A new exhibition at the Laing Art Gallery will celebrate the life and work of local artist and curator Nerys Johnson(1942-2001). The exhibition explores Johnson’s lived experience of rheumatoid arthritis and the subsequent impact of disability on her artistic practice. The works on display have been chosen from a large body of Johnson's work, which was donated to the Laing by the Estate of Nerys Johnson in November 2022.

As part of the exhibition, the Laing Art Gallery has commissioned Surface Area Dance Theatre, a live performance organisation that works at the interface between sign language, D/deaf culture, and dance, to develop and produce a performance to camera in response to the Nerys Johnson archive, titled Down Amongst the Plants.

Down Amongst the Plants pays tribute to Johnson’s engagement with the rhythms of nature through Butoh, a form of Japanese dance. The choreographer of the performance, Vangeline, is the artistic director of the internationally acclaimed New York Butoh Institute, based in New York, USA.

Julie Milne, Chief Curator of Art Galleries for North East Museums, says: “I have long been an admirer of Nerys Johnson’s work. Her jewel-like watercolours of plants are particularly fine and have the clarity and vibrancy of stained-glass windows.

“It is especially pleasing to see her work on display at the Laing Art Gallery, given her talent and the quality of her work, both as an artist who worked for many years in the North East and was formerly Keeper of Fine Art at the Gallery.

“The exhibition has been brought together by Rachel Boyd, a collaborative PhD student at Northumbria University, and the Laing Art Gallery’s Assistant Keeper Amy Pargeter. Alongside the exhibition, they have commissioned Surface Area Dance Theatre and internationally acclaimed choreographer Vangeline to shed new light on Nerys’ practice.

“This exhibition is bringing Nerys’ work to a whole new audience, who I am sure will enjoy the work of this wonderful but underappreciated artist.”

Nerys Johnson: Disability and Practice celebrates the richness of Johnson’s life and work and explores how her individual artistic practice flourished with the support of her vast social network. The exhibition opens on Saturday 21 December on the first floor of the Laing Art Gallery. The exhibition is open Monday–Saturday, 10am–4.30pm. Free entry, donations welcome. More information can be found on our website here: Nerys Johnson: Disability and Practice | What's On | Laing Art Gallery

Surface Area Dance Theatre is supported using public funding by Arts Council England. Find out more about Surface Area Dance Theatre: https://surfacearea.org.uk

Find out more about Vangeline and the New York Butoh Institute: https://vangeline.com

Biographies
Nerys Johnson is most well-known for the vibrant and often intense colours in her work combined with dramatic and abstract forms of flowers, often set against dark backdrops. Her work, however, is varied—she uses different media and includes a variety of subjects beyond flowers, notably including self-portraits, abstract nudes, and architectural motifs.

She was also interested in movement and states of change, which began with studies she produced as a student of Fine Art in Newcastle. During this time, she began to actively consider the parallels between human and plant forms, an important theme that extended throughout her life.

Johnson’s 1994 artistic residency in Venice was significant for her as her rheumatoid arthritis worsened, causing her to predominantly work from home. During this residency, Johnson was assisted by artists Joy Batt, Decia Morris, and Susie Balasz, who worked to support Johnson in navigating the city alongside developing their own artistic practices. Johnson humorously referred to this time as ‘Three Lady Artists and a Wheelchair,’ revealing the joy and community they all found during this time.

Johnson was not only an artist, but also a curator. Her curatorial career began at the Laing Art Gallery in 1968, when she took up the post as a Keeper of Fine Art. She eventually became the Keeper in Charge of the Durham Light Infantry Museum and Arts Centre (DLI) in 1970. During this time, the museum’s Contemporary Art Centre became a regional hub for art, attracting internationally acclaimed artists like Bridget Riley and Henry Moore.

Vangeline is a teacher, dancer, and choreographer specializing in Japanese butoh. She is the artistic director of the Vangeline Theater/New York Butoh Institute (New York), a dance company firmly rooted in the tradition of Japanese butoh while carrying it into the twenty-first century. With her all-female dance company, Vangeline’s socially conscious performances tie together butoh and activism. Vangeline is the founder of the New York Butoh Institute Festival, which elevates the visibility of women in butoh, and the festival Queer Butoh. She pioneered the award-winning, 17-year running program The Dream a Dream Project, which brings butoh dance to incarcerated men and women at correctional facilities across New York State.
Vangeline firmly believes that Butoh can be an instrument of personal and collective transformation in the 21st century. This transformation comes from holding a mirror to each other and integrating our many facets–the beautiful and the ugly; and from reintegrating the forgotten of our society into our midst. 

