Ronan Mckenzie Explores Care, Comfort and the Sense of Home at Carl Freedman Gallery

In the seaside town of Margate, curator Ronan Mckenzie has brought a selection of 19 artists and designers together to explore themes of tenderness at the Carl Freedman Gallery.

The show, titled “To Be Held”, takes place across the entire space. For Mckenzie, it was important for visitors to be fully immersed in the themes she is trying to convey, and as such, employs multisensory activations around the gallery – from scents and textured walls.

“This collaboration organically formed through conversations around responding to space, interiors, design, and artwork, informed by the desire to have an expansive experience of everyday spaces,” says Mckenzie.

Among the 19 artists and designers taking part in the show, a range of disciplines are presented – from furniture to sculpture, and painting to olfactory. Together, the pieces explore our relationship to spaces; the ways in which we build and nurture our environments in order to create a sense of grounding; and how we share them with others.

“To see and be seen, to be warmed by surroundings which create space for one to feel and be felt, to be comforted by the knowledge of acceptance and to leave by choice, when one chooses,” the curatorial statement reads. “For the doors to always be open, for ears to always be available, to be soothed by an atmosphere that calms and cares, which touches old memories that tickle before becoming visual. To be held in a space is to relax into one’s breathing because we know that we’re not alone.”

Participating artists and designers include Annan Affotey, Alvin Armstrong, Mabintou Badjie, Chris Bramble, Toby Cato, CHUKES, Mac Collins, Rayvenn D’Clark, Shaye Gregan, Ezra-Lloyd Jackson, Adama Jalloh, Julianknxx, Alfie Kungu, Mario Moore, Ronan Mckenzie, Modular by Mensah, Miminat Shodeinde, OL Studio by Holly Rollins, Sola Olulode, Natassja E Swift, Naomi Williams and Joy Yamusangie.

To be Held is on show until June 25 at Margate’s Carl Freedman Gallery. In other art news, TeamLab has unveiled a new artwork at the Engyoji Temple in Japan.

Carl Freedman Gallery
28 Union Crescent
Margate, Kent
CT9 1NA