Please find below a release and images (in link below) about this retrospective exhibition by artist and social historian Nicola Green from October 9-December 20.

In creating these works, Green personally encountered President Barack Obama, Pope Francis, The Dalai Lama and Bishop Desmond Tutu among others.

Images: https://we.tl/t-ajj2BgQdPD

A Witness to Power: ground-breaking art exhibition opening at Saïd Business School

Artist Nicola Green gained access to some of the most powerful figures in politics and religion

CHANGE from In Seven Days... © Nicola Green 2010                             Encounters © Nicola Green 2018    

High-resolution images: click here            

A Witness to Power, a retrospective exhibition of works by the artist and social historian Nicola Green, will be displayed at Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, from the 9th October to the 20th December 2019.

Curated by Lizzie Collins of the Zuleika Gallery in association with Hollandridge Group, the exhibition encompasses over fifty works, and brings together two of Green’s critically acclaimed series for the first time: In Seven Days… (2010) and Encounters (2018).

When creating these two bodies of work the artist gained remarkable access to both President Barack Obama and the world’s most pre-eminent religious leaders including Pope Francis, The Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu. 

Green was determined to be a witness to these events, driven by her belief in the capacity of the visual image to communicate important human stories. Through this, her gaze explores the myriad ways in which power, leadership and art intersect.

A Witness to Power raises important questions about identity and the perception of difference; to inspire others with this story of cross-cultural dialogue.

In Seven Days… was produced from Green’s experience as a first-hand witness to Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign. She created a series of seven large-scale silkscreen prints which capture the significance of President Obama’s campaign and its importance in the long trajectory of history.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art described In Seven Days… as ‘an artistic and historic masterpiece.’

For Encounters, Green spent a decade travelling the world, witnessing and chronicling new and unprecedented developments in interfaith dialogue. She won the confidence of figures including former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, Pope Francis, former Grand Mufti of Egypt Ali Gomaa, Emeritus Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and the Dalai Lama.

From this experience, Green realised she was observing a new development in our collective history: that religious leaders were beginning, for the first time, to publicly articulate their respect for other faiths, without undermining the absolute truth of their own. Green distilled all of this into a series of portraits, presented in two forms The Encounter Series and The Light Series.

The Encounters series is comprised of 30 portraits displayed together in a shared space and of equal status; Green is proud to be the first artist in history to depict all the world’s major religions together, without hierarchy. 

The Light Series is made up of twelve, life-sized, Perspex figures, which can be found across the Said Business school campus. Everyone is invited to meet the figures, to interact with them, and to take photos.

The exhibition launch will be accompanied by a Q & A between Nicola Green and renowned author and scholar Saeb Eigner.

Curator Tours will take place Fridays 12.30 - 13.45 from 9 October to 20 December. A weekend tour will also take place on Saturday 23rd November 12 - 1pm.

High-resolution images: click here

For curatorial inquires please contact Lizzie Collins

Founder/Director | Zuleika Gallery

Curator | Saïd Business School, University of Oxford

Zuleika Gallery

T:+44(0)20 3903 6393 M: +44 07939 566085

Email: lizzie@zuleikagallery.com

www.zuleikagallery.com

For further information, images or to arrange interviews, please contact:

Tom Pilsworth, Press Coordinator, Saïd Business School

T: +44 01865 288879 M: +44 07753277689

Email: thomas.pilsworth@sbs.ox.ac.uk

Lucy Cartledge, Studio Manager, The Studio of Nicola Green

T: +44 02076900906 M: +44 07932364542

Email: contact@nicolagreen.com

www.nicolagreen.com

Notes to editors

About Nicola Green

Nicola Green is a visual artist and social historian with a career spanning 25 years. Green has established an international reputation for her ambitious projects that change perceptions about identity and power; exploring themes of race, spirituality, gender, sexuality and leadership.

Green is a powerful story-teller known for her legacy works and portraits that capture the essence of her subjects, creating timeless works of art and heritage pieces for museums and private collections globally.

In 2017, Green co-founded, directed and exhibited in the Diaspora Platform, an initiative delivering mentoring and professional development for emerging artists and curators from racially and culturally diverse backgrounds. This culminated in the critically acclaimed Diaspora Pavilion at the 57th Venice Biennale 2017. 

Green is a regular speaker on art, power and heritage for television, radio and public lectures including BBC Newsnight, Sky News, and Hay Literary Festival.

In 2018 Green published Encounters: The Art of Interfaith Dialogue, a collection of essays from leading scholars and practitioners in theology, history, cultural studies, and art history. Each essay explores an aspect of interfaith dialogue through the lens of Green’s artworks. 

Notable Permanent Collections: The Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, Washington D.C. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. The Library of Congress, Washington D.C. International Slavery Museum, Liverpool. Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool. The Courtauld Institute of Art, London. Sir John Soane’s Museum, London. Jewish Museum, London 

Selected Solo Exhibitions: St Martin-in-the-Fields, London. Flowers Gallery, London. Jealous Gallery, London. Jewish Museum, London. Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool. Sir John Soane’s Museum, London. Australia House, London. Library of Congress, Washington DC. 

