Art as Expression: Celebrating Emerging Black Artists with Acrylicize
As part of our Black History Month celebrations we’ve partnered with Acrylicize to launch Art as Expression: Emerging Black Artists’ Exhibition. We had the opportunity to chat with Jo McLaughlin, a Senior Curator behind the evening, and here’s what she had to say.
CAN YOU TELL US A BIT ABOUT ACRYLICIZE’S WORK AND MISSION?
Acrylicize is a creative studio based in East London. At the heart of the studio, we use the power of art to help people fall in love with spaces.
Art is a really powerful tool for communication and connection and we utilise and celebrate that in everything the studio creates. With studios in London and New York, we take on projects all over the world and as curators, we have the privilege of working with local artists both emerging and established on these projects to commission and/or purchase works for clients and projects.
Nothing is more exciting to me as a curator than supporting emerging artists - there is so much talent and creativity in the world and we play a small part in helping put great art out into the world to excite, inspire and engage people.
WHAT CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT THE UPCOMING EXHIBITION WITH CREATIVE MENTOR NETWORK?
In honour of Black History Month and working in partnership with Creative Mentor Network, we have curated ‘Art as Expression: Emerging Black Artists’, an exhibition which celebrates the creativity of 18 contemporary artists emerging onto the London art scene in 2022. From photography and sculpture to short film, painting and illustration, the diverse range of works throughout this exhibition, celebrates the vast array of passions and interests of all artists involved.
Much like Creative Mentor Network, Acrylicize champions nurturing and celebrating creativity in all its forms and we hope this exhibition does just that. It runs October 12th - October 28th and can be visited anytime between Monday - Friday 10 am - 5 pm for free.
We hope by opening up the space it will allow not only the artists to show their works to family, friends, clients and colleagues but, allow the local community in and around The Art House to engage with a varied array of artist practices.
WHY IS SUPPORTING SOCIOECONOMIC DIVERSITY IMPORTANT TO YOU?
I could write a 10,000-word essay on why supporting socioeconomic diversity is important to me but, I’ll answer this in terms of the art world.
Coming from a working-class Scottish background myself, art was never presented as a career option and I’m only here now as a chance conversation changed my life and led me to study art.
Throughout my career, I’ve struggled not seeing myself reflected in the works I look at or hearing my accent or feeling what I say/look like / act like / where I come from means I shouldn’t be working in the art world. It’s taken a long time for me to realise that isn’t true.
What I bring to the table through purely being me is unique and diverse - and the more people from different backgrounds and social situations that enter the art world, the more exciting it becomes.
It allows conversations to vary, subjects to expand, different lived experiences to be visualised, it offers opportunities for the art historical cannon to be reexamined, new media to be developed, and collaborations to form.
I think most importantly the more we visually show diversity taking place in the art world, it makes it easier to show the next generation it is a place they belong. It shows their contributions are needed and, should they wish, turn their creative passions into a sustainable career if they choose to do so. Because everyone, no matter their background or financial situation should be able to go after the career they want but, the opportunities are not always visual or spoken about to people from certain backgrounds - myself included.
And if helping organise this exhibition helps inspire one person to pursue a creative career or leads to an exciting collaboration or opportunity for them, then we have helped make the art world a little more exciting and diverse than it was before.
Find out more about Acrylicize here: https://www.acrylicize.com/
