The Kinship Drawing is a conversation with Pablo Picasso's Guernica. This contemporary 'maritime' version in charcoal on a real canvas sail, shares inspiration and scale with the original but with obvious references to global current affairs. It was created as part of of a project and residency with National Portrait Gallery of London and Southampton City Gallery.
This English city shares history with the Spanish town of Gernika with 4000 child evacuees escaping the Spanish Civil War in 1937. Sadly, since the original Picasso there have been many more wars and hundreds of thousands of innocent victims. 57 of those war torn cities, are named in the margin of this drawing.
The Kinship theme echoes the Mediterranean migrant crisis as well as broader global humanitarian issues and has particular maritime resonance in Venice. It has obvious contemporary references to Ukraine, the Middle East, the migrant and environmental crisis, indigenous persecution, and childhood suffering in the many theaters of war. It is intended as a very loaded conversation piece, a spectacle, for those interested in art history and classical mythology, it also fits in perfectly with the themes of the Venice Biennial 2024, 'Foreigners Everywhere'.
It was recently exhibited in Paris at Art Capital 2024 and won the Prix Taylor Fondation Award. It was a great talking point and very popular exhibit.
It will also be exhibited at Musa International Pavilion in Venice 28th May -11th June.
I hope perhaps Arte Laguna curators and website visitors here can come along to see it in person, and meet the artist? Message me to arrange your visit.
I would love it to be shown also in the Venetian Arsenale as it has the architectural scale and generous space to show this very large artwork to its best effect.
