{"id":7246,"date":"2020-03-01T17:31:22","date_gmt":"2020-03-01T17:31:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/?p=7246"},"modified":"2020-03-01T17:31:23","modified_gmt":"2020-03-01T17:31:23","slug":"the-floating-city-beckons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/?p=7246","title":{"rendered":"The Floating City beckons"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Sonia Boyce\/a-n.co.uk<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

On April 19, 1893 the Venetian City Council passed a resolution to set up a biennial exhibition of Italian Art, Esposizione biennale artistica nazionale<\/em>, to celebrate the silver anniversary of King Umberto I and Queen Margherita of Savoy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One year later it was agreed to reserve a section of the exhibition for foreign artists. The first Biennale opened in April 1895, and has continued to run till the present day, apart from closures during the 1st<\/sup> and 2nd<\/sup> world wars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The UK chooses a British artist to represent the art of this\ncountry for each biennale; this year marks a first, because Sonia Boyce RA, the\nchosen artist, is the first black woman to do so. Her work will fill the UK\npavilion from May until November 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Boyce is a British Afro-Caribbean artist who lives and works\nin London. She studied at Stourbridge College, West Midlands. Her early work\naddressed issues of race and gender in the media and in day-to-day life. She\nexpressed these themes through large pastel drawings and photographic collages.\nMore recent work draws on a variety of media such as photographs, collages,\nfilms, prints, drawings, installation and sound.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Boyce first came to prominence at the forefront of the black\nBritish art scene in the early 1980s.  In\n1983 she took part in an exhibition at the Africa Centre in London titled: Five\nBlack Women<\/em>. In 1987, she became the first black woman to enter the Tate\u2019s\ncollection when it bought her drawing titled Missionary Position II<\/em>; 29\nyears later in 2016, she became the first black woman to be elected a Royal\nAcademician.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Pin by Karen Donnelly on My favourite women artists. Sonia Boyce\/Pinterest<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

She is represented in the permanent collections of Arts Council England and in the Tate Modern, London. She is currently Professor of Fine Arts at Middlesex University, London and Professor of Black Art and Design at University of the Arts London.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Boyce has expressed surprise at being chosen to represent British art and has been quoted as saying: \u2018You could have knocked me down with a feather\u2019. However, it seems that she has managed to get over that quickly and is making plans. She has stated that the fall-out from Brexit will inevitably influence her work at the Biennale, as will the idea of nationhood at the event, which is known as the Olympics of the art world.  She notes that the Biennale itself was established to \u2018promote the so-called best of what was happening in any given country or nation.\u2019  She has also hinted that she will be encouraging other people to get involved in a spirit of collaboration. Her enthusiasm is contagious: \u2018Obviously, I\u2019m extremely honoured, excited \u2013 and nervous. I\u2019m eager to start this creative journey, exploring the experience with others who agree to work with me along the way.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Boyce was awarded an OBE in the 2019 Honours list for services to art. I am indebted to Dame Sandra, a keen follower of damesnet and frequent commentator on our blogs, for having drawn my attention to Sonia Boyce\u2019s landmark achievement. We wish her well in Venice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

she has managed to get over that quickly and is making plans<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[73,2,238,69,70,59],"tags":[76,233,247,78,74],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7246"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7246"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7246\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7260,"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7246\/revisions\/7260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}