Appointed Dec 2017
Mary Evans is a Nigerian-born British installation artist. She studied at Goldsmiths College London and the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam. Evans deploys a pictographic visual Esperanto to make site-based spatially dynamic installations using a variety of media, her signature medium being brown packing paper. Pattern is a strong leitmotif in Evans’s practice, however, the work is rarely pure ornament but often reveals the historical, architectural or social threads of its source. Evans’ primary research interests are the social, political and historical frameworks of Diaspora, migration, global mobility and exchange. Evans investigates how the social, cultural and political dynamics of modern Britain are in many respects the bitter/sweet legacy of Britain’s imperial past. This cross-cultural discourse is paralleled by a secondary discourse that links methods of image production, ‘fine art’ and ‘craft’, decoration and ornament.
Evans has taken part in several exhibitions in the UK and Internationally, including group and solo exhibitions in Mexico, the USA, The Netherlands, China, South Africa, Belgium, Ireland and Brazil. Evans will represent the UK at the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Women to Watch exhibition Paper Routes in Washington DC in Summer 2020.
Evans is also the recipient of several residencies, awards and commissions, including the Floor Commission at the Evelina Children’s Hospital London (2005), The Arts Council Grants for the Arts (2005 and 2015); Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship, National Museum of African Art, Washington DC, USA (2010) and The Arts & Literary Arts Residency, Rockefeller Foundation, Bellagio Italy (2014).
Mary Evans was a gallery artist educator for many years engaging with groups at the National Gallery, V&A, Whitechapel Art Gallery, Creative Partnerships and the NHS. Evans also has an active teaching practice and teaches as an Associate Lecturer on the BA Fine Art course at Central Saint Martins her particular passions in education being academic support, widening participation, attainment and retention.