PANIC! round one bursary artists

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PANIC! (Promoting an Artists’ Network in the Crisis) is delighted to present here the artwork of its first four bursary recipients.

The artists, all based in Leeds City Region, were awarded bursaries of either £1,000 or £5,000 to support the making of a new contemporary visual artwork or project.

The resulting artworks help us think through the psychological, social and cultural conditions we face today.

Discover the work of artists alabamathirteen, Thahmina Begum, Kevin Devonport and Hannah Lawless below.

The artists

Kevin Devonport

Kevin Devonport

Kevin Devonport is a self-taught painter, whose artistic practice is centred around still life paintings of contemporary artefacts. He has used this bursary to reflect on the pandemic, which he explores through everyday objects and the Tarot deck, specifically referencing a Tarot card that symbolises re-building.

Dolly, wearing a bright blonde curly wig (in the style of Dolly Parton) with red eyeshadow and red nails injects Karen (who looks concerned) with an oversized syringe.

Hannah Lawless

Hannah Lawless (she/they) is an NHS nurse by day and a professional wrestler, drag king and performance artist by night. Their bursary presents a satirical, political and queer performance entitled Battle of the Vaccines: Karen vs. Dolly Parton.

Thahmina Begum

Thahmina Begum (she/her) lives and works in Beeston, South Leeds. She is a mixed media artist, poet and workshop facilitator. The Colour Palette is a Community Research Project that aims through art making to give voices to Bangladeshi groups and their lived experiences of racism.

A polaroid image of the head and shoulders of the artist, with her eyes closed, overlaid with an upside-down image of a two storey house, high-rise flat and blue sky. Both layers are partially transparent, the colours are mostly pinks, purples and hints of blue.

alabamathirteen

alabamathirteen (she/her) is a disabled, working-class visual artist from Leeds. Largely self- taught, her practice focuses on her own personal limitations exploring, navigating and negotiating memories and senses in the spaces she occupies as a disabled woman.