Her choreographed work has been performed in Chile, Hong Kong, Germany, Italy, Denmark, France, Finland, Mexico, the UK, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Taiwan. Vangeline is a 2022/2023 Gibney Dance Dance in Process residency and the winner of a 2022 National Endowment for the Arts Dance Award. She is also a 2018 NYFA/NYSCA Artist Fellow in Choreography for Elsewhere (a work that began as an artistic commission from Surface Area Dance Theatre with support from the Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation and the Heritage Lottery Fund UK); the winner of the 2015 Gibney Dance Social Action Award as well as the 2019 Janet Arnold Award from the Society of Antiquaries of London.

Vangeline’s performances have been heralded in publications such as the New York Times (“captivating”) and Los Angeles Times (“moves with the clockwork deliberation of a practiced Japanese Butoh artist”) to name a few.

Widely regarded as an expert in her field, Vangeline has taught at Cornell University, New York University, Brooklyn College, CUNY, Sarah Lawrence, Duke University, and Princeton University (Princeton Atelier). Film projects include a starring role alongside actors James Franco and Winona Ryder in the feature film by director Jay Anania, 'The Letter" (2012-Lionsgate).

In recent years, she has been commissioned by triple Grammy Award-winning artists Esperanza Spalding, Skrillex, and David J. (Bauhaus). She is the author of the critically-acclaimed book: Butoh: Cradling Empty Space, which explores the intersection of butoh and neuroscience. She pioneered the first neuroscientific study of Butoh (“The Slowest Wave”). Her work is the subject of CNN’s “Great Big Story” "Learning to Dance with your Demons.” She is also featured on BBC’s podcast Deeply Human with host Dessa (episode 2 of 12: Why We Dance).
She is currently developing the duet MAN WOMAN with her Butoh dance partner Akihito Ichihara from the renowned butoh company Sankai Juku. www.vangeline.com

Vangeline Theater/New York Butoh Institute aims to preserve the legacy and integrity of Japanese Butoh while carrying the art form into the future, with a special emphasis on education, social justice, research, and archiving. For more info, visit: www.vangeline.com Vangeline Theater programs are supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council. www.vangeline.com

Laing Art Gallery
The Laing has a long tradition of hosting significant exhibitions and bringing iconic art to the North East including works by Monet, Van Gogh, Picasso and Leonardo da Vinci’s drawings from the Royal Collection in 2016, the Lindisfarne Gospels on loan from the British Library in 2022, and most recently The Fighting Temeraire on loan from the National Gallery as part of our Turner: Art, Industry & Nostalgia exhibition in 2024. www.laingartgallery.org.uk

North East Museums (formerly Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums)
North East Museums is a regional museum, art gallery and archives service.
We manage nine museums and galleries across Tyneside and the Archives for Tyne and Wear, attracting around 1 million visits a year. We run these venues and services on behalf of the local authorities of Gateshead, Newcastle, North and South Tyneside, and Newcastle University.

We are partially funded by these partners and also by Arts Council England (as a National Portfolio Organisation). The rest of our income is generated through our commercial enterprises including our shops, cafes and venue hire, and via fundraising.

From 1 April 2025 Northumberland County Council will join our partnership, and we will manage Woodhorn Museum, Hexham Old Gaol and Morpeth Chantry Bagpipe Museum on its behalf.

We care for over 1.1 million objects - many of international importance - in archives, art, science and technology, archaeology, military and social history, fashion and natural sciences.

Our award-winning formal and informal learning activities focus on natural history, local heritage, art, science, technology, engineering and maths and inspire 150,000 children and young people each year.

We work with partners to engage local communities, offering creative activities inspired by our collections to help them to improve their health and wellbeing.

Surface Area Dance Theatre, founded in 2007, is not only an award-winning Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisation and a UK dance company but also a beacon of inclusivity and diversity.

Based at Dance City in Newcastle upon Tyne and Sunderland, we have a wide-ranging reach across the Northeast region and beyond. Our work is uniquely relevant and is one of the few that genuinely work at the interface between sign language, D/deaf culture, and dance. The merits and skills of the company’s leaders and members have enabled international engagement with leading UK and internationally celebrated partners and institutes, including The British Council, The Japan Foundation, the Barbican, Turner Contemporary, The Henry Moore Institute, and Stopgap Dance Company. Cultural exchange is at the core of the company’s mission as we strive to represent the UK’s diverse talents and abilities in all our work. In 2018, Surface Area Dance Theatre became a registered Level 2 Disability Confident Committed Employer and advanced in 2022 to a Disability Confident Committed Leader by the Department of Work and Pensions.

Chief Executive Nicole Vivien Watson, a qualified Communication Support Worker, established the charity with a clear mission. Nicole’s combined experience and skills as an Artistic Director, Producer, Facilitator and British Sign Language support worker make Nicole a valuable asset to SADT and the broader arts sector. In 2022, through an independent validation, SADT became a Disability Confident Leader; this means SADT agrees to help recruit, retain, and develop disabled people who will help our business succeed.
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• December 21

  December 21, 2024
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