Fio Adamson
10 Degrees Plus
Galina Hristova led a workshop for adults and children on portrait painting. Unfortunately I wa unable to be present but a number of my friends and neighbours came as families and appreciated it enormously.
The title, 10 Degrees Plus, reflected the ten of us studying for our MFA degree. The work ranged from Kai Wang’s bright Chinese/Western chess game to Giulia Silvester’s uncanny and atmospheric surrealism in painting and photography, a bit reminiscent of Dorothea Tanning. Kate Huang presented her deep blue angular abstraction and Chiara Pellegrini her enigmatic prints. Galina Hristova’s typically dramatic ‘human as animal’ painting alongside Yichao Cheng’s maternal tenderness dominated one wall.
In 2009 I started work in my local community. I tracked down the elusive landlord of an empty corner shop and gathered interested local artists. Much scrubbing, repairing, removing staples and drawing pins later, a community arts space appeared.
In January 2019, many shows, poetry readings and children’s art workshops later, I applied to the current organisers to put on an exhibition with 10 of the Wimbledon MFA group. So popular with local artists is it to have shows there nowadays, that our application took until February 2020 to come to fruition.
With Anna Maria Carta, who also lives locally, I curated a varied show of sculpture and painting. Some 40 or 50 neighbours, friends and relatives came to the PV, including some from China.
IShenna Yang’s child butterfly fantasy was hung next to Annie Rose’s dark and intriguing painting, which we were seeing for the first time. They made a mysterious contrast. I contributed my Tentacular Thinking octopus sprawled in the window and two of the Saint Bridget/ Rapunzel castles from the Crypt, while Anna Maria had maps, landscapes and breeze block sculptures. 'm a paragraph. Click here to add your own text and edit me. It's easy.
We hardly expected sales, and achieved none, but artists and audience alike were pleased with how the show looked and with their friends and relatives enjoyment of it. I gained further experience of organising a group show, working together with the group of artists, and with the current group of volunteers who run Sprout. I also gained more experience of curating a show, and in a different setting. In practice, since it was a small and informal exhibition it was possible to involve some of the other artists in a collaborative curating effort.
