Ghislaine Howard's ‘Pregnant Self Portrait, July 1987' is one of the key works in the Haywood touring exhibition, ‘Acts of Creation: On Art and Motherhood...’ which opened to great acclaim at the Arnolfini Gallery in Bristol on March 9th. The exhibition will travel to various prestigious venues around the country over the next two years.
In 2013, this drawing, which is in the collection of the Whitworth, was at the centre point of the British Museum’s' exhibition, 'Ice Age Art: Arrival of the Modern Mind' and Ghislaine features in a film made to accompany the exhibition: 'Ice Age Art: the Female Gaze', which has had over 65,00 views. Watch the film here.
As Chamber members may know, over the last couple of years Ghislaine and Michael Howard have been engaged in an ongoing series of projects with the Chamber.
Ghislaine is a painter of national reputation who was named as a Woman of the Year 2008 for her contribution to art and society. Her paintings and drawings chart and interpret shared human experience, the movement of the body and the gestures that communicate our feelings.
Michael is an art historian, curator, writer and author of the ground-breaking book, ‘L.S. Lowry: A Visionary Artist’. He is currently completing volume one of a two volume study of the Wigan born painter, Theodore Major. He is also an artist and poet. His first book of paintings and poems, ‘Being There’ has sold out and a new edition is being published.
Ghislaine has exhibited widely, her work hangs in both private and public collections including the Royal Collection, Manchester Art Gallery and the Whitworth. She has had solo exhibitions at many prestigious venues including Manchester Art Gallery, Canterbury Cathedral, Imperial War Museum North and York Minster.
OTHER NEWS
Michael and Ghislaine are very excited that their project ’10 Boroughs / 10 Paintings’ initiated in 2022 has now become an established feature on the cultural and social map of Greater Manchester. they began the project with a painterly ‘conversation’ with ’Captive Andromache’, painted by Lord Leighton in 1888 that hangs in Manchester Art Gallery. This will come to an end in September/October 2024 and will be replaced by a new installation centred upon Bolton Art Gallery and Museum’s beautiful drawing by Barbara Hepworth, the ‘Magnifying Glass’ which is part of a series of drawings that she made in 1947.
This event will properly inaugurate the ’10 Boroughs' project. Each subsequent year Ghislaine and Michael will continue to chose a work of art from one of the ten Greater Manchester borough art galleries and, working with local institutions, businesses and charities, will use that work to highlight issues relevant to today. The result of this engagement will, over a ten year period, form the centre piece of a curated installation of Ghislaine’s work at Elliot House, the HQ of the Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce on Deansgate, Manchester and at a suitable space in the chosen borough itself - a ‘Wall in the Borough’.
For further information about Ghislaine’s work, visit www.ghislainehoward.com