Liverpool Biennial 2023 at Victoria Gallery and Museum

Maja Lorkowska, Exhibitions Editor
Liverpool Biennial 2023, uMoy a: The Sacred Return of Lost Things. Installation view at Victoria Gallery & Museum . Courtesy of Liverpool Biennial. Photography by Mark McNulty

Liverpool Biennial 2023 at Victoria Gallery and Museum at Victoria Gallery and Museum, 10 June — 17 September 2023 Entrance is free — Visit now

Liverpool’s Victoria Gallery and Museum has become another stop on the Liverpool Biennial 2023 map, displaying the work of three artists: Antonio Obá, Charmaine Watkiss and Gala Porras-Kim. The works share an interest in spirituality and an engagement with archives and collective memory.

The largest piece on display Jardim (2022) by Antonio Obá (meaning Garden in Portuguese). The installation is created from hundreds of brass bells that visitors can touch. We are invited to follow a path through it and ring the bells. Obá has done extensive research on hunting environments and Jardim is the result, placing the viewer in the position of the hunter and the hunted, by giving away our position.

Gala Porras – Kim, 130 offerings for the rain at the Peabody Museum, 2021. Graphite and ink on paper, frame. Courtesy of the artist and Commonwealth and Council. Photo by Paul Salveson

Charmaine Watkiss’ pieces are illustrated life-sized figures onto which the artist maps ‘memory stories’ – visual representations of her research into the African Caribbean diaspora. In this exhibition, she focuses on rituals, stories and customs that have been carried via the Transatlantic crossing and have become part of the Caribbean culture. Gala Porras-Kim’s drawings Future Spaces Replicate Earlier Spaces (2023) take ancient objects as starting points to imagine and create new forms and their functions. This work highlights the difficulty of remembering.

Where to go near Liverpool Biennial 2023 at Victoria Gallery and Museum

Liverpool
Gallery
LJMU Exhibition Research Lab

Exhibition Research Lab is the first academic centre and art gallery in the UK dedicated to the interdisciplinary study of exhibitions and curatorial knowledge.

Abercromby Square, city parks, urban gardening
Park
Abercromby Square

Abercromby Square in Liverpool was built as a communal garden for the rectangle of 19th-century houses that surround it.

Everyman Theatre
City Centre
Theatre
Liverpool Everyman Theatre

The Everyman Theatre on Liverpool’s Hope Street reopened in March 2014 after extensive renovation. It is twinned with the Playhouse on Williamson Square.

Liverpool
Restaurant
The Reader Bar & Restaurant

The Reader Bar & Restaurant offers diners a bistro-style menu, inspired by continental European flavours and created using locally sourced seasonal produce. 

City Centre
Restaurant
The Pen Factory

From the team behind the old Everyman Bistro comes The Pen Factory, a warm and welcoming space situated in the basement of the Annex Building.

Liverpool
Music venue
Tung Auditorium

The Tung Auditorium is Liverpool’s new, state-of-the art performance space seating up to 400 people and hosting a variety of concerts.

Liverpool
Gallery
Arts Bar Baltic

A safe and creative space, with a mission to help support and develop Liverpool’s artistic scene.

Liverpool
Theatre
Capstone Theatre

The Capstone Theatre, Liverpool’s International Arts Venue, is a concert venue for leading national and international musicians, with a vibrant multi-arts programme.

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