If you ever needed an excuse to visit the Venice Biennale then this year is it. A unique exhibition featuring P J Harvey and Andy Goldsworthy, as well as a host of other artists with links to Dorset has opebned at The Dorset Pavillion in Venice this year.
‘Why should only countries get to have pavilions at the Venice Biennale?’ asked curator Sophie Molins before gathering a group of artists together and opening up the first county pavilion at the Venice Biennale.
The Dorset Pavilion presents an earthy mix of contemporary artworks from 25 artists and provides a refreshing local and rural perspective to contrast beautifully with the global themes of the surrounding National Pavilions and, in stark contrast to Venice’s refined and classical aesthetic, it creates a welcome interplay between the intimate and the grand: fine terrazzo with fossils and sheepskin.
Sophie Molins’ Lost Sheep Productions has partnered with the renowned Common Ground to present established art world figures such as Andy Goldsworthy and P.J. Harvey alongside a traditional Tolpuddle Union Banner of the Martyrs and Bibby Stockholm by Ed Hall; an exquisite fossil design by Will White; Sheep skin art work by Lower Hewood Farm; A Brexit “mourning” Murano glass work by Sophie Molins; Stills (featuring Michael Clark as a dancing sailor) by David Appleby from Bill Douglas classic film Comrades—and a film by recent Glasgow school of Art graduate Robyn Bamford; alongside weaver and ceramicist Jacy Wall; ceramicists Silva De Majo and Fiamma Colonna Montagu; painters Janie Fox, Jeremy Gardiner, Henrietta Hoyer Miller, Veronica Hudson, Alan Rogers, Ella Squirrel and Amanda Wallwork, and Printmakers Flora Wood and Hugh Dunford Wood. Textiles by Nicholas Kalinoski and Kalika Kulukundis. There is also a large scale work by Dorset raised New York based artist Ellen Harvey from her extraordinary series The Disappointed Tourist.
The Dorset Pavillion is at Biennale Spaces, Castello 96 / 95, Venezia 30122, Italy until October 29. For more information visit https://lostsheep.black/dorset-pavilion
