SP Lohia Foundation announced as leading philanthropic supporter of the National Gallery’s Modern and Contemporary Programme 2022–3

The SP Lohia Foundation has been announced as the Leading Philanthropic Supporter of the National Gallery’s Modern and Contemporary Programme.

The support, which runs over one year, includes a donation towards the costs of the programme, its activities and exhibitions in 2022–3 including Nalini Malani: My Reality is Different - National Gallery Contemporary Fellowship with Art Fund; Paula Rego: Crivelli’s Garden; and the artist residency of Céline Condorelli.

New video animations featuring famous paintings in the National Gallery and the Holburne Museum, Bath, have been created by Nalini Malani, the first artist to receive the National Gallery’s Contemporary Fellowship, supported by Art Fund. The project is the culmination of Malani’s selection in 2020 as the first artist to receive the National Gallery’s Contemporary Fellowship, supported by Art Fund. The two-year research and production programme has allowed Malani to work in close collaboration with specialists from both the National Gallery and the Holburne Museum in Bath to study the institutions and their collections, with the aim to create a new artwork.

 More than 30 years after Dame Paula Rego (1935–2022), the National Gallery’s first Associate Artist (1990–92), was commissioned to create a painting for the Sainsbury Wing Dining Room, a new exhibition will explore the relationship of Rego’s work titled ’Crivelli’s Garden’ to the 15th-century altarpiece that inspired it. The exhibition, which had long been planned to mark this anniversary, will unite the two monumental artworks in the Gallery’s collection for the first time – inviting visitors to draw out direct comparisons – and will also show how members of National Gallery staff found their way into Dame Paula’s work.

Céline Condorelli, a French-Italian artist who lives and works in London, is the National Gallery’s new Artist in Residence for 2023. Condorelli is the third Artist in Residence to be chosen since the launch of the Gallery’s new Modern and Contemporary Programme, following the first appointment of Rosalind Nashashibi in 2019 and Ali Cherri in 2021. The award is a collaboration with the Contemporary Art Society, while the UK Partner Museum for this residency is the Royal Albert Memorial Museum & Art Gallery, Exeter (RAMM). Céline Condorelli’s work addresses the boundaries between public and private, art and function, work and leisure, in order to reimagine what culture and society can be, and the role of artists within them. Often using forms of architecture, design, or sculptural objects, Condorelli’s installations make interventions to the way that people navigate or use a space, whether that is in the context of a museum or gallery, or a children’s playground, a public garden or an artist’s studio.

The Leading Philanthropic Supporter of the National Gallery Modern and Contemporary Programme is SP Lohia Foundation

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For nearly two centuries, the National Gallery’s Collection has provided inspiration to contemporary artists. The National Gallery’s Modern and Contemporary Programme continues this tradition through exhibitions, displays, commissions, and residencies. 2019 saw the unveiling of Bridget Riley’s monumental wall painting commission ’Messengers’ in the Gallery’s Annenberg Court. Exhibitions within the programme have included ’Kehinde Wiley: The Prelude’; ’Sea Star, Sean Scully at the National Gallery’; ’Young Bomberg and the Old Masters’ and ’Rachel MacLean: The Lion and The Unicorn’.

In 2020 the new and pioneering Contemporary Fellowship by the National Gallery was announced, which is awarded to an artist of international standing and renown with a major body of work that has significantly contributed to the 20th and 21st century. The two-year research, production, and exhibition programme allows the artist to work in close collaboration with specialists of the National Gallery and a collaborating non-London collection institution. The first National Gallery Contemporary Fellowship was awarded to Nalini Malani.

The National Gallery Artists in Residence, programme supported by the Contemporary Art Society and aimed at mid-career artists replaces the Gallery’s previous Associate Artist scheme. The first Artist in Residence in 2019-20 was Rosalind Nashashibi and the second was Ali Cherri. The 2022-3 Artist in Residence Céline Condorelli and the exhibition of her new work will be seen at the National Gallery from 13 September 2023 to 7 January 2024.

Founded in 2016 by S.P. Lohia, SPLF is an international charitable trust based in the U.K. and operating in all spheres of public interest and well-being. Under the direction of Aarti Lohia, SPLF supports some of the most inspiring philanthropic organisations and institutions in the UK and internationally and aims to provide solutions, opportunities, and hope for a fairer world for everyone.

Aarti is a Founding Patron and Trustee of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale and the leading philanthropic partner for developing the India Foundation for the Arts Archive (IFA archive) based in Bangalore, India. She also sits on the Victoria & Albert Museum’s International Council; The South Asian Acquisitions Committee at Tate Modern, the Serpentine Gallery’s International Council; the British Fashion Council Foundation; and the David Rockefeller Council at MoMA.

www.splohiafoundation.com