4 – 19 May 2013

Preview: Saturday 4 May, 6 – 9pm

Aliki Braine  |  Emma Papworth  |  Zsuzsanna Nyul  |  Robert Rapoport  |  Mary Robinson

In collaboration with Artweeks, emerging curators were invited to respond to OVADA’s new warehouse space with an exhibition by Oxfordshire artists.

The warehouse is a blank canvas in terms of the opportunity and possibility it contains, and yet also a palimpsest, its textured walls asserting a myriad of presences. The space is a paradoxical one. To us its dereliction offers up the promise of creativity. Vein-like cracks, scabbing paint, raw brickwork – these corporeal elements, the lifeblood of the space, present a fertile source of inspiration to both us as curators and to the artists we have invited to the project. The sense of patchwork history that the building evokes have encouraged responses in a variety of media, which seek to imagine its lost narratives and uncover a beauty in the dereliction. As students of History of Art we are accustomed to the ‘gallery space’, the ‘white cube’ where the environment is neutralised and devoid of character; subservient to the artwork. It is rare to find exhibition space that has not been sterilised and this exciting opportunity is one aspect that has really captured our imaginations. 

Curated by: Hannah Clark, Emma McKinlay and Rosemary Turner. Follow their progress on the OVADA/Artweeks Curator’s Blog

VENUE: OVADA warehouse

OPEN: Saturdays – Sundays (12-5pm), Thursday evenings (5-8pm) and Bank Holiday Monday (12-5pm).

FREE ADMISSION

With special thanks to: Oxfordshire Artweeks