Sharon Walters in conversation with Dr Flavia Frigeri, CHANEL Curator for the Collection, National Portrait Gallery, London to discuss her ongoing series 'Seeing Ourselves' in which Walters creates intricate hand-assembled collages honouring Black Women - their history, culture and identity. “My work aims to explore and indulge in the multiplicity of Blackness and the embrace of our non- monolithic experiences.” Sharon Walters creates multi-layered portraits in which she, literally and metaphorically, opens up space. These dimensional portraits provide a portal and centre those who are often excluded and unheard in mainstream Western society. 'Seeing Ourselves' is also the title of Walters' first London solo exhibition on show at HackelBury Fine Art, London from Thursday 10th June until Thursday 4th July. 

About the Contributors:

Sharon Walters is a London-based artist, educator and project curator. She holds a Fine Art BA (Hons) from Central Saint Martins and has over 20 years’ experience working with marginalised communities. She regularly collaborates with organisations and communities organising and hosting workshops, talks, podcasts, events and curating projects.

In 2023, Walters was included in ‘Like Paradise’ at Claridge’s ArtSpace, London, curated by Ekow Eshun and ‘Rites of Passage’ at Gagosian, curated by Péjú Oshin. She won second prize at the Mosaic Art Prize exhibited at Hauser and Wirth. She directed a short film, performed by actor Jyuddah James, using quoted extracts
from ‘The Interesting Narrative of the life of Olaudah Equiano,’ displayed in the Black Atlantic exhibition at Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge (2023). This is currently being shown at the UN in New York (23 Feb – 28 March 2024). Previously, Sharon had a solo exhibition at Midlands Arts Centre, Birmingham, England (2022), and was included in the Black Minds Matter group exhibition at Sophie Tea Art Gallery, London (2020); The Chapel Gallery, London (2019); and Gunnersbury Park Museum, London (2019).

In 2022, she was commissioned by the National Portrait Gallery, London, to create a portrait of race equality campaigners and radical publishers Eric and Jessica Huntley. The piece was exhibited at the Gunnersbury Park Museum, London (2023) before joining the collection at the National Portrait Gallery.

Since 2020, Walters has worked in partnership with the National Maritime Museum to create and host the podcast series ‘Seeing Ourselves’ - alongside a series of live and online events exploring the representation and misrepresentation of the people of African descent in museum collections. She collaborated with historians, artists and prominent cultural thinkers and the project has had a significant impact and led to important change in the institution.

Walters works are in private and public collections including the National Portrait Gallery and the Soho House Art Collection.

Dr Flavia Frigeri is an art historian, lecturer, and ‘Chanel Curator for the Collection’ at the National Portrait Gallery, London where she is leading a project set to redress the gender imbalance in the collection through acquisitions and site-specific commissions. She recently guest curated the group exhibition Beyond Form: Lines of Abstraction, 1950-1970 at Turner Contemporary, Margate, UK and is now working on a retrospective of avant-garde French-Portuguese artist Maria Helena Vieira da Silva for the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice, Italy. From 2016 to 2020 she was a Teaching Fellow in the History of Art Department UCL and a member of faculty at Sotheby’s Institute, London. Previously she was ‘Curator, International Art’ at Tate Modern, where she co-curated The World Goes Pop (2015), and was responsible for Henri Matisse: The Cut-Outs (2014), Paul Klee: Making Visible (2013) and Ruins in Reverse (2013). She is the author of Pop Art and Women Artists both in Thames & Hudson’s Art Essentials series and the co-editor of a volume of collected essays, New Histories of Art in the Global Postwar Era: Multiple Modernisms (Routledge, 2021). She is a trustee for the AAH - Association for Art History. 

About HackelBury

HackelBury was founded twenty-five years ago by Sascha Hackel and Marcus Bury. The gallery is committed to championing artists who push the boundaries of their medium to create meaningful and contemplative work.

Originally renowned for showcasing classic 20th-century photography, the gallery has embraced more conceptual and abstract art over the past 15 years, expanding its stable of artists to include those working in photography, drawing, painting and collage.

HackelBury Fine Art represents a select group of artist whose work reflects a profound depth of thought and dedication to their craft.

This talk is organised in collaboration with HackelBury Fine Art, London

Cost: Free, Booking Essential