A Painting of Two Halves: A collaborative Painting Event

About

Selected by curators from Arts Council England and The National Gallery, London, Artist Sarah Emily Porter is inviting members of the public to participate in her unique painting practice during an interactive exhibition in the heart of St. James’s, London as part of the City of Westminster Voids Activation & Pop-up Project.  

From 16-30 July, Porter will break traditional gallery conventions and actively encourage the public to interact with her work. Control will be handed over to participants who will be guided to pour, drip and manipulate paint using Porter’s bespoke painting mechanism to create one huge collaborative painting. 

Both performative and participatory, A Painting of Two Halves will question what it means to be an artist, the potential of collaboration, and the accessibility of the art gallery. 

Participation is free and no prior booking is required. All ages and abilities are welcome.

Alongside the collaborative painting project, new work and site-specific installations will be on display. 

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Sarah Emily Porter (b.1985) is a painter and sculptor living and working in London. Her painting practice extends the language of abstraction, creating innovative mechanisms to manipulate the core ingredients and structures associated with the traditions of painting. Orderly, mathematical systems form the framework of Porter’s work, but she thinks of painting as an event - one that is as much concerned with the process of its emergence as it is with the final outcome. Material, machine and artist each take their turn in leading or resisting the outcome and it is a sensitivity to this push and pull that drives the work.