Kelly Sweeney: Witches, Scamps and Things

About

​Hoxton 253 is thrilled to present Witches, Scamps and Things, a solo exhibition by London-based, multidisciplinary artist Kelly Sweeney.

“I have always been seduced by the otherworldly, and the idea that we can exist as something Other.” Kelly Sweeney

For Sweeney it is the realm of schizophrenic psychic harlequins, ethereal Medusa-like goddesses and orchid-clown hybrids. Attracted by anamorphic forms, ritualistic paraphernalia and folkloric phenomena, she remains drawn to belief systems that subscribe to the transcendental.

The supernatural entities that manifest through sculpture and paint though inanimate, emit a life-force that permeates through the acrylic, glaze and glitter. The recent creation of two short films featuring the artist, take us on a phantasmagorical trip where Sweeney becomes the painted, the sculpted, the fetish, the summoned, the conjured and the seer.
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Witches, Scamps and Things is an invitation to an undisclosed domain, temporarily inhabited by the artist’s increasingly personal pantheon of beings. An archetypal ecosystem is evolving; what once hummed with florescence is now dirtied and soiled. And they revel in it.

​A text by curator and writer Linda Rocco will accompany the exhibition. The gallery will be hosting a programme of events alongside the show. Discover the full programme here: hoxton253.com/kelly-sweeney or contact us for further details.

Kelly Sweeney is a multidisciplinary artist who gained a First class degree in Fine Art at Nottingham Trent University. After pursuing a career in art education, the artist critically re-visited her practice graduating from Chelsea School of Art with an MA in 2014. Sweeney has maintained a regular exhibition schedule that includes selected and invited group shows, awards and residencies. The artist has placed work amongst private collections in Europe, Asia, America, Canada and the UK.

Witches, Scamps and Things is Sweeney’s first solo exhibition since Transient at BSMT Space in 2016. The exhibition will showcase for the first time an Arts Council England supported body of work comprising film, ceramic sculpture and painting. The artist will be presenting a debut performance in response to the show as part of the wider exhibition programme.

Sweeney’s trilogy of films that feature the artist, premiered earlier this year to a sold-out screening at The Horse Hospital, London. Following her solo exhibition at the gallery, the artist will embark upon a residency with Inventory Platform where she will be creating a site-specific installation piece whilst exploring performative aspects of her practice. Sweeney lives and works in the city with a studio in East London.
Group shows include; LGM-1 at The Function Suite, London, Micro and Make/Shift at Air Gallery, Manchester, Re-purpose/Reverse, Does the Body Rule the Mind?, The Human Stain at Studio 1.1, London, Strangelands at Collyer Bristow, London, Creekside at A.P.T. Gallery, London, Painted Surfaces, Surface Gallery, Nottingham, Zeitgeist, London, Hix 2015 finalist (awarded second prize0, Cock and Bull Gallery, London. Film screenings include; Fright Flicks, The Horse Hospital and Moving Image Salon, London.Solo exhibitions include; Transient at BSMT Space, London, Hop Gallery, Lewes and Gallery 40, Brighton.

Linda Rocco is a London-based contemporary art curator and PhD researcher at the Royal College of Art. She has curated public events and exhibitions internationally with established small-scale institutions as Delfina Foundation, to warehouse spaces such as Yinka Shonibare’s Studio Guest Projects including the curation of the public sphere for Nine Elms on the South Bank. Linda is the co-founder and director of ‘I’m Here, Where Are You?’ a festival and engagement programme co-produced with Cambridge Junction.
She also co-directs the not-for-profit organisation _inventory platform, which operates globally to engage communities in the urban and rural context through socially engaged art projects. Rocco regularly works as curator for artists and private galleries, as well as consulting for charities, foundations and public institutions on accessible, inclusive and socially engaged arts; collaboration with STEM subjects as well as participatory and intermedia practices.
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​The exhibition and associated programme is supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England.​