Outside In | Art at The Grange 2024

OUTSIDE IN ART AT THE GRANGE

OUTSIDE IN ART AT THE GRANGE 2024

Award-winning arts charity Outside In is delighted to be continuing its partnership with The Grange Festival with a new exhibition showcasing work by some of the charity’s hugely talented artists. This is the second in a series of planned exhibitions and events, and includes work created in response to both the unique space of The Grange and to the Festival’s programme for 2024.This year, all of the exhibited artworks can also be purchased, to the benefit of both the exhibiting artists and the charity itself.

Outside In is a national arts charity which provides a platform for artists who encounter significant barriers to the art world due to health, disability, social circumstance or isolation. It is an important and rare example of an organisation with national reach championing the work of artists excluded from the art world and was founded by Marc Steene in 2006 at Pallant House Gallery, winning the Charity Award for Arts and Heritage in 2013. Outside In became an independent charity in 2017 and gained National Portfolio Organisation status with Arts Council England in 2018. Founder Marc Steene was also this year awarded an OBE for services to the arts.

Outside In provides a digital platform for its artists to show their work alongside three core programmes of activity: artist development, exhibitions, and training. These activities, supported by fundraising and communications, all aim to create a fairer art world by supporting artists, creating opportunities and influencing organisations. The charity has developed its regional presence and now has hubs in the South of England, the Midlands and the North West with plans to develop a hub in the South West. To date, Outside In has helped over 4,000 artists to showcase their work on their own online galleries.

“Without Outside In, I would not be here today. It literally saved my life”

Drew Fox, Artist

As well as being awarded the prestigious Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service in 2022 in recognition of its Ambassadors Programme, recent highlights for the charity include its National Open exhibition, Humanity which opened at Sotheby’s in January last year before touring to venues across the UK. Outside In has just announced the Call Out for its 2025 National Open, which will have the theme of Shelter and will open in May 2025 at The New Art Gallery, Walsall, before also going on tour around the country. The charity’s National Open Exhibitions are an important part of their programme and are free to enter for any artists fitting the criteria of the charity. This year has also seen acclaimed artist Sir Grayson Perry become an Honorary Patron for the charity. Funding is vital in helping Outside In to achieve its goal of creating a fairer art world and reaching as many artists as possible who need its support. By becoming a member, corporate sponsor or supporter of the charity or by making a donation, you will provide essential resources to allow Outside In to continue its pioneering work, including artist outreach, creating opportunities for artists to show their work, nurturing and developing talent and building inclusivity. You will also be able to enjoy a closer relationship with the charity and be rewarded with a number of exclusive benefits.

To find out more about Outside In and how you can play an important part in supporting the charity and its life-changing work as a member, corporate sponsor or supporter, please visit www.outsidein.org.uk

“Our collaboration with Outside In is driven by a shared vision of inclusivity and community engagement. By working together, we can share the positive impact of the arts. This partnership reflects our commitment to fostering a sense of unity and accessibility, making The Grange Festival a welcoming space where everyone can experience a vibrant and united cultural landscape”

Michael Chance CBE , Artistic Director, The Grange Festival

Straith Wilson, Mask at Humanity exhibition, Sotheby’s Cover: Jasna Nikolic, London

OUR PARTNERSHIP THE GRANGE FESTIVAL

We are delighted to be entering the second year of our partnership with The Grange Festival, and to have the opportunity to show the work of our artists to new audiences in the very distinctive and atmospheric setting of The Grange.

We began our partnership last year, introducing Outside In by showcasing work from our own rapidly growing collection of “outsider art” (a term still contested by ourselves and by many!) This year, however, we are delighted to be exhibiting work by a number of our artists, all of which is available for sale throughout the duration of the Festival.

Artist IJE’s large scale, textural worlds we felt were a highly appropriate fit for the large rooms of the eerily beautiful Palladian mansion, whilst artist Tom Stimpson has been making new work in response to both the space itself and to this year’s programme, particularly Monteverdi’s L’Incoronazione di Poppea, and has had the opportunity for a mini-residency involving sitting in on rehearsals. Jasna Nikolic’s distinctive and vibrant artworks could be described as operatic in the way that they team with life, whilst highly prolific artist David Puttick creates his work at night and whilst in communion with the spirit world, which again seems appropriate to this extraordinarily haunting (and possibly haunted?) building.

By purchasing works from the exhibition, you are supporting both our artists and the wider charity itself, and our continuing work in supporting over 4,000 artists and providing a platform for those experiencing significant barriers to the artworld. We hope that you enjoy this year’s exhibition and if you would like to look at other ways in helping us by becoming a member, or by making a donation, however small, you can find all the relevant information on our website: www.outsidein.org.uk

Our thanks to The Grange Festival Team for making this collaboration a reality.

