Foleshill Creates makes their curatorial debut

Foleshill Creates

Coventry community group selects work for new exhibition. See 'Dimensions of You' at Warwick Arts Centre until 31 December 2023.

Coventry community group Foleshill Creates have curated a new exhibition for Warwick Arts Centre. Entitled Dimensions Of You, the exhibition features artworks from the University Of Warwick Art Collection. The works have been selected in response to The Reason For Painting - a major abstract painting survey currently on show in Warwick Art Centre's Mead Gallery (until 25 June 2023).

Eleven members of Foleshill Creates selected nine abstract paintings for Dimensions Of You. These include Simply Carry This Map To Travel Through Time by Fiona Rae, who was part of a generation of young British artists who emerged during the late-80s; Tess Jaray's 1964 Salisbury Green, which features a single bold shape; and Albert’s Irvin’s Arrival, with the artist’s characteristic energetic brushmarks.

Also displayed are the bold colourful stripes of New York minimalist Gene Davis and Desert Night Sky II by British Muslim artist, Zarah Hussain who gave a talk about her intricate geometric work with Foleshill Creates earlier this month at the Mead Gallery.

Meanwhile, demonstrating that the University's collection continues to grow, a recently acquired work by Berlin-born painter Stefanie Heinze - donated by an American art collector this year, is also on display, as are recently donated paintings by Albert Irvin, Jean Spencer and Gene Davis.

The various paintings can be found on walls around the Arts Centre, from adjacent to the Box Office and alongside the Mead Gallery, to opposite Benugo cafe and by the Theatre.

Desert Night Sky II by Zarah Hussain.

Foleshill Creates was started by local community members to bring people together through art and creativity. The group, who meet once a week in Foleshill, Coventry, were invited to curate the exhibition as part of an ongoing relationship with Warwick Arts Centre, and made their selection based on the ideas and feelings they triggered.

Discussing the project, Daksha Piparia, from the group, said: "It is something really powerful, not only to peer into the world that we haven't seen, but to be welcomed to participate and engage in a creative world that we do not normally have access to.

"We would like visitors to pause, look and think about these paintings. We hope that just as we found elements in the paintings that speak to us, so you will find a dimension of yourself in them too."

Sarah Shalgosky, Principal Curator, University of Warwick, said: "The group selected the spaces where the paintings would hang and thought carefully about the sort of environment each work needed - from quiet and intimate to prominent and impactful.

"I think it's a brilliant group of paintings - there's a sense of delight in all the works, and in an artform dominated by male painters, I think it's interesting that over half the works selected turned out to be by women artists."

Dimensions Of You can be seen at Warwick Arts Centre, Coventry, until 31 December 2023. Open daily, admission free. For more details, see: www.warwickartscentre.co.uk