NEWS

AFFORDABLE ART FAIR - BATTERSEA 2024

You’ll be able to find some of my Wood Sculptures at this year’s Affordable Art Fair in Battersea, London from 16-20th October. I’m exhibiting with Hayloft Gallery, owned and run by artist Lindsey Hambledon, on stand H1. Head to the website for tickets.

Visit the fair:
Thursday 17 October, 11am – 9pm
Friday 18 October, 11am – 9pm
Saturday 19 October, 10am – 6pm
Sunday 20 October, 10am – 6pm

Evolution London, Battersea Park, Queenstown Road, London SW11 4NJ, UK

E17 ART TRAIL 2024

Join me in Walthamstow, East London, from the 1st - 16th June for the 20th anniversary edition of the wonderful E17 ArtTrail.

The E17 Art Trail is an artist-led, community-powered arts festival that gives the opportunity for artists and makers of all ages and abilities to exhibit and promote their work, connect with other creatives and be part of their local neighbourhood.

This year there are a whopping 150 locations, 4800 exhibitors, 250 events and exhibitions to enjoy across the 2 weeks - and you’ll be able to see my work in 2 of those exhibitions: Switchboard Studios’s ‘Hidden Treasures’ and ‘States of Clay’ at Gnome House.

Download the Bloomberg Connects app to your phone to get all the info, maps and trail guide for the trail.

Switchboard Studios - Hidden Treasures
An exhibition of vastly varied works from some of the studio’s residents featuring: sculpture, animation, film, photography, embroidery, fine and digital art.

I’ll be exhibiting my ‘Living Sculpture’ project - including the time lapse collaboration with Rua Acorn, photographs from this series, dried out mycelium sculptures and a live fruiting sculpture - fingers crossed!!! I’ll also have a small selection of paper mâché animal heads and some of my old giclée prints ranges at bargain prices!!!
Join us on the evening of the 6th for our Private View.

Find us at:

Switchboard Studios, Unit 50, Uplands B, Blackhorse Lane, London. E17 5QJ (venue 2 on the trail map).

Sat 1st & Sun 2nd June - 10-4pm
Tues 4th - Sun 9th June - 10-4pm
Thurs 6th June - 10am-10pm

Gnome House - ‘States of Clay’

A group exhibition which gives a unique insight into the diverse ways artists use clay to direct their creativity which will showcase the work of Yanire Delgado, Amanda Doidge, Linda Green, Raewyn Harrison, Esther Nelson, Kirsten Schmidt and myself, alongside a participatory project by Toshiko Iizuka.
At this exhibition you’ll be able to see my very latest ceramics collection of Animal Ritual Vessels, Wood Spirits and a couple of my large sculptures.

Find this exhibition at:

Gnome house, 7 Blackhorse Lane, London, E17 6DS (venue 11 on the trail map).

Running from 1-16th June
Sat & Sun 11-5pm, Thurs & Fri 11-6pm
Private View Thurs 6th 6-9pm

ROYAL ACADEMY - SUMMER EXHBITION 2023

I’m THRILLED to announce this collection of ‘Wood Spirits’ has been accepted into this year’s Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy!!!

‘Held every year since 1769, the Summer Exhibition displays works in a variety of mediums and genres by emerging and established artists. The Summer Exhibition is the world’s oldest open submission exhibition – which means that anyone can enter their work to be considered for inclusion. It’s happened every year since 1769, and each year a Royal Academician, such as Yinka Shonibare RA, Grayson Perry RA and Jock McFadyen RA, coordinates the exhibition.

The works in the Summer Exhibition are selected and hung by Royal Academicians, who also exhibit works in the exhibition, creating an eclectic mix of work by established artists alongside emerging talent and first-time exhibitors. In previous years, nearly two thirds of the exhibits were by non-Academicians, £50,000 worth of prizes was awarded, and over 5,000 works were sold.

