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Dust Architects: Art as Reparation

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Venue: Online

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An evening with Dust Architects, a new artists’ collective and platform that explores the personal in contemporary art. Online.

An evening with Dust Architects, a new artists’ collective and platform that explores the personal in contemporary art. Two founder members, artists Nick Kaplony and Martha Orbach, will present their work followed by a discussion with artists Fay Ballard and Judy Goldhill. Nick Kaplony draws on his family relationships through the lens of grief. Martha Orbach makes work about our relationship with our environment, how we speak about the unspeakable, or make a home in the aftermath. 


Nick Kaplony works primarily with drawing and photography and is interested in the phenomenon of the psyche, and the more cryptic aspects of our unconscious experiences. Much of his practice draws on his family relationships, and considers inheritance, legacy and genetic predisposition through the lens of grief. His most recent work records the disquiet and anxiety of his sleeping hours through charcoal drawings of his bedding after turbulent night’s sleep. Nick has shown nationally with organisations such as Manchester City Gallery, MOT Projects, ASC Studios, Core Gallery and Geddes Gallery and Barbican Projects. 


Martha Orbach is a visual artist living in Glasgow. Her practice circles around homemaking, trauma, and our environment. She often works with narrative, drawing, printmaking, and moving image, investigating repair, reclamation, and how we put the pieces together. She has a sometimes participative process, working with plants, scientists, and communities, including collaborations with The National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, Glasgow Botanic Gardens, and Room to Heal. Her work has been seen at the V&A, Glasgow Print Studio, Ty Pawb, Royal Scottish Academy, and Deptford. 


Fay Ballard is a contemporary artist whose studio practice is centred on drawing, underpinned by an interest in psychoanalysis. Her recent work was exhibited in London and Leeds in solo shows, and recently in two collaborative exhibitions with Judy Goldhill: ‘Breathe’ at the Freud Museum (2018) and ‘Travelling Companions’ at the University of Cambridge (2020-1). Fay was a visiting artist at Hammersmith Hospital (2017-18) and sits on the Imperial Health Arts committee delivering arts programmes to patients across five London hospitals. Fay speaks regularly at London art schools. Her work is held by HM The Queen, HRH The Prince of Wales, The Prince’s Foundation, Imperial Health, Royal College of Physicians, Winsor & Newton and Murray Edwards College Cambridge. www.fayballard.com

Judy Goldhill is a photographer, maker of films and artist’s books. Recent projects have examined components of place in relation to such diverse topographies as nuclear sites in the UK, private dwellings and landscapes charged with both public history and personal memory. She has held artist’s residencies in observatories of North and South America, as well as UCL. Her artist’s books have been acquired by numerous international collections, and her complete works acquired by The British Library for its Contemporary British Published Collections. Recent exhibitions are Breathe, Freud Museum London 2018, Travelling Companions  Cambridge 2020. www.judygoldhill.com 

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