Neulinge (Newcomers)

20-21 April
Open: 11-7pm daily

Private View:
19 April 5-9pm

Guest curated by Georgina White-Aldworth from HEWING WITTARE ‘Neulinge’ is a show that will consider reciprocities and relationships between the practices of 10 Artists, Annie Marie Akussah, Yihsin Chu, Chudamani Clowes, Marium M Habib, Aty Hadidi, Maryam Hina Hasnain, Yun Park, Divya Sharma, Monique Wan, and Samiya Younis.

Using paint on canvas, clay, textiles, wooden sculptures, film and projection, each artist has created works that have a very physical and bodily presence in the space of The Crypt Gallery. This collection of works, born out of the artist’s hard labour, demonstrate a harmony of texture, scale and form. ‘Neulinge’ translates from German for newcomer. Germany is a country that has been seen as leading the EU in response to the migration crisis and in 2015 the country granted protection to the highest number of first time asylum applicants. In the UK today, newcomers arrive desperately needing help and protection, whilst current residents have lost confidence in a government whose focus is on what ‘type’ of exit from the EU they will negotiate rather than on everyday issues needing to be addressed.

Keeping with the zeitgeist, this exhibition gives a voice to 10 artists, all of whom are female with non-EU heritage and currently practicing in London. It celebrates the work of an underrepresented minority within the contemporary art scene. The ‘Neulinge’ artist looks for recognition whilst displacing the typical narratives within a minority art practice. Looking at subjects of freedom, friction, adventure, commerce, shifting of identity, empires, foreign land, independence, hybrid culture, visual and verbal language each artist has started a new beginning in the UK, demonstrating in their work a consideration of customs from their previous lives and new, adopted cultures of their current home. Arriving to the UK at different stages of their lives or of second generation migration, each artist explores the ideas of permanently or temporarily settling, the feeling of being an expatriate and moving to unfamiliar territory and discovering their new identity

Neulinge on Instagram