, London, UK (solo); The romance of flowers, Kingsgate Project Space, London, UK (group); I’ve Loved You For a Long Time, Supplement, London, UK (solo); Counter Quality, 650mAh, Brighton, UK (group); Freschissimi, T293, Rome, Italy (solo); Women’s Art Society II, MOSTYN, Llandudno, Wales (group); Bleach, Roman Road, London, UK (solo). mayhands.com @may_hands
Poppy Keating (b.1999) is a London based artist. She graduated from City and Guilds of London Art School Art and Design Foundation in 2019, and from the BA Fine Art programme in 2022. She was awarded the City and Guilds of London Art School Sculpture Prize 2022. Past exhibitions include: Intersection, AMP Studios Peckham, August 2021, Tottenham Sculpture Garden, Grow Tottenham, June 2021 and Art for Relief, online, March 2021. @poppykeating
Sophie Mei Birkin (b.1995) is a London based artist. In 2021 she graduated from the Slade School of Fine Art, where she was awarded the Euan Uglow Scholarship for her MA in Sculpture. Last year she was awarded an Emerging Artist Award by Sarabande: The Lee Alexander McQueen Foundation and her recent exhibitions include: Inside Out at The Artist Room (2022), Skin of Your Teeth at Crypt Gallery (2022), London Grads Now at Saatchi Gallery (2021-2022), Petrichor at Liliya Gallery (2021) and Protean Fluid at Gossamer Fog Gallery (2021). www.sophiemei.art @sophiem.e.i
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For further information please visit www.claasreiss.com/projektraum-london, email [email protected] or call +44 7769 566 922. Please follow us @projektraumlondon_new and @claasreiss on Instagram. Normal gallery opening hours during exhibitions are Wed to Fri 10am - 6pm, Sat 12pm - 6pm and by appointment.
'oxbow' curated by Olivia Grace Middelboe (Projektraum London, in cooperation with Goldsmiths, University of London) press release
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