Last Saturday – a visit to Nottingham for Kim Thompson’s solo exhibition, Water into Wine, at the New Art Exchange (NAE). It’s curated by Saziso Phiri.
Kim is a Nottingham artist who mostly works in paint and digital illustration. We are big fans, and seeing her work on this scale was extra special.
The newly commissioned series opens up the experiences of Afro Caribbeans from Nottingham. It’s beautiful.
Each painting had a story attached, which came out through conversations between Kim and local residents (some are her family members) and through sharing and reminiscing with photos.
The black joy jumps out from each painting, the every day experience of us just living and doing us.
One huge piece, based on a school photo from the 1960s, shows Kim’s aunt as a child, front and centre…there she is, looking relaxed and proud; from the accompanying story, we can read that she belonged there, she excelled, and it comes across in the painting, classmates and teachers are patchy, the memories of them have faded. It made me think of my dad, who was at school on the south coast at the same time. In his class photo, he stands out as the only black face.
It also made me think of that universal sense of looking at old school photos where your younger self is lined up alongside people you’ll probably never see again, and there’s little you, the main character in your story.
Another piece, of a person called Donna with two of her horses, is full of reds and greens and brown, and had a gentle feeling of celebration that we rarely get to see in black art.
There were others, just as beautiful and warm: of Kims parents, of a mum and daughter sitting happily in the grass, of two brothers boxing, of a celebration with a frosted cake…it’s so cool to see and read about the life experiences of the black community in this way.
The exhibition ends this Sunday (24th August) so try and make it down to NAE if you can!
(Also, the soundtrack in the exhibition so good and had us swaying in appreciation).
Melissa
@kimthompson.art
@new_art_exchange