Need a bit of cultural stimulation while remaining firmly outdoors? Yep, us too. So this annual summer fixture at Camden People’s Theatre suddenly feels rather timely post-lockdown.
Glass Cloud Gallery has been running since 2013, a London-based project with a well-deserved rep for producing innovative exhibitions.
Supported by the Arts Council England and Camden Council, it commissions new work from artists with site-responsive exhibitions in windows for passers-by to see, in turn providing them with a platform for exposure to large audiences.
It’s also worth adding that it enriches the local area visually, with a gently thought-provoking reboot for locals’ daily routine.
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Founder Hannah Luxton is again year working with the theatre – which recently celebrated its 25th anniversary – to host two new public exhibitions in its sizeable Victorian former pub windows.
The two solo shows will run back to back, starting 9th July, featuring artists Howard Dyke and then Alice McCabe.
Both exhibitions will have a socially distanced reception and networking event where the artist will be present for people to meet them, as well as view the works.
First up, Howard Dyke’s exhibition, entitled Siren, mixes paint with collage and photographic imagery, raiding styles taken from 1990s process painting, 1980s appropriation, and 1950s abstraction. He uses imagery foraged from newspapers and the internet, the end result not merely illustration but a “multilayered interpretation”.
And his images are not “pretty abstractions in a shop window,” he says, “but reflections of the current mood of unease, violence and unrest. I’ve used some of the visual vernacular of painting but these are physical collages, imagery spliced together to form shifting narratives. It’s my attempt to make sense of the world.”
So far Glass Cloud has exhibited over 40 artists to date in 25 exhibitions across four venues, including the Camden People’s Theatre, Dalston’s Tin Cafe, and the Walthamstow Village Window Gallery, working with everyone from new graduates to mid-career artists including Mike Ballard, Olivia Bax, Gary Colclough, Lothar Gotz and Alice Wilson.
One thing’s for sure: fluffy it ain’t.
Sirens by Howard Dyke launches on 9th July and runs until 16th August at Camden People’s Theatre, Hampstead Road NW1. The artist reception takes place 31st July, 6-8pm (all welcome). Visit the live online fundraiser with over 100 works by 54 of London and beyond’s most exciting artists all for sale at £50 to raise money for its future exhibition programme here. Follow @_glasscloud
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