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The Ingram Collection: Art For Your World

12th July 2021

25 September 2021 – 9 January 2022

This autumn The Lightbox gallery and museum will present the new Upper Gallery exhibition The Ingram Collection: Art For Your World (25 September 2021 – 9 January 2022), in support of WWF’s #ArtForYourWorld initiative, which aims to raise awareness of the current climate crisis by creating a meaningful connection between art and the environment in support of the ground-breaking fieldwork being carried out by the conservation charity.

WWF and curatorial practice Artwise launch #ArtForYourWorld

The art world has the power to influence, galvanise and make a real difference. The #ArtForYourWorld initiative aims to harness this power to save our most precious planet at this crucial and dangerous tipping point we find ourselves in.

For the sixtieth anniversary of WWF and in the year of COP26 (the UN Climate Change Conference), whilst the global conversation is centred around climate change and what we are doing to stop it, curatorial practice Artwise launches Art For Your World, an allencompassing and inclusive campaign to raise money for WWF and awareness around the critical environmental issues of our time.

The Lightbox gallery and museum and The Ingram Collection join the campaign

The Art For Your World exhibition provides a unique opportunity to discover artists and artworks from The Ingram Collection that explore nature and the environment.

Throughout history, artists been inspired by the landscape, the ‘open air’ and the natural world. Drawing from the body of the landscape and the living world within it, this exhibition brings together work spanning over a hundred years of British art. Featuring works by renowned Modern British artists such as Henri Gaudier-Brzeska, John Piper and Dame Elisabeth Frink, alongside contributions from contemporary artists Barbara Nati and Kristina Chan, a recipient of the 2020 Ingram Prize.

Dame Elisabeth Frink was involved with horses from a very young age. Brought up in the countryside, in Suffolk and Devon, Frink started riding from the age of four. She continued to ride up until the end of her life in the fields around her home in Dorset. In the watercolour Rolling over Horse (1979), the figure of the horse symbolised the very beauty and unpredictability of nature. As an artist, Frink was more concerned with representing her emotional response to, and spiritual identification with, the subject in question rather than with literal physical form.

Kristina Chan (b. 1991), Banksia Seeds (3 States), 2020, bronze, 8 x 6 x 6 cm © Kristina Chan Kristina Chan’s practice explores narrative and place through sculpture, printmaking and alternative photography. Banksia Seeds (2020) was made after a residency in Australia, during the bushfire season. Banksia are Australian wildflowers and popular garden plants. The sculpture captures the seed in three states: before, during and after the fire. The banksia seed thrives in fires as the seed has evolved to germinate in such environments.

Jo Baring, Director/Curator of The Ingram Collection says:

“The last year has galvanised thinking in the art world around the urgency of climate issues and sustainability. Art For Your World is an opportunity to ensure that this discourse doesn’t go to waste and that meaningful change happens. At The Ingram Collection we are grateful to WWF, an organisation which has been working to save our planet for sixty years, for spearheading this vital initiative to bring the art world together at such a crucial time.”

The Lightbox exhibition will be accompanied by a talk on sustainable architectural practices with Julia Barfield of Marks Barfield Architects on Wed 3 November 2021, 7.00pm.

The Ingram Collection: Art For Your World is on show at The Lightbox from 25 September 2021 – 9 January 2022. For further information on the exhibition and its associated event please visit thelightbox.org.uk