Betty Woodman: Theatre of the Domestic

The ICA presents the first solo institutional exhibition in the UK by Betty Woodman, one of the most important contemporary artists working with sculpture, painting and ceramics. The exhibition focuses on work Woodman has created in the last ten years, including new mixed media pieces made especially for the ICA. 

Betty Woodman began making work in 1950 with clay as her principle medium, and throughout her practice has constantly explored new directions and introduced diverse techniques and media. Woodman's conceptual boldness and her ambitious experimentation, particularly how she combines ceramics and painting in her recent three-dimensional pieces, resonates with younger generations of artists today. All her work relates to her ceramics, their decorative design, imagery and unusual use of various media, and can be seen as a way of exploring her painterly sensibility. For many years she has focused on the vase, which can be a vessel, a human body, and animal figure, a metaphor, or an art-historical reference. Her later works include large, colourful drawings and paintings on handmade paper or canvas that combine graphite, ink and paint with terra sigillata and wax.  

The ICA exhibition follows her solo museum show in Italy at the Museo Marino Marini in Florence, in the vicinity of which she has been living and working for six months of every year for over 50 years.

Curated by Vincenzo de Bellis with the ICA. Supported by the Betty Woodman Exhibition Supporters Circles including Shane Akeroyd, David Kordansky Gallery, Salon 94 and the Zabludowicz Collection. With additional support from Belgraves A Thompson Hotel.

Related events:

Artist’s talk with Vincenzo de Bellis
Wednesday, February 3, 6:30pm

Educators’ tour led by ICA Head of Programme Katharine Stout
Wednesday, February 10, 5pm

Panel discussion: Medium-specific: Ceramics Now
Tuesday, February 16, 6:30pm

Gallery tour led by Emma Hart
Thursday, March 17, 6:30pm

Also showing:

Art into Society – Society into Art
January 19–March 6, 2016
ICA Fox Reading Room

This archival display documents the 1974 ICA exhibition Art into Society – Society into Art: Seven German Artists (October 29–November 24, 1974). A key part of a season called the German Month that was staged at the ICA and which featured film screenings, talks, performances and exhibitions showcasing the wide-ranging cultural developments emerging from West Germany at that time. Organised by ICA Curator Sir Norman Rosenthal and writer and curator Christos M. Joachimides, Art into Society – Society into Art included artists Albrecht D., Joseph Beuys, KP Brehmer, Hans Haacke, Dieter Hacker, Gustav Metzger, Klaus Staeck and photographer Michael Ruetz. At a time of pivotal change both within broader social and political structures as well as the field of art production, the exhibition sought to show the increasingly close relationship between artistic expression and politics coming from West Germany.

Related events:

Gallery tour led by Juliette Desorgues and Lucy Bayley
Thursday, January 28, 6:30pm

Educators’ tour led by Juliette Desorgues
Wednesday, February 10, 5pm

Other highlights:

London Short Film Festival 2016
January 8–17, 2016

Talk series: Decommissioned
January 13–December 13, 2016
This talk series seeks to address how strategies of disavowal, inactivity and transition are employed in contemporary art and design.

Lisa Le Feuvre: Wednesday, January 13, 2pm
Sophie Berrebi: Wednesday, January 20, 2pm
Başak Ertür: Wednesday, January 27, 2pm
Sook-Kyung Lee: Wednesday, February 10, 2pm

Global Art Forum: The Future Was
Thursday, January 14, 6:15pm

ICA Associates: JUST JAM present House of Trax: The Last One
Thursday, January 28, 8pm

ICA Associate Poet: Kayo Chingonyi presents Poetry and Sound
Friday, February 5, 6:30pm

Artists’ Film Club: Hannah Perry
Wednesday, January 20, 6:45pm

STOP PLAY RECORD application opens January 18, 2016