A major new art exhibition to showcase international emerging and professional artists will launch at The Historic Dockyard, Chatham, on Friday 6 May.
Titled Of the Sea, this fascinating exhibition explores the controversial ‘freedom of the seas’ principle through a diverse range of artistic media. The variety of work includes lens based media, sculpture and performance art and explores powerful topics such as conflict, ecology, territory, migration, piracy, border disputes and the ebb and flow of oceans.
Of the Sea is a project in partnership with the University’s School of Music and Fine Art (SMFA) and The Historic Dockyard. It represents the culmination of The Historic Dockyard’s biennial open art competition (Art in the Dockyard) which this year received a record number of submissions from across Europe.
All works in the gallery show are eligible for two prizes; The Dockyard Prize, which will be judged on its contextual relevance to the Dockyard’s historical legacy; and The Curators’ Choice, which will be awarded to a work which expresses global, social and political significance. The winning artists in both of the categories will each receive a £750 cash prize.
The works were selected by a distinguished and specially invited judging panel comprising Adam Chodzko, international award winning artist and Senior Lecturer in Fine Art at SMFA; Exhibition Curator, Hannah Conroy from the Artist Pension Trust (formerly Folkestone Artworks Curator); Kathleen Palmer, Head of Art at Imperial War Museums; Victoria Pomery OBE, Director of Turner Contemporary, Margate; and artist Island Projects Director, Nicole Mollet.
Of the 38 international artists selected for the exhibition and accompanying screening programme Perpetual Liquidity (28 May, 2pm – 4pm, the Dockland Church) the University’s School of Music and Fine Art has two of its artists included (lecturer, Steve Klee and MA student, Fiona Townend).
There will be a private launch on Thursday 5 May with a speech by Vice-Chancellor of the University, Professor Dame Julia Goodfellow.
The exhibition will run until 24 July in No.1 Smithery: The Gallery.