Selected Group Exhibitions: Grayson Perry’s Room of Fun Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy, London. The Diaspora Pavilion, 57th Venice Biennale, Venice. Good Nature, Candida Stevens Gallery, Sussex. Small Is Beautiful, Flowers Gallery, London. Local Reflections: Nelson Mandela and the Haringey Anti-Apartheid Movement, Bruce Castle, London. 

Full list available here. 

For more information please visit: https://www.nicolagreen.com/about

About Saeb Eigner

Austrian by birth, Saeb spent his early childhood travelling with his parents in the Middle East before settling in London. He was educated in England and is fluent in a number of languages, including Arabic. He initially travelled to the region as a senior executive for an international bank and subsequently for Lonworld, a private finance and investment firm he founded and chairs. He has been a regular speaker on business and economic affairs on television, radio and at conferences.

Saeb Eigner was, until 2015, a Governor of London Business School and formerly Chairman of its Audit and Risk Committee and holds a Master’s Degree in Management from the School. He serves on a number of Boards in the areas of investment, finance, regulation, consulting, education and the arts. He is a regular speaker on business and economic affairs on television (i.e. CNN, CNBC, Bloomberg, and BBC World), radio and at business forums.

He is passionate about the arts and education and the roles that they increasingly play in bridging the cultural divide and improving the lives and the standards of living for people all around the world. He has played a leading role in working with some of the world’s leading institutions in these areas of his particular interest.

He is the author of management books ‘Sand to Silicon’ (2002) and ‘Sand to Silicon - Going Global’ (2008). He also contributed, as the British Museum’s Senior Advisor, to the books accompanying the exhibitions ‘Word into Art’ (London, 2006) and ‘Word into Art’ (Dubai, 2008). He is the author of ‘Art of The Middle East’ (Merrell, London 2010, expanded edition 2015) and its French edition ‘L’Art du Moyen-Orient’.

About Said Business School

Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford blends the best of new and old. We are a vibrant and innovative business school, but yet deeply embedded in an 800 year old world-class university. We create programmes and ideas that have global impact. We educate people for successful business careers, and as a community seek to tackle world-scale problems. We deliver cutting-edge programmes and ground-breaking research that transform individuals, organisations, business practice, and society. We seek to be a world-class business school community, embedded in a world-class University, tackling world-scale problems.

About the Hollandridge Group

Hollandridge is an independent art consultancy working in the private and business sectors, sourcing artworks from both established and emerging artists to suit a variety of briefs and budgets. Founded by Sarah Percy-Davis and Alex Hammersley, the company brings together contacts and artists they have amassed during their careers. With decades of experience in the art world, they work on all sizes of projects - from curating an art collection to finding individual works - and frequently work alongside interior designers on residential and corporate projects. 

About Zuleika Gallery

Zuleika Gallery was founded in Oxford in 2015 by Lizzie Collins, who has been working in the art world for over 20 years. A History of Art graduate of UCL, and a postgraduate of the Courtauld Institute in London, Lizzie was a director and auctioneer at Bonhams, and specialist at Christies, before founding Zuleika Gallery. Now a gallerist and art consultant to private clients and institutions, Lizzie set up the art programme for Saïd Business School in 2016.

About Encounters (2018)

Nicola Green created Encounters in collaboration with global religious leaders. To make this work Green spent a decade travelling the world, gaining extraordinary access, witnessing and chronicling developments in interfaith dialogue. From the most intimate private meetings to the biggest global summits, from the UK to Italy, Israel, Egypt, Qatar, India, and the United States. She has had the privilege to meet with Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Zoroastrian, Sikh, Baha’i, Jain, Confucian, Humanist, Shinto, and indigenous leaders. 

Encounters is a visual exploration of difference: how do people of different beliefs, or none, communicate and reconcile their strongly held and, sometimes, opposing views? How do we think about those we consider wholly ‘other’ to ourselves, and how does this shape our own identity?

Encounters is presented as wo bodies of work The Encounter Series and The Light Series.

About In Seven Days…(2010)

“Adding In Seven Days... to the National Portrait Gallery collection is invaluable to the museum’s ongoing mission to tell the entirety of American history.” Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, Washington DC.

“The work, when I look at it, is not about the 2008 election, it’s really about each individual’s responsibility to history and to the furthering of history.” Katherine Blood, The Library of Congress, Washington DC.

In 2008 Nicola Green gained unprecedented artistic access to Barack Obama’s Presidential campaign.  She had a front-row seat to historic events: from President Obama’s infamous DNC nomination speech to his Inauguration, Green was behind-the-scenes taking photographs, making sketches, and having conversations with press, staff and citizens. Green sought to understand why this story had captured the interest of the entire world.