Past Resident
2011: Arts Council England

Michael Forbes

Michael Forbes’ practice includes painting, photography and sculptural installations. His work explores European and African history, and the Black Diaspora within a contemporary visual discourse. Within all his work Forbes actively pursues the notion of beauty, by attempting to understand the relationship between the brain, eyes and emotions. To this end he uses rich saturated colours, which appeals to the child within.

Michael Forbes is an artist, curator and a director of Nottingham Studios, an artist-led studio group. He has curated or had work included the following exhibitions: Because I Can in a “Pop Up” space in Nottingham, UK; The Inconsistency of Everything, New Art Exchange (NAE); Next We Change Earth, NAE; The Redemptive Beauty of Life After Death, The Bonington Gallery, Nottingham; When Men and Mountain Meet, Gallery One, Zagreb, Croatia; Mostyn Open, Oriel Mostyn Gallery, Llandudno, North Wales; Celebration of Death, Photo Club, Zagreb; Strength of Feeling, a Retrospective of Sokari Douglas Camp, NEA; Once Upon a Time in the West there was Lace, Yard Gallery, Nottingham, UK.

Xenia Fink

Xenia Fink’s recent work consists of drawings layered in boxes resembling traditional dioramas of the 19th century.  In addition, she creates installations and objects such as marquees, shower cubicles, and fabric wallpapers, with which she imbues inherent connotations of a product or artifact to juxtapose with her drawings. She draws and silkscreens prints with content ranging from strong narrative to more conceptual and ornamental material approaches.

Xenia Fink (born 1979 in Sao Paulo, Brazil) was raised in Brazil and Mexico before moving back to Germany to study Illustration at the University of Applied Sciences in Hamburg. Recent exhibitions include group shows at the Kunstraum Kreuzberg/Bethanien, Berlin; Galerie Schuster, Berlin and Miami; and solo shows at the Galerie Volkspark and Halle and Galerie Schuster, Berlin.

Past Resident
2011: Nogueras Blanchard

Wendy Navarro

Wendy Navarro is an independent art critic and curator currently based in Barcelona, Spain. Since the mid 1990s, she has been an active curator at the Visual Art Development Center (CDAV) in Havana, Cuba, while working as an editor of the magazine ArteCubano, and lectured about Cuban contemporary art at the Higher Institute of Art (ISA) and the Faculty of Arts and Literature of Havana University. Her curatorial practice focused on establishing links between the work of artists from different latitudes, such as in Collective Utopia, Casa América Cataluña, Barcelona; “Asalto al Cielo”: Insular Strategies of Cuban Videoart, LOOP Video Art Fair, Barcelona; “Heteronimous: oneself’s others”: Centro Cultural Conde Duque, Madrid and Correspondence, VIII Havana Biennial. She also has collaborated with institutions such as the Consortium of Museums of the Valencian Community; Hardcore Contemporary Art Space, Miami; Gallery TAIK, Berlin-Helsinski; Gallery Nogueras Blanchard, Barcelona and The Center for Contemporary Culture (CCCB), Barcelona.

Wendy Navarro has published extensively in catalogues and magazines such as ArtNexus; SalonKritik; ABC de ARCO; Revista Atlántica de las Artes CAAM and participated in several symposiums related to Latin American art including International Forum of Latin American Art, Arco Art Fair, Madrid; Latin American Dialogues, Patrimonio Cultural y Artístico of the Generalitat Valenciana; Multiculturalims, Institutions and Relationships North- South, 10 Havana Biennial; Workshop of Carlos Garaicoa, Professional School of Fine Arts, Complutense University, Madrid, among others.