Marlene Smith in Conversation with Seán Elder | The Glasgow School of Art Exhibitions Department

Marlene Smith in Conversation with Seán Elder
5pm Friday 1st November
Reid Principal Seminar Room, Reid Building
Free but ticketed – Book via Eventbrite

Join Marlene Smith in this in-conversation event with Cubitt Curatorial Fellow, Seán Elder within the context of Ah, Sugar Smith’s solo exhibition.

In a conversational form, Smith will discuss how friendship, life experience and respite has informed her approaches to engaging with materiality in familial and artistic objects.

This event at 5pm runs directly before the preview of ‘Ah, Sugar’, at Reid Gallery (Free but ticketed – book here).

Marlene Smith is a British artist and curator, and one of the founding members of the BLK Art Group. She was director of The Public in West Bromwich and UK Research Manager for Black Artists and Modernism, a collaborative research project run by the University of the Arts London and Middlesex University. She has recently exhibited work as part of ‘Women in Revolt!’ at Tate Britain; ‘The More Things Change’ at Wolverhampton Art Gallery; ‘Cut & Mix’ New Art Exchange, Nottingham; ‘The Place Is Here: The Work of Black Artists in 1980s Britain’ Nottingham Contemporary.

Seán Elder is the fourteenth Curatorial Fellow at Cubitt. They are a graduate of the Glasgow School of Art Curatorial Practice (Contemporary Art). Educated also at Schools of Art in Birmingham, and Aberdeen, Elder recently completed a doctoral research project examining the role of affect within curatorial writing practices. Previously they were Associate Curator at Grand Union, Birmingham, and worked independently with a number of organisations and artists to develop writing, exhibitions, screenings, and events. Elder has grown from, through, and with relationships with artists including; Gordon Douglas, Rami George, Benny Nemer, Kirsty Russell, Tako Taal, Rehana Zaman and many more, with organisations including; Jerwood Arts, London; Cooper Gallery, Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design, Dundee; Grand Union, Birmingham; BALTIC 39, Newcastle; The Stuart Croft Foundation; Collective Gallery, Edinburgh; Hospitalfield, Arbroath; BEK, Bergen; LUX Scotland.

‘Ah, Sugar’ by Marlene Smith is co-commissioned with Cubitt (London) and continues the 2024 Cubitt Fellowship Commissions as part of Feeling Still in a World Which Runs, curated by Seán Elder. This commission has been supported by Arts Council England, the Elephant Trust, the Henry Moore Foundation, and Lubaina Himid. The exhibition premiered at Cubitt (London, 22 August-18 October 2024).