Making & Unmaking: An exhibition curated by Duro Olowu

19 June – 18 September 2016 at The Camden Arts Centre

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Making & Unmaking, curated by Duro Olowu (b. 1965, Lagos), is the latest in our series of artist-selected shows. Duro Olowu is a celebrated fashion designer whose bold innovations with pattern, colour and shape reveal his early influences living between Nigeria and Europe, and his ongoing fascination with the world. His fluency with diverse aesthetics can be seen in the clothes he makes as well as the exhibitions he has curated, which combine antique textiles with his own fabric designs, bringing together discordant colours and patterns alongside disparate cultural forms.

Filling all three galleries, the Central Space, Reading Room and Garden, this exhibition draws together over 70 artists from around the world spanning this century and the last, including 19th century textiles made by unknown hands. Individually, each work has a story to tell; collectively, they begin a conversation in which visual, narrative and thematic relationships unfold. This eclectic collage of works, some of which have strong political undercurrents, addresses issues surrounding cultural identity, sexuality and the representation of the body. Olowu’s exhibition invites a multifaceted journey of encounters with the intuition, skill and vision of the artists represented within it.

Franciszka & Stefan Themerson – Books, Camera, Ubu

24 March – 5 June 2016 at Camden Arts Centre

Partners and life-long collaborators from 1929 until their deaths in 1988, Franciszka and Stefan Themersons’ diverse practice encompassed painting, photography, film, theatre design, literature, concrete poetry, publishing and illustration.

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Acclaimed as the most important experimental filmmakers in pre-war Poland, they were driven by a dedication to defy convention, avoiding repetition of expression through continual experimentation. Founding the independent publishing house Gaberbocchus Press in 1948, they published more than sixty titles, aimed to be ‘best lookers rather than best sellers’, including works by Raymond Queneau, Bertrand Russell and Kurt Schwitters. Throughout their careers and across all their art forms, they attentively unpacked issues of ethics, language, freedom, conformism, dignity and the human condition.

Books, Camera, Ubu focuses on three main areas of their creative output; their pioneering experimental film practice; the Gaberbocchus Press; and Franciszka’s stage design, puppets and a comic strip, all on the subject of Alfred Jarry’s anarchic 1890s play, Ubu Roi.

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