Laura Onions:  work, news, about     

                                                                                                                                                      






















 



































Studies: Kettle, Committee, Wake
Valuable Conversations
Wolverhampton Art Gallery
2023


‘Valuable Conversations: reflecting on 170 years of Wolverhampton school of art' was a celebratory exhibition in which staff members of the Wolverhampton School of Art were invited to respond to artworks within the Wolverhampton Art Gallery collection made by a previous student or tutor of the school of art. Positioning new and old works in proximity to each other to form intergenerational narratives.

Interested in the visibility and perspectives of women within art and education, the story of former School of Art students and couple Gwyneth Holt and Thomas Bailey Huxley-Jones demonstrates how gender and class inequalities are inherently linked to the capacity to take risks and the need to take care. Responding to these conflicting demands, I produced a set of oil paintings in response to the sculpture Girl with Vulture focusing on the representation of Carthartidae through additive and subtractive mark-making. Paint is wiped, thinned, removed, and smeared towards a fragmentary grasp on the vulture as a being of affection, resilience, protection, and patience.

For more information visit the Wolverhampton Art Gallery.