With the days drawing darker and the application for stall-holders deadline soon approaching, we are in full swing with preparations for this year’s Winter Craft Market.

32 artworks and written pieces submitted by inmates of HMP Grendon for the Koestler Trust annual arts award have received awards or commendations. This includes 20 commendations, 3 Bronze Awards, 4 Silver Awards, 3 Gold Awards, and 2 Platinum Awards for a matchstick model of Land Rover Defender 110 by Philip and a poetry collection entitled Crime, Love and Literature by Moses.

The new issue of the Prison Service Journal is a special edition, focusing on: The Arts in Prison. It features a review of In Place of Hate, Edmund Clark’s exhibition at Ikon Gallery, by Professor Yvonne Jewkes; a review of Edmund Clark’s residency at HMP Grendon by Birmingham City University’s Elizabeth Yardley and Dan Rusu; as well as an interview with Edmund Clark by Michael Fiddler of University of Greenwich. The issue is available to download on the Centre for Crime and Justice website.

Ming de Nasty is currently artist in residence on Ikon’s Slow Boat. We asked her about LADYWOOD –  a series of portraits of female refugees that are displayed around the Soho Loop. 

Over two days on 14 – 15 August HMP Grendon saw In Place of Hate, Edmund Clark’s installation originally exhibited at Ikon Gallery in Birmingham from 6 December 2017 until 11 March 2018, presented to the prison inmates, staff, as well as invited guests.

On Wednesday 25 July, artist and Ladywood resident Maral Mamaghanizadeh is leading a workshop on Ikon’s Slow Boat.

Read more about Oliver’s work experience week at Ikon.

From 14–17 June, Ikon hosted The Migrant Festival; a four day festival fusing themes of migration, fashion, art and music. Curated by fashion designer Osman Yousefzada, it was organised to coincide with his exhibition at Ikon Being Somewhere Else (6–29 June 2018).

This catalogue accompanied artist Edmund Clark’s exhibition In Place of Hate at Ikon Gallery. Clark was Ikon’s artist in residence at Europe’s only entirely therapeutic prison, HMP Grendon, in Buckinghamshire. This exhibition is the culmination of his residency, combining photography, video and installation to explore ideas of visibility, representation, trauma and self-image and address how prisoners and the criminal justice system are perceived and discussed by the public, politicians and media in Britain today.

My Shadow’s Reflection is part of a body of work made by Edmund Clark as artist in residence in Europe’s only entirely therapeutic prison environment, HMP Grendon.

Read more about the workshops with Glenn Howells Architects, which involved making models reminiscent of the ones that appear in the Langlands & Bell exhibition.

British artist Edmund Clark is Ikon’s artist-in-residence (2014–2018) at Europe’s only entirely therapeutic prison, HMP Grendon, in Buckinghamshire. In Place of Hate (Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, 6 Dec 2017 – 11 Mar 2018) is the culmination of his residency, comprising photography, video and installation.Clark, an artist with a longstanding interest in incarceration and its effects, has worked with inmates, prison officers and therapeutic staff, immersed himself in the prison routines and taken part in wing community meetings, a key element of life at Grendon. Clark’s work is shaped by his engagement with issues of censorship, security and control. He cannot make images that reveal the identity of the prisoners or details of the security infrastructure and so his response has been to create work that explores ideas of visibility, representation, trauma and self-image. These themes influence how prisoners and the criminal justice system are perceived by the public, politicians and media and are above all central to the experience of the men and staff engaged in the therapeutic process at Grendon.

Read more about Pete James’s, visit to the West Midlands Police Museum.

Anna McNay writes: “Edmund Clark isn’t one to pick easy subjects for his work. As an editorial photographer, he found himself working with teenage fathers and elderly prisoners, and this set him on his route to working with terror suspects, prisoners in Guantánamo Bay, and, most recently, a three-year residency at the UK’s only wholly therapeutic prison, HMP Grendon, where he worked with the inmates to produce four new bodies of challenging work, each employing methods new to his practice, which are now on show at the Ikon Gallery, Birmingham.”

In this film artist artist Edmund Clark talks about his Ikon exhibition – In Place of Hate (6 December 2017 – 11 March 2018).

In this film, Jane Stewart (Principle Curator at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery) gives an insight into the life and work of Thomas Bock.

Interview with artist Edmund Clark to coincide with Ikon’s exhibition – Edmund Clark, In Place of Hate (6 December 2017 – 11 March 2018).

Rosalind Duguid writes in her interview with Edmund Clark for Elephant magazine: “In the first room of Edmund Clark’s exhibition at Ikon Gallery, a low white wall demarcates a small rectangular space. Built into the top of this wall is a lightbox layered with an array of pressed wild flowers. It’s a delicate vision until you realize that the cramped space outlined is the exact dimensions of a cell within HMP Grendon, the prison at which Clark has been artist-in-residence for the past three years.”

Read more about Ikon Slow Boat artist-in-residence Mahtab Hussain’s, time at Ladywood Health and Community Centre.

Last week saw the third annual exhibition of the prisoners’ artwork held at HMP Grendon. Organised by the inmates themselves under the supervision of Edmund Clark the exhibition was visited by over 60 invited artists, curators, writers and other interested guests, as well as many of the staff. The event, held at the conference centre of the prison, is an important opportunity for the inmates to meet the visitors and discuss their art and their activities at HMP Grendon. One of the guests commented: “I’m grateful for the opportunity to become a small part of this excellent approach to helping the men in Grendon. It’s added another dimension to my life.” Another had written: “This exhibition and day have felt like an immense privilege. I hope the programme to support the artists here can continue for many, many years.”

Here at Ikon, we aim to support both emerging and established artists and creatives. As a way of showcasing local makers, Ikon Gallery is hosting a Winter Craft Market on 14 December 4-8pm, with a late night opening of the galleries. This will be a perfect chance to find those last-minute Christmas presents, and you can enjoy 20% discount in Ikon Shop across a range of products.

Donatella Montrone writes in her article in the British Journal of Photography: “As an artist-in-residence for three years, the self-taught photographer immersed himself in prison life, working closely with inmates, wardens and therapeutic staff to create In Place of Hate, a multi-faceted series that, according to Ikon, “explores ideas of visibility, representation, trauma and self-image”, and how these influence the way in which prisoners and the criminal justice system are perceived in Britain today.”

From the introduction of In Place of Hate: Edmund Clark’s new work from Grendon prison by Miranda Green, published in FT Weekend Magazine: “The award-winning artist has spent years working on projects about incarceration and control but, as Grendon’s artist-in-residence, he spent an intense two or more days a week on the inside, beginning in 2014. There he made his own work in response to the prison environment, and facilitated art made by the men as part of their intensive psychotherapy and rehabilitation.”

Berlin-based artist Sofia Hultén grew up in Birmingham during a time of major industrial decline. This contextualises her choice of subject matter and materials, using found mass-produced objects and industrial waste as the basis for her philosophical, humourous curiosities. Having trained as a sculptor at Sheffield Hallam University, she now redefines our pre-existing idea of ‘sculpture’, instead as an expandable media with a performative potential.