The Box, Plymouth’s award-winning museum has unveiled details of its exhibitions programme for the year ahead.
Over the course of the year, the venue will celebrate local talent alongside international artists – including several Turner Prize nominees – through ground breaking exhibitions that draw on its permanent collections and which bring new works and collaborators to Plymouth.
Highlights for 2022 include:
Another Crossing – Artists Revisit the Mayflower Voyage
Ten international artists from the UK, USA, Wampanoag and Netherlands respond to the ongoing resonance of the Mayflower voyage. The exhibition is a partnership between The Box, Plymouth College of Art and the Fuller Craft Museum, USA.
All the artists involved have created work in response to the 400th anniversary, utilising only technology – tools, materials, and processes – that existed in 1620. The exhibition highlights the sophistication of historic craft practices, like beadwork, joinery, metalsmithing, leatherwork, and pottery. The exhibition opens on Feb rural 26 and continues until June 5.
Breaking the Mould: Sculpture by Women from 1945
Breaking the Mould is the first survey of post-war British sculpture by women. The exhibition explores the work of over 40 sculptors in the Arts Council Collection. It provides a radical recalibration, addressing the many accounts of British sculpture that have marginalised women or airbrushed their work from art history altogether.
Many of the represented artists have challenged widespread notions of sculpture as a ‘male occupation’ by embracing new materials, subjects and approaches. In contrast, others have avoided institutional bias by producing work for alternative spaces or public sites.
Featured artists include: Barbara Hepworth, Elisabeth Frink, Kim Lim, Cornelia Parker, Veronica Ryan, Rachel Whiteread and Anthea Hamilton. The Plymouth presentation is delivered by The Box and The Arts Institute, University of Plymouth partnership and will be displayed as a dual-site exhibition at The Box and The Levinsky Gallery at the University of Plymouth. The exhibition runs from March 26 to June 5.
open in March
Dress Code – Fashion Stories from The Box
In the city’s first exhibition dedicated to fashion, highlights from The Box’s costume and textile collection will be displayed alongside paintings, drawings, film and archival material to tell important local and international stories about fashion and clothing.
The exhibition spans the 1700s to today and speaks to contemporary conversations about identity, sustainability, shopping, design, making and craft. A paper dress from the 1960s foretells the future of fast fashion.
A 300-year-old silk gown tells the story of global textile trade. A subversive garment made locally, and worn all around the world, represents one of several of the city’s histories of garment production. From lace to latex, visitors will learn about Plymouth’s fashion pasts and futures. Exhibition opens on March 26 and continues until September 4.
Zadie Xa
Korean-Canadian artist Zadie Xa has a strong focus on making, combining and exploring her own identity through film and performance, textiles and painting.
The Box acquired two works by Xa in 2018, through the Contemporary Art Society. For this exhibition, she will create a mythological and cosmological journey that creates dialogue with historical works from the collections. The exhibition runs from April 2 to June 5.
Because the Night Belongs to Us
From the Van Dike Club of the late 1960s to the world famous Union Street – Plymouth’s contribution to experimentation, self-expression, music and creativity has been distinctive, challenging and captivating. Because the Night Belongs To Us is the culmination of a five-year community engagement project called Plymouth After Dark, which has brought together a diverse range of previously unseen archive materials, film, images and new commissions to tell this story for the first time.
The Box has developed the exhibition with numerous contributions from the people of Plymouth. It has been supported by artist Keith Harrison (recent commissions include Jerwood Open, V&A Ceramics Resident, Outlands Network], award winning journalist, writer and critic John Harris and DJ, psychotherapist and broadcaster Nemone. The exhibition runs from June 18 to September 4.
British Art Show 9
The British Art Show is a landmark touring exhibition that celebrates the vitality of recent art made in Britain. British Art Show 9 takes a critical look at art produced from 2015 to the present moment, a period that begins with Britain voting to leave the European Union and closes with the still unfolding Covid-19 pandemic.
The exhibition was shaped after meeting with over 230 artists in 23 cities and will present work by 45 artists, including Turner Prize nominees Oscar Murillo and Hurvin Anderson.
In Plymouth, the exhibition centres on the migration of bodies, peoples, plants, objects, ideas and forms.
It includes Cornwall-based Abigail Reynolds and Katie Schwab, who had a SouthWest Showcase residency and exhibition at Plymouth College of Art in 2019.
Since Plymouth hosted BAS7 ten years ago, the city has grown in maturity, confidence and reputation as a cultural destination and centre for contemporary art. Plymouth will be taking a very innovative approach to developing audiences, involving them in the planning process as they aim to dispel the myths around contemporary art.
The exhibition will be delivered in partnership with Plymouth Culture and shown across four venues: The Box, KARST, The Levinsky Gallery at the University of Plymouth and MIRROR at Plymouth College of Art.
The show will run from October 8 to December 23.
For details of all the exhibitions and collections visit www.theboxplymouth.com
