[F]emale Artists are celebrated this summer in Kendal with exhibitions of work by Dame Elisabeth Frink, Dame Paula Rego, Rebecca Scott, Frances Winder and Kate Gilman-Brundrett as well as a talk by contemporary writer & musician Viv Albertine
Abbott Hall will be hosting the first large-scale show of work by Dame Elisabeth Frink in the North West for several years and the first dedicated major exhibition to Frink in Abbot Hall’s 55-year history.
Fragility and Power will show a selection of Frink’s work, made throughout her career, exploring her influences, methods and stories, all told using her own words.
It will include more than 50 works of sculpture, maquettes and works on paper and a number of works on loan from private collectors that have never been seen in public.
There will be a selection of sited larger sculptures including, Walking, Madonna, 1981 and Riace lll, 1986, in the Georgian entrance hall and ground floor galleries amongst period interiors and historic works.
Dame Paula Rego will be on show at the Cross Lane Projects – a new contemporary gallery and artist studio in a former Kendal Mint Cake factory.
Artists Rebecca Scott and Mark Woods have opened the gallery with a working studio in the town centre. The inaugural exhibition Female Trouble features 21 prints by Dame Paula Rego alongside 20 new paintings by Rebecca Scott.
Rebecca Scott, who studied at Goldsmiths and is from Bowness, co-curated the exhibition with Vanya Balogh and it features a selection of Rego’s lithographs and etchings from the collection of Paupers Press.
Scott’s work will feature alongside Rego’s. Scott was keen to show how both artists explore female subjectivity.
She said: “Rego’s work is known for revealing complex stories about the sinister side of sexuality, and her feminism underlies everything she does. My paintings re-examine public images of women, taking source images from glossy magazines and overwriting or ‘defacing’ these, they aim to expose the hypocrisies of our so-called sexual freedom.”
Cross Lane will also be hosting a talk by author and musician Viv Albertine about her new book To Throw Away Unopened. The memoir is a fearless dissection of one woman’s obsession with the truth – the truth about family, power and her identity as a rebel and outsider.
The Brewery Art Centre is also hosting exhibitions by two female Cumbrian based artists Frances Winder and Kate Gilman Brundrett.
Edge by Frances Winder will include some large abstract beach pieces. Her paintings feature the edge of shorelines, fields, rivers and lakes. Winder will also exhibit some of her work that is based on erosion and decay in woodland and rock structures.
Kate Gilman-Brundrett is a visual arts practitioner based in North Cumbria. She specialises in drawing, illustration, installation and project management. Her exhibition The Golden Gates features ten gate locks around the Lake District, which were ‘vandalized’ in gold leaf.
Richard Foster From Lakes Culture said: “We have some fantastic exhibitions by really diverse and talented female artists this summer in Kendal. You can easily spend a couple of days visiting these shows. They are not be missed.”
Abbot Hall
Fragility & Power runs from June 22 – September 29
https://www.abbothall.org.uk/elisabethfrink
Cross Lane Projects
Female Trouble runs from June 28- August 24
Viv Albertine will be in conversation on Friday August 24 from 6.30pm Tickets are available from www.crosslaneprojects.com
The Brewery Arts Centre
Edge runs from July 27 – September 29
The Golden Gates runs from July 12 – September 7
https://www.breweryarts.co.uk/event/golden-gates-kate-gilman-brundrett/
