A preview of the new Turner Contemporary exhibition Every Day is a New Day will take place today (May 25).
The Summer exhibition celebrates the importance of art and creativity, its capacity to empower all of us and make positive change.
It brings together works by British sculptor Phyllida Barlow, British-Kenyan painter Michael Armitage and JMW Turner, with artwork by young people.
Phyllida Barlow has been making large-scale sculptural works for 5 decades, as well as being an inspirational teacher to many your artists at the Slade School of Art. This exhibition brings together works from the ARTIST ROOMS collection, alongside other sculptures and a selection of drawings from throughout her career. The exhibition coincides with Barlow representing Britain at this year’s Venice Biennale.
A series of new and recent works by Michael Armitage, a former pupil of Barlow’s at the Slade School of Art, will be shown for the first time in a public gallery in his exhibition Peace Coma. Playing on Western art history’s treatment of places that are seen as ‘other’ and drawing on personal and collective memories of life in Kenya and news and images circulating online, his paintings challenge social attitudes and inequalities.
Alongside the work of Barlow, Armitage and a selection of watercolours from JMW Turner, the exhibition will include artworks by school children, young people and their teachers from Kent, Medway and Kenya.
The preview is from 4.30pm to 7.30pm and will be opened by Lemn Sissay MBE. Speeches will start at 5pm.
Every Day is a New Day opens to the public on Friday (May 26) at 10am.
Turner Contemporary is open from 10am to 6pm and is free to enter.
Book preview tickets here