Hannah Maybank, A Dance, 2024-2025 and onwards, 90 x 75cm, bone black in watercolour with varnished and unvarnished silver leaf on linen
Hannah Maybank
Un-Still
Hannah Maybank was born in 1974, the year the Garman Ryan Collection first went on display in the gallery above the library on Lichfield Street. This collection would go on to have a pivotal influence on Hannah’s development as an artist. Alice Weldon’s drawing of Cyclamen inspired work for her Art A-Level, and now Hannah has created of a brand new painting, ‘Gathering’, featuring chrysanthemum flowers, as a gift for the Gallery’s 25th birthday.
The medium of silver (leaf), has become fundamental within the artist’s practice over the last decade, and reflects the celebration of a quarter of a century; while their innovative use of materials means the work will continue to develop and change over time, visually demonstrating the process of ageing; a ‘living still life’.
Hannah’s practice has always been rooted in the still life genre, with the materiality of the work a central component. The artist has traditionally used the natural world as inspiration, relishing all aspects of the creation process, growing flowers in their suburban London garden to draw from again and again, in correspondence with the season, and experimenting in using raw, natural materials to create pigments from which to develop beautifully delicate watercolours.
We are proud and privileged to be the first to present Hannah’s most recent work nestled within the domestic context of the Garman Ryan Collection, and to allow the opportunity for the artist to re-present the Flowers and Still Life room adjacent to the exhibition space, with favourite examples of the genre from both the Garman Ryan and Permanent Collections.
The development of Un-Still, has been the impetus for Hannah to begin a new body of work, Stories from the Glass Harp, looking at the collectable objects which have become an everyday part of the family home. Glassware bought for special occasions and used at family gatherings and dinner parties, which have then passed down the generations, collecting memories. By immortalising them in carefully crafted compositions, preserving the legacies of all the people who held and used them.
In the same way, the Garman Ryan Collection objects were once fruit bowls, stools, part of the family furniture, and now preserved as ‘still life’. These artefacts are anything but still, they speak of activity and use, love and memories.
To coincide with Hannah’s exhibition, our Collections Community Panel has selected works from our Permanent Collection which speak to them individually of the themes of Ageing, Memory, Growth and Transformation, to mark the Gallery’s special birthday. This display is presented on Floor 1 in the Main Hall, next to the World Objects case.
Hannah is also developing a limited edition print to celebrate the Gallery’s 25th birthday, which will launch at a special event in Autumn 2025
Exhibition launch
Saturday 7 June
Come and be the first to see Hannah Maybank’s brand new painting at the exhibition launch, with a free introduction at 2pm. All Welcome.
In-Conversation with Hannah Maybank and Limited Edition Print Launch
Saturday 11 October, 2pm. Free. Booking essential.
Join exhibiting artist, Hannah Maybank, and Gallery Collections Curator, Julie Brown, for an in-conversation about their new exhibition, Un-Still.
Following the introduction to the project, there will be the opportunity for a Q&A session with Hannah, and the first look at a new limited edition print the artist has produced for the Gallery shop, to celebrate The New Art Gallery Walsall’s 25th birthday, which combines the artist’s interests in the application of silver-leaf and exploration of the still-life genre.
Hannah Maybank audio recordings
Growing up with the Collections
Illusion and Reality. Chaos and Control
Living Still Lives
On the way to Gathering