Marc Steene OBE Founder and Director, Outside In

Outside In sign by James Lake at The Grange Festival

Tom Stimpson at The Grange

Outside In at The Grange

The Realness, Naoibh McNamee

Outside In Artists, Humanity © Brian Hartley

Artwork by Jasna Nikolic

Chameleon: Red Not Dead, IJE

M ANUEL BONIFAc IO

Being a part of Outside In has been life-changing in an emotional aspect and has had a positive impact on my life. It fills me with joy that someone appreciates my work. Outside In have helped me become a global artist and have my dream of being recognised come true. I am always producing more work to be displayed in museums around the world. I want to meet members of the Royal Family and travel around the world to see my work in museums though sadly I can’t afford to travel.

“Outside In has been life-changing in an emotional aspect and has had a positive impact on my life. It fills me with joy that someone appreciates my work”

Manuel Bonifacio, Artist

Motorbike and Man 59.5 x 84cm, coloured pencil on paper

R A k IBUL cHOw DHURy

Raki was born in Petersfield, where his father ran a restaurant, and attends Art Invisible in Emsworth.

‘I look at lots of magazines: Empire, Stardust, You, Heat, Film, Hello! Fashion, Metro, Cosmopolitan etc. I read the daily newspapers. I watch EastEnders, Coronation Street, Strictly Come Dancing, The X Factor.’

“I look at lots of magazines: Empire, Stardust, You, Heat, Film, Hello! Fashion, Metro, Cosmopolitan etc”

Rakibul Chowdhury, Artist

Ophelia, after a painting by Millais 60 x 40 c, acrylic and watercolour on paper

Bollywood Glamour

IJE is an award-winning, British/Nigerian artist-healer with a Masters degree in Fine Art. She has a nomadic art practice using painting, sculpture, installation, photography, and words to express a sensuous exploration of metaphysical and material realities.

IJE comments: “I’m so excited to be asked to exhibit my art at The Grange Festival this year. I think the scale and boldness of my paintings and sculptures will sit very well inside this neo-classical mansion, in the heart of Hampshire.

“My art is inspired by a lifetime of moving. Moving across the UK and beyond exploring the energy, rhythms and landscapes; from wild spaces of mountains and coastlines to mining and farming communities”

IJE, Artist

“My art is inspired by a lifetime of moving. Moving across the UK and beyond exploring the energy, rhythms and landscapes; from wild spaces of mountains and coastlines, to mining and farming communities to industrial towns and cities. I create abstract artworks that are energetic and textured with inclusions of found / repurposed / manufactured materials, reflecting the feelings, political resonance, and sensuousness of my encounters.”

Succession of Remembered Symmetries: Orientations of Selfhood with IJE

IJE won The Chameleon Arts Prize in 2019 (Surface Gallery, Nottingham, UK) leading to a large-scale, whole gallery solo exhibition in 2020. Her work has been exhibited at public and commercial galleries across the UK, including Mall Galleries and D-Contemporary in London, Ferens Art Gallery, The Herbert, Leamington Spa Art Gallery and Elysium Gallery. She has artworks in private and corporate collections in the UK, China, France, Ireland and Norway.

IJE has been an Outside In artist since 2021, is an Outside In Ambassador and a member of the charity’s Artist Advisory Groups both nationally and in the Midlands. Her journey with the charity has involved exhibiting at The Howden Group’s London offices, also having her work acquired for their collection and working as a member of the selection panel for Outside In ’s most recent national biennial exhibition, Humanity.

You can find more about IJE at outsidein.org.uk/galleries/ije and follow her on Instagram at @ijeartist4764

Winter 2: The Sleeper Awakens

JASNA N I kOLIc

Art as a field of research and a means of communication through art space could represent a map that leads to a “hidden treasure”, both for the artist himself and for the public experiencing that art. The path to the hidden treasure, the precious pearl, the blessings can open up in everyday moments that are simple and accessible. Such moments turn into ‘’eterniments’’, miraculous moments in time already imprinted in eternity, capable of leading us into the zone of internal freedom.

“I overlap many layers, breaking and restoring the balance again. Searching for the traces of lost elements, I bring them back to life with a new drawing, stain, or the smallest line”

Jasna Nikolic, Artist

Unicorns, princesses, castles and labyrinths (recognizable symbols from classic fairy tales), some griffins and the sphinx, exotic animals, unusual birds, flowers and butterflies are loaded with associative capacity. Although they are well known, and may have general or universal meaning, most of the time they allow a different interpretation for everyone.

