Art is Ours, Mine and Yours! Assunta and Lou Art Club
23 May - 13 June
Launch Event: Sat 23 May, 3 - 5pm
Documentation image credit: Beki Melrose
Bloc Projects is delighted to present Art is Ours, Mine and Yours!, the first major solo presentation by the parent-child artist duo Assunta and Lou Art Club.
During the COVID-19 lockdown in 2020, Assunta's home studio became a space for both art and childcare at once. Unable to work independently, she began making with Lou, then four years old, using a household scanner and printer alongside professional art materials. Their drawings evolved through layering interventions and soon, at Lou's suggestion, Assunta and Lou began inviting other children and parents/carers to also make art alongside them under the banner of an art club. The works in the exhibition include pieces made by Assunta and Lou alongside works made with other children and parents/carers in their workshops.
Accompanying the exhibition are a series of family-inclusive events that will take place during the May half-term. Join us for:
3 facilitated workshops at the gallery during the May half-term (Tues 26 May; Thu 28 May; Fri 29 May)
Making Space for Children and Art on Wed 27 May: a 1-day symposium organised in partnership with the Art Working Parents Alliance and hosted by Millennium Gallery. Details coming soon!
Assunta and Lou Art Club is an artist duo composed of a mother and child. Lou is ten years old and has been collaborating with her mother Assunta since 2020. Assunta Ruocco is an Italian-Belgian artist and researcher based in Nottingham, and a Lecturer in Fine Art at the University of Lincoln. Her practice focuses on collaboration, care, and the conditions of cultural and academic labour, working across drawing, printmaking, photography, and digital technologies. This work has been supported by Arts Council England and shown at Eastside Projects, Two Queens, Primary Nottingham, Stryx Gallery Birmingham, and the Storey Gallery Lancaster. Assunta and Lou also run regular art workshops for children and parents and carers at Nottingham Central Library.