Foundation for Womens Art

Touring Exhibition: January 2005 - January 2007

The Foundation for Women's Art is exhibiting Uncanny Tales - an exhibition of four internationally recognised London based artists, Paula Rego, Ana Maria Pacheco, Marcelle Hanselaar and Oona Grimes.

Uncanny Tales is a fascinating and thought provoking exhibition of four of the strongest figurative artists working in the UK today. Paula Rego and Ana Maria Pacheco have both been Artists in Residence at the National Gallery in London and all four artists have shown extensively in the UK and internationally.

This is the first time these well known artists have been shown together and although each of them has a distinct and personal way of telling tales, they share a passion for expressing the savage, erotic or subconscious aspects of life. Their work brings together fluent drawing skills, subtle use of colour and technical expertise within the print process.

Drawing on sources as diverse as Hogarth and Grimms Fairy Tales, Portuguese born artist Paula Rego shows etchings from the Nursery Rhyme series and the Pendle Witches series as well as lithographs from he recently acclaimed Jane Eyre Portfolio. Brazilian born Ana Maria Pacheco shows dry points, which reflect her concern with the dark side of Catholicism, offering a unique retelling of Old Testament stories and her own interpretation of legend. Marcelle Hanselaar's concern with childhood and sexuality shows nothing yet suggests everything, her paintings and prints reminiscent of German Expressionism in their power to disturb. Oona Grimes brings a touch of lightness with her dismembered cartoon like figures cavorting through childhood as well as her delicate evocations of floating matter in her How Clever of God series.

A full colour catalogue accompanies the exhibition with essays by Dr Frances Borzello and Jane Neal, artist biographies and images from the exhibition.

The catalogue is available from the FWA office, price Ł6 including p&p.

Uncanny Tales will be showing at the following venues:

Black Swan Arts, Frome, Somerset: 20th May - 24th June 2006

Ferens Art Gallery, Hull: 8th July - 27th Aug 2006

Rugby Art Gallery and Museum : 12th Sept - 5th Nov 2006

Babylon Art Gallery, Ely: Jan 2007

For further information on the exhibition please contact:

Monica Petzal or Katia Rea on 020 7251 4881

The exhibition first opened in January 2005 and has been touring at the following venues:

Scarborough Art Gallery: 8^th Jan - 6^th Mar 2005

Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, Swansea: 23^rd Apr - 3^rd Jul 2005

Wrexham Arts Centre: 23^rd Jul - 3^rd Sept 2005

Cultural Centre Ypres, Belgium: 15^th October - 27^th November 2005

Jersey Arts Centre,St Helier, Jersey: 30^th January - 26^th February 2006

A central London venue: 19th - 25th March 2006
Black Swan Arts, Frome: 20th May - 24th June 2006

A full programme of events accompanied Uncanny Tales London showing including two Private Views with Family Workshops; a postgraduate symposium with City University; Artist Talks with Marcelle Hanselaar and Oona Grimes, and a Late Night Live Art Happening.

For more information on the London show, please click here

Photos coming soon...

Uncanny Tales was exhibited at the Cultural Centre, Ypres, Belgium from 15th October to 27th November 2005.

Here are some photos of the exhibition at its venue in Ypres.

© Michael Depestele

© Katia Rea

Oona with her work, © Katia Rea

Michael Depestele: http://www.kodakist.be

A selection of commemts from the Wrexham audience:

"A treat and great for Wrexham that such work is being shown here. Thought provoking and challenging."

"I would not like to live in the world these artists inhabit."

"Good to see an exhibition which is thought provoking and enticing - an excellent change from the norm from the library's regular exhibits."

"It's weird and sinister. I don't like it."

"Fantastic, such craftmanship! Excellent"

"Dark, nightmarish, brilliant, got people talking."

The Photos below are from the Glynn Vivian Art Gallery

Oona Grimes at the opening

The Opening

Glynn Vivian Art Gallery

Artists Talks at Glyn Vivian:

Marcelle Hanselaar gave a talk on Friday 13th May 2005 and Oona Grimes on Friday 24th June.

Dr Frances Borzello, art historian and writer gave a talk and a guided tour of the Uncanny Tales exhibition on Friday 10th June 2005. Frances discussed the development of the feminist art movement and the work of the four artists in the show.

A selection of comments from the Glyn Vivian audience:

"Disturbing, yet brilliant."

"I don't know what this says about women's attitudes to themselves, but it's not good." - a man

"I enjoyed the Uncanny Tales exhibition very much. It has inspired me in my own work."

The Curator's comments from Scarborough:

"We had 1,128 visitors to the Gallery during the nine week exhibition period for Uncanny Tales, compared to 572 in the nine week period preceeding the exhibition, almost doubling our figures.

Our target was to attract students and young people to this exhibtion and this was achieved especially through the lunchtime talks given by Oona Grimes and Marcelle Hanselaar, which were attended by groups from Scarborough 6th Form College and Yorkshire Coast College of FHE. Uncanny Tales was also seen by 40 Year 10 and 11 pupils from St Augustines School, Scarborough, who would not have otherwise visited the gallery.The lunchtime talks were the most popular we have ever hosted attracting 35 and 40 listeners respectively.

Sales of catalogues and postcards were also higher than we would usually expect.
Thank you once again for giving us this opportunity to show this exciting and challenging exhibition."

Louise Marr, Curator of Art at Scarborough

A selection of written comments from the Scarborough audience:

"The Uncanny Tales exhibition was fabulous. Nice to hear of something in Scarborough that inspired me to come and see, and then overwhelmed when got here - well done."

"Well done.One of the best exhibitions I've seen here."

"FWA exhibition: superb and a wonderful asset to the town. In particular the Hanselaar and Rego."

"A most valuable asset for Scarborough"

"I like the style of many, some make me amused, others are rather disgusting. How clever to stage an exhibition as diverse to get me to pen these notes. Perhaps I should try to draw my thoughts!" - Punch/Private Eye.