Exhibitions should not necessarily be fixed; they have the potential for change. To explore this idea, Primary is engaging in a reflective process of exhibition-making. The exhibition will initially comprise three pre-existing works by artists Ashley Holmes, Jasleen Kaur, and Jala Wahid, before it is transformed.
Each Begets Each is a collaborative exhibition of new work by Khaya Job and Wingshan Smith. Together, they delve into realms of friendship, myth-making, play, rituals, conversations and sound. By interrogating and performing archetypes of femininity, the pair engage in the audacious task of imagining a divinity for themselves to create new possibilities for identity and community.
In this project, hard science meets science fiction, with the Ready Room providing space for cells to relax, strategize and entertain. Recalling HeLa’s dubious genesis, the exhibition contemplates alternate forms of building society – what if the HeLa cells have found a better way to live? Sonya Dyer’s work intertwines speculative fiction, hard science and mythologies to propose new ways of conceiving where the centre is located in fictional narratives of the future.
A Material Romance presents new work by Will Harvey with text contribution by Jana Dardouk as part of To & Fro. Will and Jana took the opportunity of connecting to critique the pace of mass consumption by confronting the consequences of its waste and debris. Both artists work within the common ground of art and architecture, their practices seek to challenge our cultural perspectives of ‘waste’.
In Courses for Dis-Course(s), artist Roo Dhissou conjures up a space, for dining, eating, cooking and gathering that manifest in a sort of kitchen, dining room, café, restaurant, chill space. The project includes a series of exhibitions and dining events for British South Asian artists.
A new multi-media installation featuring two experimental films. THE WALL is a surreal and absurdist take on housing inequality and its psychological effects. It explores how the same problems - overcrowding, ‘revenge evictions’, mould and vermin - have played out from the medieval era to the present day. Hyperopia is a psychedelic two channel video installation which uses script, disorientating film and editing techniques.
Join us for a screening of Antemasque, a new performance film and sound work made in collaboration by artists Melanie Wheeler and Mihai Bircu. The work retells the ancient myth of Medusa, the story of a serpent haired Gorgon with an 'evil' lithifying gaze who is eventually sacrificed and weaponised.
As part of Primary’s reopening season, we will host a ‘Residents Series’, a programme of events and activity showcasing and platforming work by Primary’s resident and member community which includes over 60 artists and creatives at all stages in their careers, working across all media.
The Unicorn is Killed and Brought to the Castle Cartoon is an installation of large-scale figurative collage by artist Sam Keogh. These intricate works on paper draw heavily from The Hunt of the Unicorn, a series of seven tapestries made at the turn of the 16th century.
A solo exhibition by Nottingham-based artist Jade Foster. Wallpaper will take place at TG, a gallery situated within Primary’s former Caretaker’s Flat. TG works with artists within regional, national and international contexts across exhibition, publication, editorial and off-site platforms.
Vape Cloud Premonition at Forth presents new works exploring structures and aesthetics which appear more-so as depictions of imitative threat than they are signifiers of a tangible violence. The exhibition is anchored in an exploration into the fetishisation of the millennia.
Beam is delighted to present the first solo show of the Norwegian artist, designer and weaver, Line Nilsen. Nilsen’s practice effortlessly shifts between art and design expressed through the ancient craft of weaving.
Primary is excited to announce that on Friday 7 July it will re-open to the public following important changes made to its recently acquired building focusing on visitor welcome, accessibility and sustainability.
Mummy Hood Garden is a new site to Get Lost: a garden, a hideaway, a forest, a URL, a model, a mock up, a work of fiction. It is situated in Primary's garden on the street facing facade of our Grade II listed building, visible from Ilkeston Road.
Being Present is a group exhibition and event presenting work by artists from Bethlem Gallery, London and Primary, Nottingham. During the Covid-19 pandemic and spanning various lockdowns exhibiting artists participated in Artist Meets.
Land Lay Moldbrest is a three-part audiobook by artist and writer Roy Claire Potter that follows the protagonist Walker, as they journey the bridleways of the remote Pennine moorlands, with a parcel of half-erased field journals. How long they’ve been doing their ‘research’ is anybody’s guess.
Mummy Hood Nesting Forest is a site to get lost: a forest, a URL, and a new work of fiction by artist David Steans. The commission takes the form of a multipart story hosted online in its entirety via a bespoke website which functions both as a specific context informing the story and a contrived situation for engaging with it.
Attention, Absorption is British Guyanese artist Maybelle Peters' most comprehensive exhibition of work in the UK to date. The show leads on from the When We Worked at Raleigh (WWWAR) project.
The exhibition Open Code by Nottingham-born artist Mac Collins takes over Primary’s Reading Room. The installation features furniture, objects, and sculpture.
Join us for ‘Picturing Food Justice’ - sharing and celebrating photography produced through a ten-week participatory programme that addressed issues around food justice, particularly in Nottingham’s NG7 postcode area.
Through video, sound and sculpture, heads are threatened off of necks, feelings are taken hostage, a talent agent runs ruthless and hybrids are born, all while pop music serves as relief and riddle. The first solo exhibition by video and performance artist Charlie Dean.
Join us for the launch of Ejaradini by the South African artist collaborative MADEYOULOOK! It's a celebration and 'Chillas', with music by Primary resident Tom Harris and a cocktail bar hosted by Bradley Dobb of Bradley Coffee Merchant at Beam.
Ejaradini is an art installation and garden created by South African artist collaborative MADEYOULOOK (Molemo Moiloa and Nare Mokgotho). The exhibition features archival images, plants, and text on the façade of Primary.
Blue Italian is a short film by artist and filmmaker Gabriella Davies exploring Italian migration to the midlands through her late Nonno’s 8mm home videos.
Roo Dhissou and Sahjan Kooner have created a dreamlike exhibition that weaves narratives through the lens of North India. The work travels from a cyborg in Punjab through to a black hole at the centre of the galaxy.
The Recipes for Resistance library features a collection of publications gathered by artist Raju Rage as part of their research exploring the politics of food and its relationship to migration, belonging, memory, culture, coloniality, gender, resilience, adaptability and resistance.
In her first solo exhibition in the UK, Carmen Argote will present Be loved, part of an expansive new project encompassing video, sound, objects, and works on paper.
An expansive and celebratory exhibition marking three years of Making Place, our long-term community programme looking at how we learn from the city and how we use public space. Join us as we reflect on past projects and generate ideas for the future.
The first instalment of a new and evolving work of performance, audio-visual installation, and experimental text, dealing poetically with urgent themes around finance, housing, the body, the voice, and the porous nature of selfhood.
Not an Archive presents new work by Kobby Adi, Celia-Yunior, and Suzanne van der Lingen, responding to the dispersed and ephemeral history of New Contemporaries - a platform for graduating artists that stretches over seven decades.
A new video installation developed through collaboration and discussion with UK-based immigrants, exploring the entanglement of love, power, and administration.
