Latest news with #artcurator
BBC News
29-06-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Beryl Cook's unseen works to go on show in Plymouth exhibition
Unseen works by celebrated British artist Beryl Cook is set to feature in a grand exhibition next than 80 pieces of Beryl Cook's work will feature in the major exhibition at The Box in Plymouth, who chronicled everyday life through her colourful and comical paintings, spent much of her life in the Sophie Cook said her grandma would have been "thrilled to see all of her work come together in one of her favourite cities". Cook was born in 1926 in Surrey before she moved to Plymouth in 1968 where she lived for 40 years until her death in work, which was prominent from the 70s to the 00s, depicted ordinary Cook, who was born Plymouth and now lives in Newquay, Cornwall, said: "I think it's brilliant the exhibition is coming to Plymouth because it was grandma's home for most of her life."Celebrating 100 years of Beryl needs to be done in Plymouth, it's going to be an exceptional event."The exhibition will feature more than 80 artworks by Cook, including paintings from the significant art collection at The Box, loans from both private and public collections, plus rarely seen or never before seen items from her family's archives, said curators. Terah Walkup, art curator at The Box, has been working through the family's said: "Terah is looking at the exhibition from a whole different perspective, it has not been done before."I think it is going to be really unique."Daughter-in-law Teresa Cook said her mother-in-law had featured in exhibitions in London, New York and Los Angeles but she believed the show at The Box would "come up trumps"."We are going to have a really good time," she said."Beryl painted a lot of people who were Plymothians, who may I add, were all very pleased to be painted." Teresa said her mother-in-law was a "born artist" who was intelligent, observant and saw the humour in life, but never told jokes."She loved it when people were enjoying themselves," she said."The fans were really important to her and ordinary people loved her art."She is an artist of the people and her humour in her paintings was not always considered great art, but if you look at the skill she used over the years, she practised her art."She worked at it eight hours a day." 'Bigging up Beryl' Rebecca Bridgman, head of collections and programme at The Box, said there had been extensive research into the pieces."I don't want to let the cat of the bag and reveal exactly what is going to be in the show, but I can say we recently acquired one of Beryl's paintings with a Plymouth bingo hall which hasn't been seen publicly before," she said."The painting shows older women socialising and having fun in a space where they could do that."It's about bigging up Beryl." Ms Bridgman said: "She's recording working class and queer communities that maybe wouldn't have been depicted, and people just down the pub or in the bingo hall that wouldn't have necessarily been the subject of other people's work."We really want to amplify her work and think of her not just as the fun Plymouth- based painter, but somebody who had international appeal whose work was really significant for its time on lots of different levels."The exhibition will run from 24 January to 31 May 2026.
Yahoo
11-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Koyo Kouoh, 2026 Venice Art Biennale curator, dies suddenly aged 58
Koyo Kouoh, the curator of the 2026 Venice Art Biennale, has died at age 58, her home institution in South Africa said in an Instagram post Saturday. The Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa in Cape Town in South Africa confirmed the news overnight but gave no cause. The Biennale said it was "deeply saddened and dismayed" to learn of her death. Kouoh was the first African woman asked to helm the Venice Art Biennale. Born in Cameroon in 1967, she was invited to curate the 2026 edition of the Biennale in December. A leading figure in promoting Pan-Africanism throughout the art world, Kouoh had been executive director and chief curator at Zeitz since 2019. Appointed in December 2024 by the board of directors of La Biennale, Kouoh worked "with passion, intellectual rigor and vision on the conception and development of the Biennale Arte 2026," the Venice arts institution said. The presentation of the exhibition's title and theme was due to take place in Venice on May 20. Kouoh also increased her reputation by curating the pioneering 2022 exhibition "When We See Us: A Century of Black Figuration in Painting." The show's title was inspired by the 2019 Netflix miniseries When They See Us by African-American director Ava DuVernay, which focuses on how Black youth are seen as potential criminals and thus as a threat. Related "When We See Us": Swiss museum showcases 100 years of Black figurative painting "Her passing leaves an immense void in the world of contemporary art and in the international community of artists, curators, and scholars who had the privilege of knowing and admiring her extraordinary human and intellectual commitment," the Biennale said. It extended "its deepest sympathies and affection" to Kouoh's family and friends, and "all those who shared with her a journey of research and critical thought on contemporary art." In a statement, Italy's Premier Giorgia Meloni expressed her "deepest condolences" for Kouoh's "premature and sudden passing," noting it "leaves a void in the world of contemporary art."
Yahoo
11-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Koyo Kouoh, 2026 Venice Art Biennale curator, dies suddenly aged 58
Koyo Kouoh, the curator of the 2026 Venice Art Biennale, has died at age 58, her home institution in South Africa said in an Instagram post Saturday. The Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa in Cape Town in South Africa confirmed the news overnight but gave no cause. The Biennale said it was "deeply saddened and dismayed" to learn of her death. Kouoh was the first African woman asked to helm the Venice Art Biennale. Born in Cameroon in 1967, she was invited to curate the 2026 edition of the Biennale in December. A leading figure in promoting Pan-Africanism throughout the art world, Kouoh had been executive director and chief curator at Zeitz since 2019. Appointed in December 2024 by the board of directors of La Biennale, Kouoh worked "with passion, intellectual rigor and vision on the conception and development of the Biennale Arte 2026," the Venice arts institution said. The presentation of the exhibition's title and theme was due to take place in Venice on May 20. Kouoh also increased her reputation by curating the pioneering 2022 exhibition "When We See Us: A Century of Black Figuration in Painting." The show's title was inspired by the 2019 Netflix miniseries When They See Us by African-American director Ava DuVernay, which focuses on how Black youth are seen as potential criminals and thus as a threat. Related "When We See Us": Swiss museum showcases 100 years of Black figurative painting "Her passing leaves an immense void in the world of contemporary art and in the international community of artists, curators, and scholars who had the privilege of knowing and admiring her extraordinary human and intellectual commitment," the Biennale said. It extended "its deepest sympathies and affection" to Kouoh's family and friends, and "all those who shared with her a journey of research and critical thought on contemporary art." In a statement, Italy's Premier Giorgia Meloni expressed her "deepest condolences" for Kouoh's "premature and sudden passing," noting it "leaves a void in the world of contemporary art."
