Rose ENGLISH: Form, Feminisms, Femininities

About

'Form, Feminisms, Femininities' is Rose ENGLISH's first solo exhibition with Richard Saltoun Gallery. The exhibition shines light on two moments from the early stages of the artist's career, beginning with her experimentation with emergent processes and materials as a young artist in the early 1970s and culminating with a focus on her 1983 performance Plato's Chair, a work that marked an important turning point in English's extensive interdisciplinary practice. The exhibition will present for the first time several early works in photography, ceramics, collage and performance to camera, providing a unique opportunity to more fully engage with different aspects of the artist’s work.

Rose English (b. 1950, Hereford, UK) emerged from the conceptual art, dance and feminist scenes of the 1970s to become one of the most influential performance artists in Britain. She has been writing, directing and performing her work internationally for over 40 years in venues as varied as old music-hall palaces, ice rinks, Tate Britain, Queen Elizabeth Hall, the Adelaide Festival and Lincoln Center in New York, with recent solo shows held at Camden Arts Centre, London in 2015 and Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen (2014). English's work was included in the group presentation 'DRAG: Self-portraits and Body Politics' at Hayward Gallery, London in 2018 and her seminal work Quadrille (1975) will also feature as part of Tate Britain's new all-female display, Sixty Years, from 22 April 2019.

The exhibition will also see the launch of 100% Women, a 12-month programme dedicated to supporting the work of female artists. The programme aims to remedy the gender inequality that persists in the art world and encourage wider industry action through debate, dialogue and collaboration. 100% Women will pursue its mission through a combination of gallery exhibitions, art fair presentations, artist talks, a film and lecture series, external collaborations and digital exhibitions hosted on the gallery's new online platform, launching spring 2019.