Miranda Forrester explores the queer Black female gaze in painting and addresses the invisibility of women of colour in the history of art. She is one of the newly acquired artists to the Arts Council Collection and her work The Muses (After Tamara de Lempicka), 2018, features in the National Partners Programme Exhibition, Where There’s Space to Grow at Sunderland Museum and Winter Gardens.
This exhibition is curated by the Celebrate Different Collective, Sunderland Culture’s Young Art Leaders. The group chose artworks from the Arts Council Collection that they felt revealed stories that encourage us to dig deep by reflecting on the past or looking ahead to a shared progressive future.
Miranda Forrester’s work is a key part of the young curators’ exhibition which asks: how can we create space for all of us to grow? Forrester’s practice investigates how her identity affects the way she portrays her subjects and how her paintings can rearticulate the language and history of life drawing through a queer Black feminist desiring lens.
In a recent interview, the artist explains: “I feel it is rare to see any representations within the history of art that are relatable and authentic. Even when there are paintings of black womxn, mixed race womxn, or people of colour, they are not painted by those same people, it’s always someone else’s voice. It’s important that everyone has their place in art history and can see themselves in works and can feel like they relate to the people in those paintings.”