Details for the exciting new RWA exhibition ‘Strange Worlds: The Vision of Angela Carter’ are now available.
Details for this exhibition can be found on the RWA website and in the new Exhibition Programme, which covers events from December 2016 until June 2017. ‘Strange Worlds’ itself runs from 10 December 2016 until 19 March 2017 and includes film screenings and workshops, alongside the gallery. Take a look at the programme details below:
The exhibition is described by the RWA as follows:
Chagall, Rego and Pacheco evoke the haunting magic of Angela Carter in an explosive new exhibition, twenty five years after her death.
Bristol’s first art gallery, the RWA, celebrates the life, work and influences of Angela Carter – one of the most distinctive literary voices of the last 100 years.
Strange Worlds: The Vision of Angela Carter will invite a dialogue between art, literature and the imagination by exploring the artists who influenced Carter and those who were inspired by her.
Delving into the latent meanings of childhood fairytales and the twisted imagery of gothic mysticism, this exhibition pays homage to the dark and compelling drama of Carter’s visual imagination – brutal, surrealist and savage.
This unique exhibition, which will reveal the profound impact of Angela Carter’s work on 21st century culture, will include painting, sculpture, drawing, installation, printmaking and film from the nineteenth century to the present day.
Echoing Carter’s recurring themes of feminism, mysticism, sexuality and fantasy, the exhibition will include historically significant works by Marc Chagall, William Holman Hunt, Dame Paula Rego, Dame Laura Knight, Leonora Carrington and John Bellany, on loan from major national collections.
The exhibition also features works by major contemporary artists who were either directly influenced by Carter, or who explore themes found throughout her work. These include Ana Maria Pacheco – who will present her macabre and unsettling installation, The Banquet – Alice Maher, Eileen Cooper RA, Tessa Farmer, Nicola Bealing RWA, Marcelle Hanselaar and Lisa Wright RWA.
These works will be shown alongside illustrations from Carter’s books, manuscripts, photographs and personal artefacts that give a fascinating and intimate insight into her life and work.
Strange Worlds opens at a moment of renewed interest in and appreciation of Angela Carter, prompted by the success of Edmund Gordon’s biography, The Invention of Angela Carter.
The exhibition is curated by Dr Marie Mulvey-Roberts of UWE, and the artist and writer Fiona Robinson RWA.
This exhibition is part of Bristol 800 – a city-wide festival that celebrates significant Bristol anniversaries along with other commemorative and special events.
A fully illustrated catalogue will accompany this major exhibition. It includes reminiscences of those who knew and worked with Carter including close friends Christopher Frayling, Marina Warner, Christine Molan and her publisher, Carmen Callil – the founder of Virago Press. Other contributors include Jack Zipes, Victor Sage, David Punter and Kim Evans, director of the BAFTA award winning BBC documentary, Angela Carter’s Curious Room, filmed shortly before her untimely death.
Details concerning opening times, ticket prices, related events, and artworks featured in the exhibition are all available from either the website or the programme. For now, have a look at some of the exhibition pieces in the slideshow below:
The Royal West of England Academy (RWA) is located on Queens Road in Bristol and is the city’s first art gallery:
[It] presents local, national and international visual art by foremost artists from the present and past. By bringing contemporary and historic works together in new contexts, and through a programme of learning opportunities for all ages, the RWA aims to inspire and nurture creativity in everybody.
Angela Carter Online 