Go On Being So | Exhibition at Newlyn Art Gallery, Newlyn, Cornwall

Go On Being So

Image: Arts Council Collection National Partners Programme
Image: Michael Armitage, Kariakor, 2015 Arts Council Collection, Southbank Centre, London © the artist
Image: Joanna Piotrowska, Untitled, 2014 Arts Council Collection, Southbank Centre, London © the artist
Image: Karl Ohiri, How to Mend a Broken Heart, 2013 Arts Council Collection, Southbank Centre, London © the artist
Image: Young In Hong, Burning Love, 2014 Arts Council Collection, Southbank Centre, London © the artist
Image: Joanna Price, Blue Pietà, 1992 Arts Council Collection, Southbank Centre, London © the artist's estate. Gift of Charles Saatchi, 1999
Image: Mario Rossi, The End / Untitled Series 1996 Arts Council Collection, Southbank Centre, London © the artist
Image: Rod Dickinson, Egg Bag, Arts Council Collection, Southbank Centre, London © the artist. Gift of Charles Saatchi, 1999

14 Feb — 12 Sep 2020

Newlyn Art Gallery

An Arts Council Collection National Partners Programme Exhibition.

Go On Being So is curated by the MBA Collective, a group of art, photography and graphics students from Mounts Bay Academy aged between 12 and 16 years.

An incidental conversation between the 14 students around what it means to be a global citizen was the starting point for their exploration of the Arts Council Collection, bringing together an intriguing selection of works that say something about the world today and their place in it.

MBA Collective looked for works which resonated with them, while also considering pieces that illustrated issues other young people in different parts of the world may be facing.

“We chose works that said something about big issues for us personally, and are universal to people of our age, such as mental health and equality,” explained the Collective.

The title Go On Being So refers to their quest for strength and resilience; “things might not be too good but there’s still life, you’re still living, there’s still beauty in it”, as demonstrated in works such as Karl Ohiri’s How to Mend A Broken Heart, and Rod Dickinson’s Egg Bag. The title also acts as a provocation, reflected in works such as Gavin Jantjes’ Freedom Hunters and Donald Rodney’s Self Portrait: Black Men Public Enemy; “it then becomes a challenge: Go On Being So – Can we? Should we?”

MBA Collective, Nov 2019

Other artists featured include Michael Armitage, Larry Achiampong & David Blandy, Sarah Beddington, Michelle Williams Gamaker, Margaret Harrison, Andrew Herman, Young In Hong, Claudette Johnson, Joanna Piotrowska, Joanna Price, Mario Rossi, Ibrahim El-Salahi and Ross Sinclair.

See how the Collective selected the works

For our summer exhbitions we usually produce a Family Think & Do activity booklet. This year, you can find the activities to do at home on our 360 Virtual Tours. Look out for the six green actvity circles in each exhibition tour.

Listen to artist Gaving Jantjes talking to the curators of Go On Being So.

Listen to a conversation between artists Young In Hong and Michelle Williams Gamaker, who both have work in Go On Being So.

Both Go On Being So and Hippo Campus: Where We Learn were created before the Covid-19 pandemic, but in many ways the themes of each exhibition are more pertinent now than when they originally opened in Feb 2020.

Newlyn Art Gallery & The Exchange is an Arts Council Collection National Partner. The Arts Council Collection is managed by Southbank Centre, London on behalf of Arts Council England.

Find out more about the Arts Council Collection National Partners Programme