An opportunity to stand together in solidarity
Artist and Clapham resident Lucy Ash has gone from working with local communities to a commission in Hampshire, and has now landed a major solo show in Trafalgar Square this summer, an interesting journey that I wanted to follow up, writes Michael Holland.
Lucy goes back a long way with Clapham and its people, having lived there twice: ‘The first time was in the 1990s between the Commons, and I was eager to return,’ she says. This time, the artist is in a house just off Clapham West Side, with enough space to construct a studio, and where she can often be seen walking on one of the Commons.
Between 2020-23, Lucy worked on a major collaboration with Southampton City Art Gallery – ‘Portraits of Inspiration’. It was a community project that, during her research, she uncovered the hidden contribution that LGBTIQ+ artists have made to our collective artistic heritage. She tells me, ‘Many of these artists led difficult lives and struggled because of their sexuality, unable to portray openly subject matter of meaning for them.’
For that project, Lucy invited the local community to paint a portrait of an LGBTQ+ person they found inspiring. The 323 individual paintings formed two massive, collaborative artworks, reinforcing the message that LGBTQ+ progress is a collective effort by everyone.
The artist explained her work: ‘What interests me is painting people who have changed how we see ourselves, each other and the world in which we live. Like the people I’ve chosen to represent – most often abstractly – I focus on themes of social justice, love and loss. I trained in sculpture and spent 15 years working in animation. These two visual approaches to time and space continue to inform my practice as a painter.’
The ‘Portraits of Inspiration’ project has now led on to another major commission – Invisible Portraits – from the Canada Gallery in Trafalgar Square. I asked her about it: ‘At the centre of the exhibition is a series of works focusing on the death of Ian Baynham, following a homophobic assault in Trafalgar Square on 25th September 2009. Canada Gallery’s location, combined with the theme of Invisible Portraits, provides an opportunity to remember Ian Baynham and the victims of similar hate crimes and to celebrate the LGBTIQ+ community during Pride Month.’
Since 2010, when Ian’s sister, Jen, became Lucy’s creative collaborator, Lucy has ‘continued to explore themes of loss and absence and brought in love as their counterbalance.’
Lucy noticed something very special about the work and the venue: ‘There is an amazing synchronicity between the thinking behind Invisible Portraits and the inspiration for Mil Veces un Instante by Mexican artist Teresa Margolles on the Fourth Plinth. Her sculpture is made from hundreds of plaster casts of trans, non-binary and gender non-conforming individuals living in London, Mexico City and Juárez.’
For this exhibition, Lucy has done further research into her Canadian heritage and added portraits of two Canadian poets, John McCrae and Elsa Gidlow, along with portraits of war poets Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon. The artist considers the “necessary invisibility” of gay men during the First World War and how private identities were suppressed. The exhibition’s location lends even greater resonance. Situated in Trafalgar Square and in close proximity to Whitehall and the Cenotaph, it draws a direct line between personal and public acts of remembrance.
To finish off, I asked the artist what the message is she hopes to send with this exhibition?
‘Hope and healing require us to come together in equality with all our differences. Visitors have the opportunity to add their own ‘Portrait of Inspiration’ and stand together in solidarity to celebrate the international LGBTIQ+ community and remember our shared experiences of discrimination. The exhibition offers a different perspective on the violence and death that clog the headlines.’
Lucy Ash: Invisible Portraits.
Canada Gallery, High Commission of Canada in the United Kingdom, Canada House, Trafalgar Square, London SW1Y 5BJ from Thursday 4 June to Saturday 3 October 2026. 11:00 – 17:45 Monday to Saturday. Website Link: https://culturecanada.co.uk/canada-gallery/lucy-ash-invisible-portraits/
