About this Event
Join us for an informal get together to celebrate the Turner Prize coming to Middlesbrough and the rich diverse programming.
From 12:30-1:15pm join us for an informal opportunity to spend time with the Verisimilitude exhibition, chat and mingle.
1:30-2:30 we will have Elena Jackson in Conversation with Liaqat Rasul.
New Territories
Join artist Liaqat Rasul as he discusses the expansion of his creative practice over the past year. At the heart of this discussion is his striking work, Ma, amader bhater phaen dao (Mother Give us Rice Water). The large metal face exploring the 1943 Bengal famine stands as the centrepiece of LittleBoro, Middlesbrough Art Week’s creative container village on Centre Square. Rasul will be joined in conversation by two key figures who recently commissioned his work: Elena Jackson, co-director of the National Festival of Making, who invited him into a factory residency for the Art in Manufacturing programme. Stella Hall, who commissioned Rasul’s first public outdoor sculpture here in Middlesbrough.
Together, they will explore the joys and challenges of collaborating with industrial partners, working alongside fabricators, and bringing ambitious art into public spaces.
This event is free and hosted by Artists and Verisimilitude curators Penny Payne & Will Hughes with refreshments provided.
This event is part of the Turner on Tees wrap around activities which are taking place across the Tees Valley, commissioned in collaboration with MIMA
You can find more information below about the exhibition this event takes place in.
Verisimilitude: the appearance of being real of true is a new exhibition brings together four artists at different career stages to ask how authenticity itself is made.
Supported by the Henry Moore Foundation, Turner on Tees and Middlesbrough Art Week, curators Penny Payne and Will Hughes present Verisimilitude, an exhibition of works by Luke Beech, Garth Gratrix, Kitty McKay and Liz Wilson.
The exhibition brings together works that explore layered storytelling, personal truths and material deception. Through the use of verisimilitude, the appearance of being real or true, each artist constructs a sense of ‘truthlikeness’ where materials, details and narratives blur fact and fiction. Rather than presenting object realities the works question how authenticity is constructed, perceived and experienced.
Each artist represents a distinct moment on their artistic path, from emerging to visible. This intercareer approach creates a dynamic dialogue across practices, methodologies, and the development of sculptural language. By bringing together artists at different stages of their careers, the exhibition foregrounds the evolving nature of contemporary sculpture in the UK while highlighting the importance of sustained support throughout every stage of artistic growth.
Image credit: Luke Beech, Kneeling Legs, Installation shot at Humber Street Gallery, 2023. Photo by Jules Lister.
Event venue & nearby stays
Centre Square, 2 Centre Square, Middlesbrough, United Kingdom
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