Everything you’ll see at the Summer Exhibition represents what is happening in the art world right now. It features new and recent art created by everyone, from emerging artists to the biggest names in contemporary art and architecture. Now more than 250-years-old, the Summer Exhibition continues in the tradition of showcasing a variety of work in all media, including painting, sculpture, photography, printmaking, architecture and film. This must-see exhibition is a unique window onto all areas of the contemporary art world.’

The exhibition runs from 13th June - 20th August, get tickets and info here.

PROP MAKING - ‘CATHERINE CALLED BIRDY’

Delighted to have made my first film prop - an articulated hand-carved wooden bear doll that you can now see in Lena Dunham’s latest film ‘Catherine Called Birdy’. The film is an adaptation of the children’s book written by Karen Cushman, a historical novel set in 13th century England and written in diary format, ‘A funny coming-of-age novel about a fourteen-year-old girl's fight for freedom and right to self-determination in medieval England’.

Watch the wonderful film on Amazon Prime. My bear doll gets it’s own little scene after it is gifted to Birdy by her favourite uncle George when he returns home from the crusades.

To discuss similar commissions send me an email.

Solo Exhibition - Walthamstow Wetlands

I'm delighted to share news of my solo exhibition 'Silent Spring' which opens next week at Walthamstow Wetlands - a huge, internationally important nature reserve which provides home and shelter to a wide range of wildlife, from rare waterfowl to majestic birds of prey, just a stones throw from my studio in east London.

The exhibition runs from Thursday 4th August until 17th September, and is open daily from 9.30am - 5pm (last entry 4pm).

Engine House Gallery
Walthamstow Wetlands
2 Forest Rd, London N17 9NH

The invitation to exhibit in the Wetlands’ listed, Victorian-era engine room gallery took my work in a whole new direction, exploring entirely new ways to create pieces that could be more easily displayed in this beautiful space.

 My focus turned to the resident wildlife of the wetlands and the surrounding marshes, concerned with the increasing building development along the River Lea and Lea Navigation Canal. Thoughts of disappearing wildlife and habitats from human interference are the central themes to this new body of work, realised in sculpture, collage and printmaking processes, working as much as possible with recycled materials.

Whilst busily creating the work I stumbled upon Rachel Carson’s 1962 book Silent Spring which documented the environmental harm caused by pesticides. The book opens with a fable, setting the scene of a beautiful, harmonious rural landscape, where the air is filled with birdsong and the rivers and streams team with fish. The people and animals are all healthy and the soil is rich and fruitful.
But suddenly the people begin to get sick, the animals die, the soil bears no harvest and the air is still, stripped of the sounds of birds and the hum of insects.

 This is the future Carson predicted with the continued use of chemicals in agriculture to protect plants from insects and disease and it’s a devastating one. The scientific proof existed even then, back in 1962, and still here we are, experiencing ever more harm to our natural world through their use.

 
The title ‘Silent Spring’ perfectly echoes the ideas I’m exploring in my own work, although my focus extends beyond pesticides to encompass all the varied ways humankind destroys the beauty of our planet. The pieces I’ve created are celebratory of the plants and animals they capture, but they are silently warning of a possible future where they no longer exist, one we must never see.

I’m delighted to have been invited to share this work with you in this very special place. I really hope you can come and visit!

If you can’t make the exhibition in person but would like to enquire about purchasing any of the featured artworks, please email me for info.

East of Eden - Artist in Residence

In February of this year I joined Walthamstow’s yoga & pilates studio East of Eden for their yoga retreat in Hiriketiya, Sri Lanka. We met the sweetest, kindest people, luxuriated in the warm sun, lush greens, the beach breeze and were guided through carefully thought out yoga classes by our wonderful teacher Eryck Brahmania.

It was my second visit to this beautiful country that bursts with colour, vibrancy and magnificent wildlife, offering endless inspiration for an animal-loving artist like me and it holds a very treasured place in my heart.

