In Conversation: Clementine Keith-Roach, Ella Walker and Katy Hessel

29 Feb 2024 6-7pm

Overview

In celebration of ‘Present Tense,’ join us at Hauser & Wirth Somerset for a conversation between two of the exhibiting artists, Clementine Keith-Roach and Ella Walker, moderated by art historian Katy Hessel.

The talk will take place in the gallery from 6 – 7 pm, with an opportunity to view the exhibition after-hours from 5.30 pm. Tickets are free, however advance booking is required.

Please note that Roth Bar & Grill is currently closed for refurbishment.

About ‘Present Tense’
‘Present Tense’ spotlights the next generation of artists living and working in the UK, from emerging to mid-career, celebrating a breadth of creative talent and socially engaged practices. The multifaceted group presentation consists of 23 contemporary artists outside of the Hauser & Wirth roster, testing the boundaries of their mediums to address and confront notions of identity, consciousness, humanity and representation. Through their individual lens, each artist is responding to the cultural climate of the UK right now, depicting a range of lived experiences that co-exist and connect within the rich fabric of the same location.

The exhibition is on view through Sunday 28 April.

About Clementine Keith-Roach
Clementine Keith-Roach is a sculptor of new ruins. Her work centers around the process of plaster-casting. Casts taken from her body and other objects are melded with antique terracotta vessels and trompe l’oeil painted to create a continuous surface that blurs the boundary between body and object, skin and clay. Her works a reminiscent of archaeological artefacts, but they also propose new worlds to come. They are thus both funerary and pregnant with possibility. 

In addition to ‘Present Tense,’ Keith-Roach’s work was recently included in ‘Wonder and Wakefulness: The Nature of Pliny the Elder,’ Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, New York NY (2023); and ‘Milk,’ Wellcome Collection, London, UK (2023). She is the editor of ‘Effects,’ a journal of art, poetry, and essays.

About Ella Walker
Artist Ella Walker’s monumental and yet evanescent canvases revisit the European medieval and Renaissance frescoes tradition, introducing the presence of women who defiantly challenge conventional representations of feminine in the arts and gently refuse to conform to the viewers’ expectations. There is something slightly disturbing and uncanny in the posture, appearances, and actions of the women that animate Walker’s images. Her paintings instantly evoke the crisp and almost surreal luminosity of Italian master Piero della Francesca, and the clarity of the revolutionary proto-Renaissance painter Giotto. Within the intersection of medieval and contemporary spaces, Walker moves freely, interchanging histories with invented scenes that are both referential and dream-like.

In addition to ‘Present Tense,’ Walker’s exhibitions include: ‘Chorus,’ Kestner Gesellschaft, Hanover, Germany (2023); and ‘Distant Conversations: Ella Walker and Betty Woodman,’ Currier Museum of Art, Manchester NH (2023).

About Katy Hessel 
Katy Hessel is an art historian, curator, broadcaster, and author of ‘The Story of Art’ Without Men (2022), a Sunday Times and New York Times Bestseller and Waterstones Book of the Year 2022. She runs @thegreatwomenartists, an Instagram account that has celebrated women artists on a daily basis since 2015. Hessel writes a fortnightly column for The Guardian, and hosts the podcast ‘The Great Women Artists,’ where she has interviewed artists Marina Abramović and Tracey Emin, and writers Ali Smith and Deborah Levy. British Vogue listed it among their best podcasts. Hessel also hosts Dior’s podcast ‘Dior Talks – Feminist Art,’ where she has interviewed Judy Chicago, among others. 

Hessel writes extensively on the subject of women artists. She has lectured at The Guggenheim, New York NY; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston MA, Tate, London, UK; The National Gallery, London, UK; The Courtauld Institute of Art, London, UK; and Cambridge University, Cambridge, UK. She has presented films and art documentaries for the BBC, Tate, Royal Academy, Barbican; and hosted radio programs for BBC Radio 3 and 4. Hessel has curated exhibitions at the Victoria Miro Gallery, London, UK; Kasmin Gallery, New York NY; Stephen Friedman Gallery, London, UK; and more. She runs the annual ‘The Great Women Artists Residency’ at Palazzo Monti, Italy for emerging artists. ​

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