WETPAIN

About

Turf Projects is pleased to announce the group exhibition WETPAIN. The show brings together local and international artists who explore the physical, historical, and political dimensions of paper. It features works by Ana Raylander Mártis dos Anjos (Brazil), Wisrah C. V. da R. Celestino (Brazil/Germany), Debora-Joyce Holman (Switzerland/UK), Samuel Alves de Jesus (Brazil), Samara Paiva (Brazil), and Henrique J. Paris (Angola/UK) – many of whom are exhibiting in the UK for the first time. 

Paper carries a layered legacy. It is a bureaucratic record-keeping tool and a site for personal notation, storytelling, and subversion. In WETPAIN, the artists work with these different connotations and use the material to tackle lived experiences and express their creative aims. While questions of race, migration, colonisation, and power inform much of the research behind the works, abstraction emerges as a shared interest.

The exhibition’s title plays on “wet paint,” a common phrase that marks a state of transition. It demands a wait for something not yet set, still in motion, in reference both to the material process involving the artwork and the intellectual topics they address.

Organised by Wisrah C. V. da R. Celestino in collaboration with Turf Projects, the exhibition resonates with the institution’s mission and context. It situates itself within Croydon’s creative landscape while extending a dialogue to international practitioners with complementary discourses.