Artist Sonia Boyce, who represented Nice Britain on the Venice Biennale final yr, has obtained a damehood within the King’s UK New Years Honours listing for 2024 whereas Brian Clarke, has been awarded a knighthood, the primary stained glass artist to obtain such an accolade.
Boyce, who was born in London in 1962, got here to prominence within the early Eighties as a key determine within the burgeoning Black Arts Motion with pastel drawings and picture collages that addressed problems with race and gender. Because the Nineteen Nineties she has made multimedia, improvisational work, bringing individuals collectively in a social, performative apply that comes with movie, images, print, set up and sound.
Requested the way it felt to be the primary Black girl occupying the British pavilion on the Venice Biennale (Feeling Her Approach), she advised The Artwork Newspaper: “It’s surprising in 2022 to be the primary in that occasion. I shouldn’t be the primary and it shouldn’t look like a large step. It’s simply extraordinary that it’s taken this lengthy and there are a lot of artists who ought to have been thought-about alongside the best way.” The British Pavilion received the Golden Lion for greatest nationwide exhibition.
Brian Clarke’s present exhibition, A Nice Gentle is working at Newport Road Gallery, London (till 7 January 2024).The present, introduced by HENI, marked Clarke’s seventieth birthday this yr and presents works courting from 2002 to the current day.
Because the Nineteen Seventies, Oldham-born Clarke has subverted the notion of stained glass as a spiritual artwork by way of varied improvements, together with the fabrication of freestanding stained glass panels devoid of lead. His work could be discovered within the everlasting collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, Corning Museum of Glass, New York, and Tate.
Nicholas Cullinan, the director of the Nationwide Portrait Gallery in London, was made an OBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire); he oversaw the £41.3m three-year renovation of the NPG which has been broadly acclaimed.
Our preview of the revamped gallery earlier this yr highlighted how “Cullinan’s imaginative and prescient of an exquisite NPG has not concerned erecting a spanking new wing however stripping away numerous muddle to rediscover the splendour of the unique 1893 design by its first director, Sir George Scharf”.
Different OBE recipients embrace Elaine Bedell, the chief government of the Southbank Centre, Chris Blandford, the president of World Heritage UK; the philanthropist Mildred Palley who has supported establishments such because the NPG, and Nick Merriman, chief government of the Horniman Museum and Gardens which received the Artwork Fund’s Museum of the Yr Award 2022. In October Merriman was named chief government of English Heritage, the Nationwide Heritage Assortment of over 400 historic buildings, monuments and websites throughout England.
The style designer, furnishings maker and artist Samuel Ross, who had an exhibition at White Dice Bermondsey in London earlier this yr, obtained an MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire).
Brian Clarke
courtesy Brian Clarke studio
