Southwark Park Galleries are set to reopen in May with an exhibition by “notorious” Welsh artist Bedwyr Williams.
Williams’ new work Milquetoast combines sculpture, painting, drawing and video. The exhibition looks at the role of the art gallery within contemporary society and “parodies fetishistic architectural motifs and bureaucratic hierarchies” in cultural bodies and cities more broadly.
The gallery added that it would also be publishing a new edition of Williams’ “notorious” and “infamous” drawings to accompany Milquetoast.
The exhibition, which runs from the museum’s reopening on May 19 until July 11, is funded by Southwark Council, as well as Arts Council England, King’s College London and several other groups.
Milquetoast is a touring exhibition that will also go to T? Pawb in Wrexham for three months from late July and Aberystwyth Arts Centre.
Southwark Park Galleries have been shut for the past year amid the Covid-19 pandemic.The gallery’s managers said they were given money to reopen as part of the government’s recent second round of culture recovery fund payments. The funding will also go towards support for artists and training.
“Our Board, wonderful team and I are over the moon to have been supported at this extremely difficult time,” director Judith Carlton said. “The funds will crucially support our small team to rebuild our resilience in such a way that would otherwise have been impossible.
“We can at last start to build towards a stronger future and the continuation of our core mission: to promote the fullest inclusion in culture and creativity for all through the provision of free and meaningful free activity, representing national excellence but crucially always locally relevant.”