Event
Opening: Shonky. The Aesthetics of Awkwardness
22 Jun 2018
Artist John Walter curates the new Hayward Gallery Touring exhibition Shonky: The
Aesthetics of Awkwardness.
About
The exhibition explores the nature of visual awkwardness through the work of artists and architects Arakawa and Gins; Cosima von Bonin; Niki de Saint Phalle; Benedict Drew; Justin Favela; Duggie Fields; Louise Fishman; Friedensreich
Hundertwasser; Kate Lepper; Andrew Logan; Plastique Fantastique; Jacolby Satterwhite;
Tim Spooner and John Walter. The exhibition proposes a more celebratory definition of ‘shonkiness’ and showing how it can be used for critical purposes in the visual arts to explore issues including gender, identity, beauty and the body. By drawing together artists and architects whose work has not previously been exhibited together or discussed within the same context, Shonky will allow for new ways of thinking that privilege shonkiness over other aesthetic forms that have dominated recent visual culture.
Shonky is the fourth in Hayward Gallery Touring’s series of Curatorial Open exhibitions. For Shonky, Hayward Gallery Touring have worked in partnership with the MAC, Belfast, DCA, Dundee and Bury Art Museum and Sculpture Centre.