A new exhibition will launch at Old Portsmouth’s Round Tower on Thursday 5 August. Titled ‘Portrait of Pompey’, and will feature new works and paintings from the project ‘We Don’t Need Culture’ by RA artist Karl Rudziak.
The private view is open 5pm-7pm on Thursday, and the exhibition is open to the public 10:00-17:00 from Friday to Sunday.
‘We Don’t Need Culture’ is a project that continues to explore attitudes in Portsmouth towards the word culture – in particular the elitist connotations it can invoke. Working closely with Portsmouth City Council and Arts Council England,
Rudziak engages the local community in low income, inner city areas through sketching and painting portraits of local characters, working with local people in community hubs, youth centres, coffee mornings and multicultural groups. The project, now in its fourth year, aims to re-brand the word culture as a concept that is inclusive and equal within all areas of the community, to expose those who wouldn’t normally see themselves as “cultural” to arts practice by painting, and then exhibiting, the resulting pictures in pop-up exhibitions.
Portraits by Hotwalls artist Karl Rudziak reside in private and public hands as part of Portsmouth city art collection and has been exhibited in the National Portrait Gallery, the Royal Academy, the Royal Society of Marine Artists and the National Gallery of Scotland.