On the same sheet of paper, I overlap many layers, breaking and restoring the balance again. Searching for the traces of lost elements, I bring them back to life with a new drawing, stain, or the smallest line. I often use procedures that include randomness thus reducing control, such as monoprints, prints, watercolor, spills, washing, soaking, spraying and other similar actions. The road map is also a diary of experience.

Jasna Nikolic, Richmond Mixed media on water colour paper, 75x57cm

DAVID P UTTIck

I take a sketchbook wherever I go and have my pens in my bag, so I am creating all the time. It has been part of my life for a long time. I am a paranoid schizophrenic diagnosed at 20 and I am now 61. Life is very challenging, and I find creativity has been a constant tool to help my diagnosis.

“I am a paranoid schizophrenic diagnosed at 20 and I am now 61. Life is very challenging, and I find creativity has been a constant tool to help my diagnosis”

David Puttick, Artist

‘17/05/22’ – David Puttick

TOM STIMPSON MBE

It is a real privilege to have the opportunity to create Art in response to L’incoronazione di Poppea by Monteverdi as part of The Grange Festival and from visiting The Grange in early April – it is an amazing building which is steeped in history. The opportunity to attend a rehearsal and to see and experience the music and the hardworking talent and skill of the cast of this opera, will be a memory to hold onto.

Attending an opera or creating art in a response to it, is something I have never done before and it’s fascinating to be able to research Nero and his life, his relationships, the role of Poppea and her relationship with Octavia and the drama of life at that time.

“The healing of art and creativity cannot be underestimated, as with singing, music and theatre and the wealth and richness it brings to our lives”

Tom Stimpson, Artist

It is exciting to be able to utilise my creativity in these responses, which has involved immersive research, listening to Monteverdi and reading about the opera. I hope to be able to produce a personal response that relates to several elements and which has an holistic approach to my process.

I am grateful to Micheal Chance CBE and his team at The Grange and to Marc Steene OBE at Outside In to be able to have the opportunity to show my work. It is a vital element of creativity that, like all in the creative community, we share what we love doing with an audience. The healing of art and creativity cannot be underestimated, as with singing, music and theatre, it brings wealth and richness to our lives.

After Bernard Strozzi of Claudio Monteverdi – 2024 Oil on Canvas, 40cm x 32cm

Letters to Theo – 2023 Oil on Canvas, 120cm x 100cm

Artist Michael Beard at work

Jasna Nikolic, Paddington Mixed media on watercolour paper, 75 x 57cm

Rakibul Chowdhury, Mickey’s Wild Adventure Watercolour on paper, 2017

Outside In, Humanity © Brian Hartley

Artist Jolene Dandelion with her work at Humanity, Sotheby’s

Tom Stimpson at The Grange Festival rehearsals

Heartwood, IJE

Guests at Humanity Hove Museum

OUTSIDE IN: Ex PLORING T HE M ARGINS OF A RT

Outside In’s founder, Marc Steene OBE, last year published a book with Lund Humphries – Outside In: Exploring The Margins of Art.

The book explores how witnessing the creative abuse of people in a day centre took Marc on a journey which led to the establishment of Outside In and shares some of the most inspiring artwork produced outside the mainstream. It includes work by respected ‘outsider artists’ as well as other, mostly contemporary, artists that Marc has discovered during his work – art rescued from European asylums, the works of Madge Gill, channelled through her spirit guide, Myrinerest, Rakibul Chowdhury, whose works draw on a fascination with popular culture and Drew Fox, whose otherworldly creations result from a series of near-death experiences.

The exclusive global art market is one which few aspiring artists manage to penetrate. How, then, can a creative person with virtually no arts engagement or formal training, perhaps with mental or other significant health issues, disability, or experiencing difficult social circumstances, find a way in? Exploring the necessity to create by people on the periphery, the unconventional techniques often utilised and the settings in which work may be produced, Marc Steene provides a compelling case for inclusivity and change.

“This is a super book that really seems to deeply understand the sort of art I love more than any other, which is commonly called Outsider Art. Ever since I have been a student these artists have been a huge influence and comfort to me. Marc Steene is a great advocate for this disparate and often misunderstood branch of art history”

Sir Grayson Perry

Signed copies of the book are available from The Grange Festival’s shop, and the book can also be purchased from www.outsudein.org.uk and all good bookshops.

Artist Victoria Bowman at Howden collection event,

Grayson Perry with Outside In artists at Environments exhibition, Kings Place

With thanks to Paris Smith for their support for Art at The Grange.

thegrangefestival.co.uk

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