What Grows In Between
The New Art Gallery Walsall is pleased to present What Grows In Between, a group exhibition of newly commissioned work made during the third iteration of Assembly, a development programme for local artists held in partnership with arts organisation Multistory. This year we have supported Dan Booth, Abraham Babajide Cole and Hannah Rollason. Through painting, sculpture and installation, the artists explore connection and transformation as ways of navigating uncertain times.
Dan Booth uses figurative painting to explore place, memory, the performance of masculinity and class dynamics. Figures such as the football hooligan appear as recurring archetypes in his paintings, signifying alienation and belonging in male spaces, as well as the absurdity and humour of everyday social rituals. Recently, Booth found himself drawn to the image of the public swimming baths, and to the more personal subject of family life. Tenderness and threat coexist within these paintings. Moments of family and community unfold against a backdrop of decaying, under-resourced public infrastructure, portraying an experience of fatherhood shaped by the uncertainties of the current climate.
Abraham Babajide Cole’s practice investigates themes of migration, cultural heritage and collective memory, reflecting the fluid nature of identity. His new sculpture Elsewhere Has Entered the Body, considers the body as a vessel where identity is shaped over time, and traces the journey towards psychic liberation and transcendence. Nature plays a central role in Cole’s practice; he works with organic materials such as beeswax, charcoal and clay, chosen for their capacity to degrade over time. The works reflect on the vitality to be found in transformation and movement beyond the confines of national borders, and through a reconnection to the natural world.
Hannah Rollason is an artist educator whose work explores the intersections of ecology and knowledge production, and the tensions between ‘human’ and ‘nature’, urban and wild. Drawing on her experience as a teacher and her PGCE training, she is interested in the potential of arts education to widen access to public discourse and build civic power. Her most recent work explores plants and more-than-human networks as models for alternative learning and connection. She draws on the concept of the rhizome to propose non-linear, interconnected ways of understanding the world, challenging capitalist structures that exclude many from the conversations shaping our shared future.
Events
In Conversation
Saturday, 26 September, 2pm
Join the artists in conversation with Jess Piette of Multstory and Deborah Robinson of The New Art Gallery Walsall.
Artist Biographies
Dan Booth
Born in Stoke-on-Trent and living in the Black Country, I am an artist using figurative painting to explore narrative, place and memory as well as themes of belonging, threat, alienation and class dynamics – drawing on both a dialogue with art history and elements of autobiography. My practice involves developing compositions from drawing and collage, working from found images, memory and life. My source material has included football hooliganism, darts players, industrial landscapes and my family. I’m interested in exploring images, words, phrases, signals or customs which identify membership of a particular group or culture, which form a spectrum from celebrations of dialect, unity and belonging to division, persecution and violence. I have exhibited in and around the West Midlands for the last ten years, am currently recently studying for a Masters in Fine Art at the Birmingham School of Art, 17 years after completing my degree.
Abraham Babajide Cole is a Nigerian-born, UK-based visual artist working across painting, drawing, and mixed-media installation. His practice investigates themes of migration, identity, and cultural heritage, weaving layered visual narratives that connect personal memory with collective history. Rooted in Yoruba philosophies of selfhood beyond the physical, Cole employs abstraction, fragmentation, and material experimentation to explore the unseen forces that shape human experience. His evolving practice incorporates sculptural elements such as clay and textured surfaces, creating multi-dimensional works that reflect the fluid nature of belonging.
Hannah Rollason
As a conceptual artist, I create large-scale installations to engage audiences physically and psychologically. My multimedia work including but not limited to drawing, photography, film, and ceramics. Embracing form and aesthetics, the manipulation of media draws out symbolism, metaphor, and myth within the context of the work. Focusing on Climate Change, my work explores the relationship between humans and nature specifically the interactions, connections, and disconnections of urbanisation, agriculture, rural, and wild. Initial inspiration comes from personal exchanges and everyday visual influences, often drawing in subjects such as history, ecology, and social politics to create an interdisciplinary practice.
