something invisible and powerful and totally uncontrollable

Solo exhibition | 5–28 May 2023, South Square

Solo show at South Square, Bradford

After more than a decade exploring lesser-known and female-led folk arts, Lucy Wright began painting during the Covid-19 lockdown, and intensified her practice after the loss of her father in 2021.

An only child and intentionally childless person, this body of work is concerned primarily with female solitude and the pleasures and consolations of time spent in nature, engaged in non-anthropocentric sociabilities.

Today, as historically, non-male bodies are often problematised in rural places, felt to be simultaneously vulnerable and potentially dangerous, leading many to self-limit their access to wild places (effects which are multiplied for those experiencing intersectional discrimination, e.g. around race and disability). Creating images of her body in juxtaposition with the landscape functions as an act of personal reclamation, while also embracing humanity as an aspect of nature, capable of communion in and with the natural world.

The title—misquoted from a love poem by Mary Oliver—might equally refer to grief, to ‘folk’, and to the life force shared by all beings.

Film by Jules Lister

To read an article about the exhibition by Adam York Gregory, click here.

A photograph of the artist, Lucy Wright, wearing a white ribboner's jacket, with a painted face, standing in a gallery space next two two paintings.
Two people in an art gallery looking at abstract textured art pieces in colorful frames on the wall.
Art gallery with white walls and wooden floors displaying various artwork, including ceramics on a pedestal, mixed media pieces, and framed paintings, with a decorative paper motif lining the base of the walls near the windows.
Gallery wall displaying five framed mixed media artworks with colorful backgrounds and abstract images, with a pile of fabric pieces on the floor beneath.
Two framed watercolor paintings of abstract landscapes with rocks, plants, and southwestern elements, hanging on a white gallery wall near a window.
Four musicians playing classical instruments in an art gallery. A man with a guitar, a man with a cello, a woman with a flute, and a woman with a harp.
Ceramic vase with carved sun and floral designs, holding dried teasel plants, placed on a white surface with a textured beige or cream-colored background.
A framed painting of a woman with long hair laying on the ground with a small animal skull and a horned animal skull on her back, surrounded by a decorative geometric border.
Two people viewing artwork in an art gallery, with torn fabric on the floor around the room's edge.
A man playing a cello in an art gallery with framed artworks on white walls behind him.
Two framed abstract artworks depicting patterns of feathers and skin, with gold-colored backgrounds, displayed on white gallery walls.

Thanks to Harry Jelley, Alice Withers, Chloe Moreton and all at South Square, to Helian and Waters Green Morris for performing at the opening and to Kingswear Gallery framers.