Warren Reilly – End of Residency Exhibition | ASC Ealing Road
12 – 17 June 2023
Open to the public, booking requested
ASC Ealing Road, Alperton | Venice House, 243 Ealing Rd, Wembley HA0 1QL
Monday 12th June – Saturday 17th June 2023
Opening hours: 10 am – 6 pm
(Please note that the exhibition is closed to the public from the 16th – 18th June outside of the Saturday late viewing. However, visitors are able to book viewings after 7pm on these dates. Please contact the artist (www.
EVENTS
Private view: Thursday 15th June, 6 – 9 pm
Saturday late viewing: Saturday 17th June, 7 – 9 pm
BOOK TICKETS – Exhibition
BOOK TICKETS – Private View
Warren Reilly End of Residency Exhibition and Pop-up Shop
Warren Reilly’s End of Residency Exhibition will be his first London solo show. Over the past two years as a free studio resident at ASC Ealing Road, Alperton, Warren has produced two creative projects that will feature in this exhibition.
During this time Warren has also produced, delivered, and collaborated on crucial community initiatives including ‘By The Cut of Their Cloth’ Exhibition, The ‘Church End Festival’ and ‘The Queer Georgian Social Season’.
The exhibition reflects Warren Reilly’s experience as a visual manifestation of his achievements during this residency, during which he has also established his business ‘Warren Reilly Studio‘.
UNION AIN’T JACK
‘Union Ain’t Jack’ takes inspiration from The Union Jack itself, deconstructing it and forming it into abstract shapes and patterns as Warren Reilly explores the concept of nationalism and what Britishness means to him as a queer, mixed-race artist from a working-class background today and how this reflects both his identity and heritage. Warren began to develop this concept during his final year at Manchester School of Art on the textiles in practice course within his portfolio and his final fashion collection entitled “Mood of The Nation”.
Warren has returned to this concept during his residency with ASC, taking into consideration the uncertainty that is being experienced in this country at present regarding Brexit, the cost of living crisis and the effects of covid resulting in the shocking global pandemic. Now more than ever, the concept of Britishness is ever-changing and is being reshaped and reformed based on new ideologies. Warren has also been inspired by the visual culture displayed by the prestige and pomp of the State Funeral of Her Majesty The Queen, Elizabeth II and the press coverage leading up to the Coronation of King Charles III as well as questioning the effect and control that colonialism still has within our society and the modern world.
Through various drawing and painting processes in the studio, Warren has produced some exciting abstract, experimental works on paper. These works have then been digitally scanned and digitally manipulated, enhanced and transformed into digital paintings, printed onto canvas. Warren has chosen to continue working in the established colour pallet he developed during the Fashioning our History Project for Brent 2020: London Borough of Culture. These abstract shapes are inspired by national symbols and heraldry, deconstructing and recreating a vision of the union jack that has never been seen before, presenting a visual manifestation of the chaos of Britishness at present. Warren has also taken inspiration from his heritage and geographical location, following on from his community initiatives within Brent to use the shape of Brent and London as canvases to display his artworks and visions of Britishness for the future.
MODERN HALLOWS
Back in 2020, Warren Reilly received the prestigious ‘Joan Charnley Textile Prize after completing his textiles in practice degree from the Manchester School of Art with a first-class degree from The Weavers Factory, a Grade-II listed Factory in Greater Manchester which was a contemporary art gallery. Warren was commissioned to create a brand new print design inspired by the archive of Joan Charnley, He created MODERN HALLOWS, a design which is directly inspired by a collage made by Joan Charnley depicting a mysterious and sinister looking church surrounded by a dead woodland. Like Joan Charnley, Warren also found medieval British history a source of inspiration for his work. His rectangular card-shaped prints are reflective of the aesthetic of tarot card reading. Warren’s unique and modern take on tarot card reading reflects issues within our society today, “projecting clues” of what looms in the future.
During his residency with ASC, Warren was determined to transform this print design into a capsule fashion collection. As well as upcycling existing garments, the collection also features limited edition, handmade pieces, printed by Forest Digital, pattern cut and sewn here at ASC, supported by his seamstress, Sarah Farrell. The creation of the capsule collection resulted in this editorial photoshoot, which he achieved working with collaborators he connected with previously at London Fashion Week: Zuzu Valla Photography, model Siobhan Blackburn, and her daughter, Immy, on Hampstead Heath in February 2023. The photography displayed, demonstrates Warren’s determination in seeing a project to the end and belief in the potential of a concept from inception to presentation.
ABOUT THE POP-UP SHOP
Blurring the lines between art and fashion, Warren Reilly Studio will be hosting a pop-up shop during the exhibition to sell products inspired by Warren Reilly’s extensive portfolio of works. This will comprise fashion, accessories, prints, artworks and gifts inspired by Warren Reilly’s practice. For more information, please contact the artist at the links provided below.
About the artist
Warren Reilly is a 25-year-old, award-winning queer, mixed-race artist, designer and historian from the London Borough of Brent. Warren first studied Art and Design at Queens Park Community School during his GCSEs and A Levels. During this period, he studied at the Royal Academy of Art (Attract programme 2014) and Central Saint Martins, UAL (The Album Project 2015 in collaboration with Autograph), through crucial enrichment programmes to encourage young art students from working class and ethnic minority backgrounds to pursue a career in the creative industry. After completing his Art Foundation at Kingston University in 2016, Warren studied Textiles In Practice at Manchester School of Art starting the course in 2017.
Since graduating from university, Warren has led crucial creative and social initiatives to inspire his community. These include receiving Mayor of London funding for the ‘Fashioning our History’ project as part of Brent 2020 London Borough of Culture, which saw him receive the Pride of Brent award. During his two-year free studio residency with ASC Studios, Warren produced ‘By the Cut of their Cloth’, which explores 300 years of Brent’s mixed race and multicultural history in collaboration with the digital museum and archive The Mixed Museum. As of autumn 2022, Warren has now been named the museum’s Associate Creative Director.
www.warrenreillystudio.co.uk
@wr.designs_ | @wr.fineart | @foh.brent
Twitter @reillystudio
warrenreillystudio@outlook.com (sales) | wr.designs@outlook.com (projects)
FUNDING
As a longstanding Church End of Brent Resident of 25 years and following on from his success running community initiatives, Warren was invited to be part of The Church End Community Partnership as part of the GLA’s High-street for All Challenge project in partnership with Brent Council and SAAFI. Warren requested some additional financial support to help to fund and start up his own Business. He successfully received £5000 in which £3000 to pay for a business consultant (Nicola Moore of Upsite London) to help guide him through the initial requirements needed to establish a business through planning and strategy and an additional £2000 through this scheme to put these strategies into practice, along with using the funds to generate artwork to sell during this exhibition and later to create products that will populate a new E-Commerce site via his new square-space website www.
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