The Stanley Picker Gallery reopens after refurbishments to celebrate its 15th birthday and pay tribute to arts patron Stanley Picker on the 30th anniversary of his death.
Funded by Kingston University and the Stanley Picker Trust, the refurbishments will make the venue more welcoming to all our visitors, improving the venue exterior, its physical access and signage, as well as the usage of its ground-floor internal spaces and external areas.
The works aim to enhance public engagement with the Gallery and its programme of exhibitions, fellowships and participatory activities and feature a new lobby area with bespoke furniture by Faudet-Harrison, a light-installation by Cullinan Richards, and a temporary structure for our riverside terrace made from sustainable cork blocks and designed by Kingston University postgraduate architecture students with tutor and architect Andrew Budd. The image above shows the making of a scale-model of the venue, created by the students to develop their initial Live Project proposals.
Featuring artworks by Cullinan Richards, Matthew Darbyshire, Andy Holden, Tom Morton, Elizabeth Price and Bridget Smith, The Occupants exhibition provides contemporary perspectives on the Picker House, designed in 1968 by architect Kenneth Wood for Stanley Picker himslef to live amongst his growing collection of art and design objects. The immaculately preserved home, undisturbed since Stanley’s death in 1982, here becomes the subject for a series of artistic projects that that interpret and challenge our evolving understanding of the social, historical and cultural values of the property, its architecture and its collection, more than a quarter of a century since Picker himself occupied the property.
The Occupants will also present ephemera and period photographs of the Picker House from the Stanley Picker Trust archives and is accompanied by a new short film by Fiona Fisher and Gilly Booth/hijack about Kenneth Wood’s wider career, and the UK publication launch of Stanley Picker Fellowship commission A Day in the Life of Ernesto Bones by Ab Rogers Design.
The event on 4 October marks the launch of The Stanley Picker House and Collection: A Late 1960s Home for Modern Art and Design by Jonathan Black, David Falkner, Fiona Fisher, Fran Lloyd, Rebecca Preston and Penny Sparke. Published by Philip Wilson Publishers, the book is the first dedicated to the extraordinary private house and art collection of the founder of the Stanley Picker Trust.