Open Space Contemporary and Everything I Want are delighted to present an all women group exhibition titled Ladies’ Paradise, which takes place at Grace Belgravia with emerging artists Merve İşeri, Sofia Stevi, Clementine Keith-Roach and Güneş Terkol.

From 22 February until the 8 April at the Grace Belgravia, a spa and medical centre for women, the exhibition will explore the notion of the body, internal desires, the role of the female and abstraction through different mediums such as ceramics by Clementine Keith-Roach, canvas paintings by Merve İşeri, drawings by Sofia Stevi and sewn textiles by Güneş Terkol. Through variations of material, medium, texture and techniques, each of the four artists’ practices and works overlap through intimacy and form.

The title of the exhibition Ladies’ Paradise is inspired by Emile Zola’s eleventh novel titled Au Bonheur des Dames, which takes place in a department store in the mid-19th century. The modernisation of the store and the different roles of women in the book are intertwined with the structure of the exhibition, which focuses on femininity, the body, the differing levels of society, gender and identity politics.

In her work Merve İşeri paints directly from the tube, both in acrylic and oil, using pastels and her fingers to work on the cotton she has dyed. In her symbolic, abstract paintings, İşeri aims to develop personal conversations with the viewer. In the same vein, Sofia Stevi merges two opposites in her work; living and dreaming. Her large scale paintings on untreated cotton fabric convey a simultaneous sense of passively observing and actively experiencing different spaces. Clementine Keith-Roach’s artistic style comes from her interest in museums, interiors, souvenirs and ancient objects of the history of form and texture which all have a presence in her sensuous ceramics. She Güneş Terkol takes inspiration from her immediate surroundings, collecting materials and stories, which she weaves into her sewing pieces, videos, sketches and musical compositions both collectively and individually. The four female artists are not only inspired by their surroundings, but also by their inner world as they explore the notion of belonging, identity to a place and the politics of the body.

Ladies’ Paradise merges form, abstraction and figuration in response to Grace Belgravia’s classic architecture and sightly location. The curators say:

I am thrilled to be starting 2018 with this exciting collaborative co-curated exhibition. Nadja Romain and I have been in conversation for a while on how we can work together and the exhibition Ladies’ Paradise. It has been a great way to pursue our conversation into feminist theory, site specificity through four exceptional female contemporary artists. Since its foundation in 2014, Open Space Contemporary has been promoting cross-cultural dialogue between artists, curators and art practitioners in London and Istanbul through a nomadic nature.

(Huma Kabakcı)

Having being working on women’s empowerment for many years it is exciting to engage a dialogue with Huma and this group of young female talents. As a member of Grace Belgravia I am thrilled by the opportunity to open this conversation on the female body in a place where women come to improve their body, health and appearance. It’s a unique opportunity to discuss one of the main topic in our society: the display of the female body and the symbolic around it.

(Nadja Romain)