Sprezzatura (exhibition installation)

The exhibition Sprezzatura was an artist-led exhibition in the Mander Centre, Wolverhampton by the Working Painters: artists Rachel Magdeburg, Julia Burns and Clare Wassermann. 

The exhibition title Sprezzatura typically means an appearance or style which assumes to be effortless but hides the endeavour involved in its creation. Many of the paintings exhibited here have been re-worked, painted back, painted over, scrubbed, rubbed, tonked, scratched, smudged, printed on, wrestled with and agonised over, and in fact the paintings often leave traces of these tussles. Some of the paintings came into being with less of a creative struggle, as if not made by the artists at all. Nonetheless, the work of painting is always work, a matter of turning up and loading a brush. 

The Working Painters is the collective name for Wolverhampton-based artists Julia Burns, Rachel Magdeburg and Clare Wassermann. Although the artists work individually on their own practices and projects, which can encompass a wide range of media, for the exhibition Sprezzatura, the artists bring into dialogue their most recent paintings made over the last year. Hard-work and continual practice in painting unites the ideas of The Working Painters, as well as a shared love of high-key colour, formal relationships and a celebration of painting’s materiality. They share their techniques, processes, tips on materials and work in progress in regular meet-ups held at Makers’ Dozen, where the artists all have studio spaces. Throughout these discussions, and seeing each other’s work on a regular basis, has informed each artist and in-turn they influence the others.