In conversation: Saturday 17 October, 1.30 – 4pm
A free public discussion with the artists, chaired by artist and writer John Bunker. Everyone welcome.

An exhibition of abstract sculpture and painting curated by Talking Sculpture Making (TSM), bringing together three sculptors who have each been working and exhibiting nationally and internationally since the 1980s, and a painter whose work opens a conversation between the two disciplines.

Talking Sculpture Making is an exhibiting and discussion forum formed by abstract sculptors Gillian Brent (Sheffield), Alexandra Harley (London/Norfolk) and Sheila Vollmer (London). Each artist’s work is distinct in its use of abstract construction, yet there is a definite sense of a common visual language and collective experience, emerging from a female perspective.

“Since 2019, these sculptors have forged valuable exhibition opportunities and facilitated inclusive conversations around abstraction, materiality and methods of making. Their proactive endeavours contribute to the work of a growing community of artists, curators and writers invested in supporting women’s practices. For these women, abstraction does not involve the tight fixing of meaning through formal geometries, but instead involves the unravelling of a communal and allusive zone where issues of empathy and solidarity can percolate.”
— Natalie Rudd, curator and writer

For this exhibition, TSM has invited London and Margate-based artist Melanie Ahmed to show with them. Melanie’s paintings and deconstructed painted objects offer a bridge between the more familiar genre of abstract painting and the composition of form, materiality, colour and surface in the works by the TSM sculptors.

Throughout their careers, the TSM sculptors have chosen not to make work about women’s issues and domesticity, preferring instead to focus on material, process, space and visual connections. With Rebalancing the Abstract, TSM want to interrogate and open up conversations about how the visual languages of this discipline refer indirectly to the complex world we live in, and how much this can be understood as gendered — fuelling discussions that explore and dissect the content and nuance of the artists’ respective practices and how they engage with ideas.

Each time TSM exhibits, they host a free public discussion about their practice, ideologies and experiences of working as women abstract artists, aiming to provide an inclusive environment for audiences to engage and respond on their own terms. The discussion for Rebalancing the Abstract takes place in the exhibition on Saturday 17 October, chaired by artist and writer John Bunker, offering an exchange of ideas around the languages of abstract art and the evolving nature of women’s art practices.

Rebalancing the Abstract is a partnership between Talking Sculpture Making and Mast.

Artists

Gillian Brent
Alexandra Harley
Sheila Vollmer
Melanie Ahmed