Our days were called in by peacocks, our yoga classes curiously observed by visiting toque macaques, Malabar pied hornbills, bee-eaters, kingfishers and a myriad other birdlife swooped overhead, Indian Palm Squirrels raced through the treetops and lay in wait by the dinner table to feast on our delicious, lovingly prepared meals when we weren’t watching… and who could blame them?! The food was INCREDIBLE!!!

During our trip I found myself thinking a lot about the threats these animals face to their existence through human interference as we watched sections of jungle around us being cleared for building works, more and more of their natural habitats encroached upon and the noticeable affects it has already had on the local wildlife populations.

This new body of work has been created in direct response to those feelings, to celebrate the wonders of Sri Lanka’s flora and fauna, whilst quietly reflecting upon concerns for their future.

It comprises of 6 limited edition blind-embossed prints of native wildlife species: Sri Lankan Leopard, Elephant, Painted Stork, Peacock, Tufted Grey Langur, Bee-eater, carved in lino and hand-printed on Fabriano cotton paper. This process is so beautifully gentle and subtle and seemed to perfectly echo these thoughts about disappearing wildlife.
Each design is a limited edition of 50, each print signed and numbered, measuring approx 24cm x 16cm, and priced at £40 (+ shipping).

They are joined by a group of 8 mixed-media collages, built from hand-cut cardboard elements of plant life, manipulated and layered to create sculptural relief environments that house Sri Lanka’s native wildlife: a Sri Lankan Elephant, Leopard, Peacock, Bee-eaters, Toque Macaques, Indian Palm Squirrel and Chital Deer. The collages are painted in a single joyful colour that requires the viewer to look a little harder, offering a chance to contemplate how important the existence of these wondrous animals on our shared planet is.
The pieces are mounted on board, signed and dated and vary in sizes: approx 30cm x 40cm, 40cm x 50cm, and 50cm x 70cm.

I have the honour to have been offered the opportunity by East of Eden’s awesome owner Abby, to be the studio’s first ever Artist in Residence and my residency has offically begun with the installation of these new works: ‘Sri Lanka - Finding Eden’, in the studio’s perfectly decorated cafe space situated in Hatherley Mews, London, E17 4QP (a stones throw from Walthamstow tube station).

So pop on over for a class or a coffee and a tasty pastry and soak up the Sri Lankan jungle vibes!!

All these pieces are now available to purchase and can be bought through me directly online. To enquire about available works, prices and shipping costs please email me:
abigail@abigail-brown.co.uk.

These pieces come unframed but for UK sales, professional framing can be arranged additionally.

Since our magical trip to Sri Lanka the country has suffered an economic collapse, directly affecting the friends we made at Salt House Hiriketiya which hosted the retreat.  

10% of the sale of these artworks will go directly to supporting the Salt House staff.

LIVING SCULPTURES - COLLABORATING WITh fungi

I’m finally ready to reveal the fascinating journey I’ve been on over the past few months… collaborating with fungi to explore what would emerge if mycelium was allowed to colonise my sculptures.

I’m only at the very start of exploring the possibilities but excited to share the very different results born from 3 initial experiments.

I’d been thinking about personal experiences of grief, depression, of growing up in a society where communicating your internal emotional struggles was positively discouraged and all the subsequent additional suffering that creates, the loneliness and isolation… of ultimately how vital community, communication and the sharing of experiences is for keeping our minds and bodies healthy.

 
Watching Louie Schwartzberg’s mesmerising ‘Fantastic Fungi’ documentary last year piqued my interest to understand more about the seemingly limitless potential of our fungal friends. I promptly devoured Merlin Sheldrake’s wondrous book ‘Entangled Life’ and it was the descriptions of his plans to allow Pleurotus mycelium to feast on a copy of his book that sparked the idea that I might be able to fruit mushrooms from my cardboard sculptures. 

