Artist and youth worker Lewis Greener, who was selected as the winner by judges Appau Jnr Boakye-Yiadom and Lydia Blakeley, out of 220 artists’ submissions for our 38th Annual Open in 2022, presents a series of recent 35mm photographic works and an 8mm film documenting the rapid and often brutal change, growth and development of local city life.
Greener’s exhibition – You throw shade on the doorways – presents black and white photographs and films taken locally to him in the area of Poplar, East London, designed as the first inner-city market town, which record the ways we exist and adapt in a city that is forever changing. His photographic observations show the ways city residents challenge and embrace their built environment in the face of decades of managed decline, gentrification and austerity. Greener’s images are a joyful and tender reflection of people existing in a system that’s actively trying to design them and their way of life out.
Artists Appau Jnr Boakye-Yiadom and Lydia Blakeley (both alumni of Southwark Park Galleries’ programme) awarded Greener the prize for: ‘demonstrating real mastery, capturing such a stolen moment in a time. The work has extremely tender subtlety, tied to a great sense of place, referencing London’s layered history and civic traditions.’
Lewis Greener says:
‘It’s an amazing opportunity to be able to exhibit publicly at somewhere as welcoming and accessible as Southwark Park Galleries, It’s given me focus and momentum to continue building on my practice that is often hard to maintain independently.’
The Annual Open is London’s longest-running truly ‘open’ exhibition existing since 1984 to encourage artists at all stages of their careers to submit their work as part of a large-scale annual salon show. This is the first year the winner has been awarded £500 towards a solo presentation in our Salter Space, our community-focused gallery named in honour of Bermondsey hero Ada Salter, London’s first female mayor, local revolutionary and campaigner for equality and the environment.
LAKE GALLERY, 1 PARK APPROACH, SOUTHWARK PARK, LONDON SE16 2UA from 27th May to 2nd July. Times: WEDNESDAY – SUNDAY // 11AM–5PM
