87 Gallery at Artlink Hull has announced its latest exhibition, The Nearness of Elsewhere, by internationally acclaimed artist Emma Prempeh, running from 4th October to 19th December 2024.
The exhibition will launch to the public on Friday 3rd October, 6pm-8 pm, including a quiet hour from 5pm-6pm. Emma will also lead a tour of the exhibition on Saturday 4th October, 11:30am-12:30pm, as part of Hull’s Black History Month celebrations.
Having recently exhibited in New York (USA), Lagos (Nigeria) and London (UK), Prempeh will present her next major solo exhibition here in Hull. Known for her distinctive blend of painting and digital projection, she creates immersive environments that reflect on home and belonging through the lens of her African-Caribbean heritage.
The Nearness of Elsewhere takes inspiration from Prempeh’s time in Hull, where she led workshops and attended community gatherings to weave local stories into her practice. The work merges bay windows from Hull’s terrace houses, flowers from neighbourhood greenspaces, and views of the Humber Bridge with imagery from her native South London, exploring the transient and layered nature of diasporic identity, memory, and place.
“Emma Prempeh is an incredibly important artist who has been exhibiting internationally over the past few years. It’s been a privilege to work closely with Emma on this commission, and to bring her exceptional work to Hull.” said Lindsay Alvis, CEO of 87 Gallery. “At 87 Gallery, we’re proud to present The Nearness of Elsewhere, which speaks to shared experiences of home, belonging, and identity in ways that resonate both locally and globally.”
Becky Gee, Curator at 87 Gallery, added: “Emma has created an internationally significant body of work that is deeply rooted in Hull and its people. By weaving together her own experiences with the stories of our communities, this exhibition offers a poignant reflection on how narratives of place and identity overlap, intertwine, and evolve.”
This summer, Emma also invited Hull residents to directly contribute to her canvases through collaborative mark-making, images, and text. These community contributions are subtly embedded within her work, creating layers of shared expression that connect personal narratives with wider diasporic themes. Alongside the main exhibition, visitors can also explore these contributions in more detail in Our Community Gallery, a flexible, creative space in which we platform the outcomes of our community, outreach and learning programmes and celebrate the artists who participate in these strands of our work.
Speaking about the exhibition, Emma Prempeh said: “In this series, I reflect on the traditions of magic realist literature such as Haruki Murakami’s The Wind-up Bird Chronicle and Gabriel Garcia Márquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude to playfully reimagine Hull, a city I have experienced in a fleeting but memorable way. For me, magic resides in the intangible aspects of the human experience, in emotions that resist logic and in fleeting connections. Hull in this body of work comes alive as I try to reveal how the everyday carries quiet mysteries, colliding time spent with inhabitants of the city with my personal encounters. My approach moves between the familiar and unfamiliar in an attempt to reframe the city through painting, projection and installation. We live, we endure, and we move on, but it is the magic of these intangible layers that make a place unforgettable.”
As part of her final research visit Emma worked on site at 87 Gallery with Misc. Print Co. to produce a limited-edition screen print inspired by flowers seen on her visits to local green spaces around Hull. The print will be available to purchase in person at 87 Gallery and online at at87.co.uk
The Nearness of Elsewhere is curated in collaboration with Tiwani Contemporary and runs at 87 Gallery, Artlink Hull, from 4 October – 19 December 2024. Opening times: Thursday-Saturday, 10am-4:30pm. Address: 87 Princes Avenue, Hull, East Yorkshire, HU5 3QP.