November 2018 — July 2019

Art in Focus: Pots and Podiums

Mawuena Kattah & Yoshiko Phillips

Yoshiko Phillips and Mawuena Kattah are artists based at the innovative studio Intoart, in Peckham, southeast London.  Yoshiko Phillips’ bespoke vinyl wall-based designs create a series of podiums and plinths in direct conversation with framed prints, drawings and paintings of pots by Mawuena Kattah. This is the first time the artists have collaborated on an installation of this scale together. 

Mawuena Kattah’s paintings, prints, ceramics and textiles have been exhibited in major galleries and museums in the UK, including purchase of works by the Arts Council’s National Collection. Her solo exhibition at Tenderbooks in 2016 resulted from a five-month residency in the Victoria and Albert Museum ceramics studio and she has exhibited in further group shows at Whitechapel Gallery and Studio Voltaire London. For ‘Art in Focus: Pots and Podiums’ Kattah has drawn from a significant body of work created since joining the Intoart Studio in 2007. Made during her residency in the V&A ceramics studio and shown for the first time here are Kattah’s series of six pastel drawings of pots, many drawn directly from works in the V&A collections.

Yoshiko Phillips has a bold, graphic illustrative style full of complex motifs, dazzling colours and engaging characters. For ‘Art in Focus: Pots and Podiums’ she has created architecturally scaled, wall based ornaments inspired by gothic and medieval ironwork, masonry and woodwork. Phillips joined the Intoart studio in 2015 where she deploys her unique drawing style in a wide range of media, most recently applying her drawings to knitwear, creating a collection of garments with Iconic British knitwear manufacturer John Smedley, launching Winter 2018 in John Smedley stores. Previous large scale commissions include a hand painted mural for Brick Brewery’s Peckham tap room in 2018.

Intoart is an art and design studio supporting the work of 24 practising artists and designers working in illustration, fashion, ceramics, product and graphic design. Founded in 2001, Intoart began as an eight-week project to respond to a lack of high-quality arts education and limited opportunities for people with learning disabilities. Determined to challenge preconceptions and overturn prejudices, Intoart aims to provide a platform for people with learning disabilities to become both visible and equal in the art world – not merely applauded for participating but recognised and respected as creatives in their own right. Since its foundation, Intoart has realised exhibitions, commissions and research projects with contemporary art galleries and museums in the UK and internationally, including the Victoria and Albert Museum, Tate, Southbank Centre, Whitechapel Gallery and Studio Voltaire.

Read more about Intoart on their website.