Contemporary Art Gallery London

:: Love-in-a-Mist :: Artist Talk and Walkthrough

SATURDAY 2 MARCH at 12 noon // ALICE KEMP and YUICHIRO KIKUMA in conversation with DYANA GRAVINA

Yuichiro Kikuma / Photography by Alice Kemp ©

Dyana Gravina / Photography by Jennifer Moyes ©

Alice Kemp / Photography by IONE & MANN ©

IONE & MANN invites you to an informal artist talk and walkthrough of ***Love-in-a-Mist. The artists, Alice Kemp and Yuichiro Kikuma, who are also partners and parents, will be in conversation with Dyana Gravina, founder of Procreate Project, a pioneering arts organisation dedicated to (m)others and primary care givers, and Mother House Studios*, an artist studio model with integrated childcare.**

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SATURDAY 2 MARCH at12 noon [the talk will start at 12:30 pm]

The event is free and family friendly but places are limited, kindly RSVP to reserve your place.

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London-based artists Alice Kemp and Yuichiro Kikuma take inspiration from the natural world and its rhythms and patterns in unexpected and quite distinctive ways.
They are also a couple, partners and parents sharing a home and studio in South London.
Over the years they have participated in several group shows together but this is the first time their work is presented in dialogue, inviting viewers to discover the relationship present within the work.
Most of the pieces in Love-in-a-Mist were inspired by observing and interacting with nature in the area around Morden Hall Park where the artists live and work; in a sense, this exhibition attempts to recreate a part of their world, expressed uniquely through their deep connection with nature and the language of painting.

Alice and Yuichiro will be in conversation with Dyana Gravina to discuss their inspiration and process as well as the experience of working together for this exhibition and the realities of combining an art practice with parenthood.

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IONE & MANN

First Floor, 6 Conduit Street

London W1S 2XE

ABOUT:

Dyana Gravina (They/She) is an interdisciplinary artist, curator, birth Doula and activist, mover, and community builder.

She is the founder of Procreate Project, a pioneering arts organisation dedicated to (m)others and primary care givers and Mother House Studios, an artist studio model with integrated childcare.

Their artistic and curatorial practices focus on feminism, migration, and body politics manifesting in a transdisciplinary body of work that combines writing, movement, actions, photography and video.

They have collaborated and curated projects with partners and venues including RCA, King’s College London, LADA Live Art Development Agency, Ugly Duck, Mimosa House, Women's Art Library, RichMix, Richard Saltoun Gallery, 198 contemporary Art and Learning. Her performance actions and performative lectures have been shown and hosted in the UK and internationally including East Street Arts, Wellcome Collection, ]Performance Space[, Leyden Gallery, The Yard Theatre, Institute Centre of Photography ICP ( NYC), Art Basel / Richard Saltoun Gallery, Minusoffspace (Vienna), Unit London, Menoparkas Gallery (Kaunas), Gruentaler9 (Berlin).

Dyana is currently working towards an MA in 'Gender Sexuality and Culture' at Birkbeck University.

Alice Kemp (b. 1987, Brighton, UK) is a visual artist and educator living and working in London.

She finds inspiration in nature and the mundane, painting traditionally decorative subjects like plants, flowers, animals and landscapes yet choosing to accentuate both their beauty and inherent asymmetry, what she describes as natural “crookedness or bulginess”. Influenced by the Japanese approach to art where the distance between art, decoration and nature is shorter, she approaches her subjects with a conscious mix of expression and restraint, minimalism and visual overload. Recent solo exhibitions include In the Night Garden (September 2022). Love-in-a-Mist is her ninth exhibition with the gallery.

Alice is a graduate of University College Falmouth (BA First class Honours in Fine Art, 2010), Central Saint Martins (MA Fine Art, 2016) and University College London : The Institute of Education (PGCE Art and Design, 2019).

Yuichiro Kikuma (b. 1982, Chiba, Japan) is a visual artist living and working in London.

His work attempts to visualise the invisible forces, patterns or rhythms that exist around us in daily life, in the same way as any landscapes are created as a result of their specific climate. His paintings often incorporate non-painterly methods to create conditions for unexpected images to emerge. In recent years he has predominantly used ink and explored found items as mark making tools, enabling him to work indirectly, often in a mechanical and repetitive manner which leaves space for calculated chance. Driven by rhythm and pattern in both inspiration and process, his fluid, abstract style appears as a manifestation of energy favouring perceived spirit over direct imitation. Recent solo exhibitions include Fleeting Shadows at Martch Art Project in Istanbul (November 2023).

Yuichiro is a graduate of Wimbledon College of Arts (BA Fine Art, 2010) and Central Saint Martins (MA Fine Art, 2016).