BELFAST School of Art graduate Mohammed Sami has been nominated for the Turner Prize.
Born in Baghdad and raised as a refugee in Sweden, he dominated his degree show with enormous, shiny, apocalyptic paintings of the bombed-out world of his memory. He now lives in London and has been nominated for his exhibition last year, 'After the Storm', in the 300-year-old Blenheim Palace in his home city, which draws on 'allegorical representations of conflict, violence and loss'. Perhaps that was why he was attracted to study in Belfast.
The main exhibition will be held in Bradford in September and continues the local connection to the world's most prestigious modern art prize. The Belfast Array Collective, since winning the prize in 2021, have travelled all over the world, bringing their eclectic artistic vision to the masses. They recently moved into a new building in East Belfast. We wish them good luck with that and we wish Mohammed all the very best with his nomination.
Meanwhile, the Northern Ireland Mental Health Arts Festival has launched at Stormont. It has evolved in recent years and I can say through my involvement that we are trying to bring a sense of the various ways that the arts and mental health are connected. The festival is sandwiched between two free symposiums, on May 9 in the Mac and May 20 in Derry's Guildhall.
The arts and mental health are a fascinating combination, but one which is badly under-funded and under-acknowledged locally. The South of Ireland have a well-developed festival of their own, but with the complexities and distinct issues we have here locally we simply cannot be tacked on as an afterthought to a bigger, more established event.
So we're focusing on the theme 'Catharsis' which can be explained as 'a release of emotional tension after an overwhelming experience that restores or refreshes the spirit'. And that is surely something that our region as a whole can benefit from. The festival offers opportunities to reflect, participate, draw, sing, be poetic, laugh. You can consider how the arts is helping with the healing of those with severe head injuries by letting them dance the flamenco. Other strange and wonderful partnerships abound.
Art is Collective are staging an exhibition of some of our members' work in 2 Royal Avenue and to say we are proud of how people have taken up the gauntlet of letting art transform their beings is an understatement. Art is a game-changer and to be immersed in it is to be on a journey that can keep you company for a lifetime.
For details, check out the website www.nimhaf.org – where you'll find that most events are free.
Good news on the artists' studio shortage front. Vault Artists NI are taking over a new building – their largest one yet. 30 Corporation Street will provide 50 artists with studio space. It's another bite out of the waiting list for studios and another derelict building being brought back to life in the city centre. And those can only be good things.
Late Night Art is on Thursday, March 1, when all the city's galleries are open late and you can get get a flavour of what the city's artists have been up to. If you're not sure where they all are, just select a gallery and pick up a map, or simply follow the crowd.
