Nigerian-born British artist Mary Evans has been chosen as the next director of London's prestigious Slade School of Fine Art, effective October 4 this year. Mary Evans comes from Chelsea College of Arts, University of the Arts London, where she has led the fine arts degree program for the past five years.
Mary Evans in a statement noted: “It will be a privilege to work in an environment that offers a transformative education for emerging artists, where students and staff can express themselves and take risks in an increasingly equitable environment at this important time when diverse knowledge is relevant and necessary. ”.
Before joining Chelsea College of Arts, MAry Evans taught at Central Saint Martins, also in London. He has a degree from Gloucestershire College of Arts and Technology and a master's degree in fine arts from Goldsmiths College. Mary Evans undertook a two-year postgraduate residency at the Rijksakademie Amsterdam. Originally trained as a painter, she switched to paper as her preferred medium, deploying it in large-scale installations that address issues central to her own heritage and the African diaspora. A solo exhibition of his work, “GILT”, is currently on display at the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa in Cape Town. Past exhibitions include group exhibitions at the St. Louis Museum of Contemporary Art; the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, DC; and the Arnolfini in Bristol, England, as well as the Third Guangzhou Triennial.
Mary Evans arrives at Slade after an especially difficult period for the school, which in recent years has been forced to confront the Covid-19 pandemic and student protests against institutional racism, the latter of which were followed by an independent investigation which concluded that the school’s “recruitment panels are not diverse enough and recruitment processes are not applied consistently.”
Source: Artforum