The Visitors Show

About

The exhibition title speaks of outsiders, those who have journeyed from far or near to come into a space that isn’t their own. It is unclear whether these visitors are welcome or something far more unsettling. The title conjures film and TV associations that include horrific, extra-terrestrial, even paranormal visitations. Equally it shares its name with the last album by a certain palindromic Swedish pop group – until that is, 2021 brought the unexpected return of ABBA.

Visitors bring joy and energy to our homes and dining tables. Some visitors know when to leave, and some habitually overstay. Visits from an interfering relative, a pair of cultish religious door- knockers or a mob of officers of the law are to be endured and hastily curtailed, while the visit of a migrating kettle of swallows or drift of swifts carry only delight that one hopes becomes frequent.

The artists in this exhibition at the newly re-opened Morley Gallery are visitors on the Morley Fine Art Mentoring Course. It is unimportant which artist visits carried which of the above associations for which mentees. The value of a healthy visitors’ book is that conversations are unexpected, idiosyncratic and (ideally) challenging. Mentoring is not a one-way imposition of knowledge and experience. Mentoring is a live and active two-way discussion about how artists (mentees and mentors) think, make and evaluate art works.

This exhibition further extends the role and engagement of the mentors to include a third party. Gallery visitors are welcomed in to engage with, consider and critically evaluate the paintings, sculpture, video, drawings, installations that represent the polyglot voices and disparate studio practices of the artist-mentors.

You are invited to visit the gallery to experience the dialogues, exchanges and spin-offs that occur when these nine artists’ works are gathered together.