 
The thought of mycelium blanketing my animal head sculptures in white and the possibility of mushrooms emerging tied in so many threads of thought: metaphors of wrapping someone in cotton-wool to protect them, of networks, the importance of connection, of communities working together to prosper, of psilocybin’s powers to dissolve the self, to forge new neural pathways, to heal minds and souls.

As repurposing materials is central to my work, I loved the idea that the old materials (cardboard) would be the food for new life (fungi) to grow.

The sculptures could explore the dualities of life and death, beauty and decay, connection and disconnect in a very real way.

 
Armed with ideas I reached out to a local mushroom farm, Fat Fox Mushrooms, who were kind enough to share their knowledge and arm me with spores to begin my fungal journey. It’s taken me months to achieve results and required great patience I’ve not had to muster in my practice before, but the process is truly magical and I can’t wait to see where it leads me next!

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If you’ve enjoyed the eerie beauty of these pieces or know a mycoenthusiast who might, I’ve selected 2 photos from these first experiments to release as Limited-Edition giclée art prints. Each is a limited edition of 100, numbered and signed by me.

If you’ve not had the delight of watching mushrooms grow before I urge you to head to Fat Fox Mushrooms and treat yourself to a mushroom growing kit!

Story tellers - Puppets by artists

Delighted to have 2 works featuring in this exciting exhibition at Cavin Morris Gallery in NYC which opens 22nd January - 26th March 2022.

The first, a Gibbon, is a wooden marionette, hand-carved from wood found in the ancient woods of Epping Forest. The second is a glove/hand puppet, the Goat Mystic. His head is sculpted in hard-drying paper clay with hand-carved wooden horns, hooves and inlaid eye detail. His tunic is sewn from vintage cloth, with additional appliqué shape detail and an infinity symbol which loops round his neck and down his front. His scarf is made from vintage Indian silk sari and the sacred amulets that adorn his robe are segments of ancient artefacts retrieved from the ground with a metal detector, bound to the fabric with stitch.

STORY TELLERS: Puppets by Artists was inspired by photographs of a collection of wonderful hand puppets made by Paul Klee for his family. Puppets take us back to a passionate period in our childhood when they were everything: the mediators between worlds, the tellers of stories that did not have to be logical or linear, the incarnations of tribal and cultural myths from the global human unconscious.  As children, we were obsessed with the performance of Davey Jones Locker with the incredibly beautiful Bill Baird puppets when it premiered at Town Hall in New York, Baird created an entire underwater alternate universe. Those puppets were as magical and mysterious to us as the dioramas at the Museum of Natural History.  They were literally ‘Hands On’.

Our idea for this exhibition was specific.  We wanted to show non-whimsical puppets for adults.  We wanted puppets with gristle; not Lambchop from Shari Lewis’ time on TV.  We wanted something between the non-puppet poppets of witchcraft and the poupées of Michel Nedjar.  We wanted a touch of global Dada.  As Klee had achieved with his puppets, we wanted puppets borne by natural unfettered inspiration, the creators exercising the freedom of their varied intentionalities.

Now we are ready to show the first results of our efforts in the exhibition STORY TELLERS: Puppets by Artists, the first of a continuing program that will explore the many artists who play in this alternative yet basically human theater of magic, drama, and sophisticated beauty.  Puppets range from the ephemeral and ethereal to the brutish manifestations of sacred monsters.

The participating artists in this showing are Abigail Brown, Larry Calkins, Maria Denjongpa, Jan Harrison, Juliet Lockhart, Jason Matherly, Kosmo Nauty, Brian Paccione, Elizabeth Rogers, Thomas Tait, Jean-François Veillard and Gregory Van Maanen.

ARTWORKS OPEN 2021

You can find one of my ‘Unnatural History Series’ ink paintings in the Artworks Open 2021 group exhibition at Blackhorse Lane Studios 4th - 12th December 2021.
This series features paintings of ‘bad taxidermy’ created during the covid-19 lockdown in 2020.