Find out more about the artists who not only contributed artworks to the Welcome Home exhibition, but also acted as the exhibition creators and curators.
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- Abby Frances – Curator, Graphics Researcher, Artsteps Researcher
- Alexis Javero – Curator, Context Researcher
- Bethany Tompkins – Curator, Graphic Designer
- Edith Young – Curator, Context Researcher, Text Editor
- Kat Spence – Curator, Context Researcher, Text Editor
- Tim C Huang – Curator, Graphic Designer, Gallery Space Designer
Abby Frances
Abby Frances’ practice is inspired by theories of the archive, particularly Derrida’s book “archive fever”, in which Derrida writes about the guidelines of an archive collection. In it he suggests that there is no beginning, because there is always ‘before’. Similarly Abby’s work is rooted in a sense of personal and social history, considering time and place. Her artwork combines lots of found media to create collages, based on local histories, that represent the social context and time before her birth that influenced her upbringing.
Alexis Javero
Alexis Javero is a Filipino mixed-media artist based in Sharjah, U.A.E. She graduated from the College of Fine Arts and Design in University of Sharjah in 2019, with a BFA in Fine Arts.
She has exhibited her work in U.A.E., at the 35th Annual Exhibition of Emirates Fine Arts Society (2018) and in (Be)longing in Maraya Art Centre (2019). She has also participated in Art Market Budapest 2018 (Budapest, Hungary), and Systema Art Expo 2019 (Osaka, Japan).
Influenced by controlled settings and the semantics of daily conversation and Filipino language, she treads the line between tradition and obligation, questioning room for sentimental emotions associated with thoughts of home. Her research revolves around the living room – a domestic environment contained by the handed-down ideologies of an overbearing culture. And like beliefs ingrained by her Filipino upbringing, the elevated perception of a glossy, magazine family shines another harsh light on more unrealistic standards. Her series of work uses recognisable furnishings and accessories to the home, seeking to accentuate and reinforce family ideals of forced togetherness. It recreates and explores our relationship to this familiar space, employing text to imply protocol and procedure.
Bethany Tompkins
Bethany Tompkins is a multidisciplinary artist and part of the curatorial team for the Welcome Home exhibition. She is currently based in Lincoln and will be going into her third year at the University of Lincoln for the BA (Hons) Fine Art course. The medium she uses for her work is often tailored to the intention and topics of work accordingly, rather than focusing on one medium. Bethany’s work is primarily focused on issues around digital culture and interaction and immersion between the artwork and audience.
Her works have included mediums such as: video and SFX Make up, Acrylic paintings, sensory installations, and Websites. The subjects of her work have also presented the notion of alternative realities and personas to present ideas and complexities of subject matters, such as violence in media, in an alternative way as to bring discussion. Other topics of interest also include areas such as reality, perception of time, and forgotten or faded topics.
In the 20-21 Visual Art Centre Exhibition “Welcome Home” her artwork consists of an acrylic painting. It presents her mindset from the lockdown in a physical form, expressing the emotions in an equally abstract yet understandable way. The glass is symbolic of the lockdown that was applied and the fragile environment – as if the mundane, yet constant lifestyle over the months could break from the pressure of the conflicts that was prevalent in media.
Website: https://betomfineart.wixsite.com/online
Instagram: @Betom.art
Edith Young
Edith Young’s work explores materiality and physicality. She is particularly interested in the relationship between objects and materials, including their colours, shapes, textures and the meanings that arise when they are combined in certain environments. Her work is influenced by music, dance, popular culture, and the everyday. She makes installations, sculpture, drawings, and photographs.
She has curated the ‘Welcome Home’ virtual exhibition, working as part of an artist-led curatorial collective. Edith Young completed her Art and Design Foundation Diploma at Camberwell College of Art London in 2018 and is currently studying BA Art and Design at the University of Leeds.
Kat Spence
Kathryn Spence is an artist and poet working in Scunthorpe, North Lincolnshire. After graduating with Honours in English and History in 2017 she co-founded the PopUp Scunthorpe collective, a small team based in Scunthorpe dedicated to giving artists a space in a creatively undernourished part of the UK. The team provide events and workshops which seek to challenge preconceived notions about Scunthonian culture. These have included open exhibitions on the crucial subject of pollination, a series of life drawing sessions accepting transgender models and soon to be affordable studio spaces.
In her creative practice, bricolage, she utilises the lost, forgotten and deemed no longer of use. In previous works she has explored the role of mycelial networks and her liminal place in her home town. She works as a museum assistant at North Lincolnshire Museum and has previously given talks on local folk tradition, the Haxey Hood, at University Campus North Lincolnshire as part of Heritage Lincolnshire open days.
Tim C Huang
Tim C Huang, one of the artists and young curators in the “Welcome Home” exhibition, is an Art and Design international undergraduate studying at the University of Leeds. He designs and constructs art sculptures, stages, domestic products and graphics with accessible materials and digital technologies. His artworks and designs often emphasize the bodily, sensory, and psychological interactions with the audience and users, which catalyses philosophical thinkings of social phenomenons and functioning of the mind. Apart from being a curator and an artist in this exhibition, Tim is responsible for the spatial design of the virtual gallery, the placement of artworks, and the design of marketing graphics, which ties with his interests in audience interactions.
Currently, Tim is generating personal products concepts, designing a stage for the play “The Story of Stone” and creating digital graphics for the film of the play “Medea: Motherness”, both are PhD theatrical projects based in the University of Leeds.
