The third iteration of Incubator, the recurring series of adrenalised back-to-back, week-long solo exhibitions showcasing the work of exceptional, emerging artists working in London, initiated and led by Angelica Jopling is back.
Incubator 22 features the artists Clara Hastrup, Evelina Hägglund, Losel Yauch, José Rafael Mendes, PÍa Ortuño and Marius Steiger.
With Brexit, the war in Ukraine, numerous refugee crises, and rising nationalism worldwide, territories, borders, and cultural heritages are increasingly claimed as sites of belonging/exclusion. In this moment, it is all the more urgent to remain committed to the aspirational ideals of transnationalist humanity and foster fundamental curiosity towards the new and exploratory realms of art-making. This iteration of Incubator showcases rich, elastic perspectives, reflecting the multifaceted cultural facility and omnivorous curiosity of the emerging artists working today, in London in late 2022.
Incubator 22, Launch 12th October, 2 CHILTERN STREET, LONDON, W1U 7PR from 5:30- 7 PM
About the artists
Clara Hastrup (b. 1990, Aarhus, Denmark) 12 – 16 October
Clara Hastrup is a London-based artist. She graduated with a BA (Honours) in Fine Art Painting and Printmaking from Glasgow School of Art in 2016 and received a Post-Graduate Diploma in Fine Arts from the Royal Academy Schools, London in 2021. Recent exhibitions include “Tomato Potato” (2022), Quench Gallery, “Prickly Tunes” (2022), UK Mexican Arts Society, “Sorry it’s a mess – we’ve just moved in” (2021), LAMB Gallery, “RA Schools Show 2021” (2021), Royal Academy of Arts and “Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2020” (2021), South London Gallery.
Evelina Hägglund (b. 1992, Stockholm, Sweden) 19 – 23 October
Evelina Hägglund lives and works in London and Stockholm. After completing her bachelor degree at AVA – Academy of Visual Arts in Ljubljana in 2018, she entered the Master of Fine Art program at Goldsmiths, University of London, where she graduated in 2021. Her work has been shown in solo and group exhibitions internationally, including at Green Family Foundation (2022), Nicoletti Contemporary (2022), Union Pacific (2021), Saatchi Gallery, UK (2021), Inter Pblc, Copenhagen, DK (2021); Jakobsbergs konsthall, Stockholm, SWE (2020) and Kiribati National Museum, Tarawa, KI (2019). In 2021, Hägglund received a public commission from Plaza Protocol, curated by Tjaša Poga?ar, Ljubljana, Slovenia.
Losel Yauch (b. 1998, New York City, USA) 26 – 30 October
Losel Yauch is a Tibetan-American painter and textile artist. Born and raised in New York City, Yauch moved to London to complete her BA at Central Saint Martins where she received the New Futures Graduate Art Prize upon graduating in 2022. Recent exhibitions include Wells Art Contemporary in Somerset (2022), Saatchi Art’s The Other Art Fair in London (2022), and Lazy Susan Gallery in New York City (2019). Yauch’s paintings are playful and irreverent, documenting private, intimate moments that celebrate the mundane in the face of the surreal and champion the subconscious. Her tapestries have become a medium to explore her cultural heritage through visual reinterpretations of stories from her grandfather’s early childhood in Kham, a region of Tibet.
José Rafael Mendes (b. 1995, Lisbon, Portugal) 2 – 6 November
José Rafael Mendes is a Portuguese painter, living and working in London. He received his BA at Wimbledon College of Art in 2017, where his work was selected for the Bloomberg New Contemporaries. Mendes completed his MA in painting at the Royal College of Art in 2021 as the recipient of the Leverhulme Trust and the Gulbenkian Foundation Arts scholarships. Generally small in scale, Mendes’ paintings are often imbued with a sense of place. Drawing from literary and filmic sources, as well as his own photographs and writings, Mendes’ work explores the relationship between the imagination and our individual and collective memories.
PÍa Ortuño (b. 1996, San José, Costa Rica) 9 – 13 November
Pía Ortuño is a Costa Rican artist currently living and working in London. She graduated from the University of Costa Rica with a BA in fine arts (2019) and later moved to Pietrasanta, Italy to work and learn ancient marble and bronze techniques. She apprenticed under Jimenez Deredia in his Carrara studio and worked at the Fonderia Artistic Mariani (2020). She is the Co-founder of Sala Salon (2021) and recently graduated from Painting at the RCA (2022). Ortuño has exhibited in the UK and internationally. Recent exhibitions include Stables Gallery in Switzerland, Helen J. Gallery in Los Angeles, and Fold Gallery in London.
Marius Steiger (b. 1999, Bern, Switzerland) 16 – 20 November
Marius Steiger is a London-based Swiss artist, currently studying MA Painting at the Royal College of Art. His work explores questions of identity, authenticity, artificiality, consumerism and consumption and human relationships with modern technology. Steiger’s work has been shown in solo and group exhibitions in Europe, including at Kunsthaus Grenchen (2022), La Placette, Lausanne (2022), Kunstraum Riehen, Basel (2022) and Blue Velvet Projects, Zurich (2021).
