Critically-acclaimed artist Leo Fitzmaurice to open a double exhibition at Humber Street Gallery

• Enjoy Civic Life is a new collection of work commissioned by Humber Street Gallery;
• Fitzmaurice will be redisplaying Autosuggestions, previously open at The Sunday Painter, London;
• The artist was recently selected for the Henry Moore Foundation Artist Award Scheme.

Humber Street Gallery is excited to announce that acclaimed UK visual artist Leo Fitzmaurice will have two exhibitions open across the building from 19 May to 5 September. These shows will be free to enter and will be supported by a variety of public programme events.

Fitzmaurice’s work has been reviewed in established art press such as Frieze, Art Monthly, Blueprint, Hotshoe Magazine, Sculpture, Form and Eye Magazine, and his work is featured in the Arts Council Collection of England, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Manchester Art Gallery Patrons Collection, The Royal London Hospital and Modern Forms.

Enjoy Civic Life, opening in our upstairs gallery Space 2, is a newly commissioned collection of work taking inspiration from a collection of mounted plaques on display in Hull’s Guildhall, which have been produced by local company GK Beaulah & Co Ltd since 1939. Teaming up with the latter and sign makers John E Wright, Fitzmaurice will explore our relationship with branding, identity, architecture, and the history of objects.

Early in 2020, Autosuggestions opened at The Sunday Painter in London but closed early due to COVID restrictions. We will give this exhibition new life by bringing it into our Space 1. Featuring wall-based sculptures built from a variety of cars sourced from the artist’s local scrapyards, Autosuggestions is part of Fitzmaurice’s ongoing series of works titled Autos (2013-present).

Lindsay Stockley, Head of Creative Programme at parent organisation Absolutely Cultured, says, “We are thrilled to be opening two exhibitions by Leo Fitzmaurice in Humber Street Gallery next year. Fitzmaurice’s work edits and distorts branding and images that are familiar to us, to highlight how these items have lives alongside ours – developing and adapting, like we do, to the changing world around us.

It’s exciting that aspects of Hull’s heritage have been a major inspiration for Enjoy Civic Life, and we’ll get to see a spin on the plaques that have lived in the Guildhall for over 80 years.”

The public programme of events supporting these exhibitions will include an artist talk with Leo Fitzmaurice conducted by curator and writer Paul Carey-Kent and an online discussion forum about semiotics, signs and language. Both are free and tickets are available to book on our website.

Visitor tickets for the exhibitions are available to book now here.