Open House 2024: Artists' talks

Join us for a series of artist talks by our current awardees of the LOEWE FOUNDATION / Studio Voltaire Award.

They will discuss their ongoing practice and current and upcoming projects. Participating artists include: Prajakta Potnis, Emily Pope, Nick Smith, Babajide Brian, Maz Murray and Shamica Ruddock.

This event forms part of Studio Voltaire's Open House 2024 programme: a two-day programme of open studios, screenings, workshops, DJs and special events.

About Prajakta Potnis

Prajakta Potnis (b. 1980, Thane, India) lives and works in Mumbai. Exhibitions include the 15th Sharjah Biennale (2023), Rencontres d'Arles (2022), Taipei Fine Art Museum (2021), The 11th Gwangju Biennale (2016), Queens Museum (2015), Kochi-Muziris Biennale (2014), Kadist Art Foundation (2012), and Herning Museum of Contemporary Art (2010).

Solo projects include a body without organs, Project 88 (2020), when the wind blows, Project 88, Mumbai (2016); Kitchen Debate, Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin (2014); Time Lapse, The Guild Art Gallery, Mumbai (2012); Local Time, Experimenter, Kolkata (2012); Porous walls, The Guild art gallery, Mumbai (2008); Membranes and Margins, Gallery EM, Seoul (2008); Walls in between, The Guild Art Gallery, Mumbai (2006). She is represented by Project 88 Mumbai.

About Emily Pope

Emily Pope is an artist living and working in London. She works in film, sound, printmaking and writing. She is interested in series making, and has been making The Sitcom Show, a failed sitcom recording life under austerity measures in the UK, since 2016. Her research explores a history of experimental broadcast media with a focus on humour and satire, queer intersectional feminism, political rhetoric + class politics and she is excited by challenging dominant power structures.

Recent solo and group presentations include: Ginny on Frederick, Sundy London, Wysing Arts Centre, The Box Museum; Plymouth, V.O Curations, Tate Britain, Peak Gallery; London, Paradise Works; Manchester, The White Pube Residency, The Royal Standard; Liverpool, Serf; Leeds, Hester Gallery; NYC, VI VII; Oslo, HA HA Gallery; Southampton, Auto Italia; London and Turf Projects; London. Her writing has been published by Lesley Magazine, Curating the Contemporary, Laugh Magazine, Low Theory, The Freud Museum, Bookworks, Arcadia Missa, Montez Press and Autoitalia.

About Nick Smith

Nick Smith (b. 1982, Liverpool) is an artist who explores the theme of class within the context of the built environment through video collages and photographic installations. His archive of photographs, videos, and research materials, compiled from his work as both an artist and property inspector, serves as his primary source material. Smith aims to create images that evoke a sense of connection between the past and present, focusing on moments of arrival and departure in public space, regional identity, memory, and recent history.

Smith has had solo exhibitions at OUTPUT Gallery, Liverpool; The Birley, Preston; OUTPOST Gallery, Norwich; Concord Space, L.A; and Photofusion, London. His work has been included in group shows and screenings at Two Queens, Leicester; TACO!, Thamesmead; Bloomberg New Contemporaries: Cornerhouse, Manchester and Rochelle School, London; Karst, Plymouth; Folkestone Triennial and Auto Italia, London. He holds a Master of Arts Degree in Photography from the Royal College of Art, and a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Fine Art from Central Saint Martins.

About Babajide Brian

Babajide Brian has been a resident artist at ActionSpace’s Studio Voltaire studio since 2018. Primarily with drawing, using pencil and fine liners on paper, Babajide works directly from life, photographic imagery and memory. His detailed drawings fall into two distinct areas of architecture, portraiture, and football shirt designs.

Through extensive research, Babajide documents a diverse range of football players, capturing the history of each football club, its identity, the supporters, and the city that it represents. Detailing logos, architecture, sponsorship branding in black and white drawing and collage, Babajide examines the culture of the sport, how it has evolved as well as highlighting anti-discrimination and racism within football and beyond.

Babajide has exhibited extensively across London through ActionSpace. He was selected for Outside in’s Environments exhibition, Piano Noble in 2019. Co-curated and exhibited in Art is Part of the Equation, Royal Academy, 2019 and led tours for the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition in 2019.

About Maz Murray

Maz Murray (b. 1995, Basildon) Is an artist working across film, writing, collage and installation. Murray uses satire, surrealism, melodrama, and humour to talk about queer and trans identity, class, and the complexities of public life. They collage and subvert pop cultural tropes such as music video, TV documentary, talk show, social media content and cinema, using DIY techniques. They’re interested in the creation of artificial landscapes - from New Towns and shopping centres to queer spaces and imagined utopias - and the struggles that shape them.

They have shown work at Turner Contemporary, Outfest, London Short Film Festival, Institute of Contemporary Arts and South London Gallery, among others. They recently made a short film with BFI Network. Their first institutional solo show is with Focal Point Gallery, opening March 2024.

About Shamica Rucddock

Shamica Ruddock is an artist often found working between sound and moving image. Shamica’s current research concerns sound cultures and Black sonic modalities. Approaching sound as a site for knowledge production, she considers the ways Afro-diasporas emerge through sound. They are particularly interested in how Black technosonic production functions as a form of narrativising and worldmaking. Maroon histories, fugitivity and Black temporal entanglements have also proved resonant departure points.

Previous presentations include festivals Margate Now Sunken Ecologies (UK), Abandon Normal Devices (UK); group shows with the Barbican (UK), Durham Gallery (CA) and live performances at Silent Green (DE) and Madeira Dig (PT) alongside long time collaborator Hannan Jones. Shamica has screened films with Timehri Festival (GUY), Aesthetica Short Film Festival (UK) and Alchemy Film and Moving Image Festival (UK). Solo shows also include Treasure Hill Artist Village (2019, TW) and South London Gallery (2022, UK). Shamica has held residencies with QO2 (BE), and was previously an Eccles Centre Visiting Fellow at the British Library researching Maroon sound cultures.
About the LOEWE Foundation/Studio Voltaire Award

Launched in March 2021, the LOEWE FOUNDATION / Studio Voltaire Award celebrates talent, creative thinking, and individuality in contemporary art practice. The award works to increase and strengthen equitable representation and access and amplify artistic voices across class, race, gender, sexuality and disability.

Photography notice

Please note that filming/photography is taking place for promotional and archival purposes. The photographs and recordings made are likely to appear on our website.

For further information please contact [email protected].

Host or Publisher Studio Voltaire