News from the chapel
The Blue Skies Project
One thousand and seventy-eight photographs of the sky above the last known location of every former Nazi Germany concentration camp will go on display at the Fitzrovia Chapel in May. The Blue Skies Project by Belgian artist, Anton Kusters, will be accompanied by an audio work by Ruben Samama, tracking 13-years in real time from the date of the opening of the first concentration camp in Nazi Germany to the closing of the last. This is the first time that this immersive, multi-media installation has gone on display in the capital and will coincide with Photo London. The Blue Skies...
Out of the Grey and into the Chapel
At first glance, you might not consider that the Fitzrovia Chapel would be the first choice for a wildlife photographer to display his enormous, black and white, fine art prints. However, delve a little deeper by talking to Martin Sean (who has his first exhibition at the chapel in April) and a real synergy emerges. Out of the Grey opens at the chapel on 9 April. The chapel interview Chapel: Where did your relationship with the chapel begin? Martin: I was fortunate to be asked to take pictures of the chapel when it reopened after restoration. I loved the...
Hires and operations manager
We’re looking for a Hires and Operations Manager to be responsible for all venue hire bookings and for generating income to support the upkeep of the building and our programme. The focus is primarily on hiring the chapel for weddings, private events and shoots and on managing those bookings. Importantly, you will also manage building maintenance and operations. You will manage the external hires and events from enquiry through contracts, to delivery, at which point you’ll hand over to the superb duty management crew you’ll have skilfully recruited! Our ideal candidate will be hands-on, efficient, proactive in solving problems,...
Wildlife photography comes Out of the Grey at the Fitzrovia Chapel
Elephants of Amboseli, a trio of vultures poised on a branch, and a diminutive desert chameleon tiptoeing across the Namib sands form part of a new photography exhibition at the Fitzrovia Chapel. The April exhibition, Out of the Grey, features exquisite large-scale, black and white fine art images by London-based wildlife photographer Martin Sean. In breathtaking group shots and intimate, emotional close-ups, the show features images from Africa, Asia and both Polar regions. Martin’s portfolio has embraced both underwater photography and a wide range of nature and wildlife photography as he explores every corner of the globe. The ornate, baroque...
Chapel Grayson Perry portrait scoops top photography award
A portrait of the artist Grayson Perry which was exhibited at the chapel earlier this year has just been awarded a top photography award. Birth by Richard Ansett has been given the Sony Word Photography Award in the portrait category. The image will now go forward to the final and an exhibition at Somerset House in April. Richard Ansett’s Birth was presented as a huge lightbox lighting the chapel from its position on the altar. It reworked the motif of mother and child, focusing on Perry’s alter ego, Claire. Richard calls it ‘a vulgar appropriation for the 21st Century.’
Vintage wedding photos — the beauty of the imperfect
The Vintage Weddings Photos Project arose when a social and historical researcher began unearthing the stories of people, place and culture behind the treasures of sepia-tinted photos in secondhand shops around the country. Project founder, Charlotte Sibtain, discovered just how many precious images are lying in boxes and stock rooms and was determined to tell their history and perhaps even return them to their families. Her pre-Photoshop pictures depict wedding days in all their fabulous variety: the stiffness, the sometimes strangeness, the beauty of the imperfect. Love Lost and Found exhibition Between 15 and 17 February, Charlotte brings some of...
Love is lost and found at the Fitzrovia Chapel this Valentine’s Day
Love stories from the early 20th Century to the late 1960s will be celebrated at the Fitzrovia Chapel this Valentine’s Day, as part of an ambitious international project to reunite them with their families and descendants. The February exhibition (15 to 17 February, 11:00 to 16:00) called Love Lost and Found features exquisite original wedding photographs from the popular Vintage Wedding Photos project. Visitors will be be encouraged to play detective, leaving thoughts about the origins of the photographs. A media campaign aimed at reuniting the images in the show with their families will be run in parallel with the...
Grayson Perry to unveil ‘impious’ portrait at Fitzrovia Chapel
Artist Grayson Perry will unveil an ‘iconic and iconoclastic’ portrait of himself at the Fitzrovia Chapel, part of an exhibition running at the end of January. Presented as a dramatic lightbox illuminating the secular, baroque chapel from its ‘impious’ placement on the altar, the portrait reworks the motif of mother and child. Conceived by renowned photographer Richard Ansett, it focuses on Perry’s alter ego, Claire. It balances the influence of centuries of art history with high- camp photographic parody, a vulgar appropriation for the 21st Century. Ansett and Perry Ansett met Perry for the first time in 2013 at the...
Come visit our dwelling at the chapel this November
This November, join us as we explore ideas about beauty, attachment and design in our second exhibition, Dwelling. With works and images gathered from homes, hotels, the BT Tower, the Indian YMCA and nooks and crannies all across Fitzrovia, the show will be a fascinating study of the objects which sit in our hearts as well as on our mantlepieces. Dwelling runs from 14 to 28 November and includes a series of free talks on topics including art criticism, ritual and reclaiming spaces.
The chapel is open during Open House London
This September, there is an extra opportunity to visit the Fitzrovia Chapel as we are taking part in Open House London. Open House London, 22 to 23 September 2018, is the world’s largest architecture festival, giving free public access to more than 800 buildings, walks, talks and tours over one weekend in September each year. The chapel is once again opening its doors during this event and will be available to visit between 10:00 and 17:00 on Sunday 23 September only. Entrance is free. Please turn up in plenty of time as the building is a popular part of the...
Watching the birds fly in the chapel
The stories of author Daphne du Maurier rarely have a happy ending and were described as ‘moody and resonant’ with overtones of the paranormal. In this our free September Wireless Contemplation audio event, we celebrate perhaps the darkest of all her tales, The Birds. This short story was made famous by Hitchcock in his 1963 horror-thriller film. Although she spent much of her life in Cornwall, du Maurier met her husband while he was living in Fitzrovia. The event details We will be holding our Wireless Contemplation event featuring The Birds on Friday 14 September at 13:00 in the chapel....