Renowned contemporary artist and lecturer in Fine Arts, Mary Evans, becomes the new Director of UCL Slade School of Fine Art and will take up the post from 4 October 2023.
Mary Evans is an artist who has exhibited extensively as a solo artist and in group exhibitions. She studied at Goldsmiths, University of London and the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam. She has received many significant commissions, awards and residencies, including a Smithsonian Artists Research Fellowship at the National Museum of African Art, Washington DC in 2010.
Her research centres on the social, political, geographical and historical frameworks of diaspora, migration, global mobility and exchange. In her practice Evans uses brown kraft paper and other disposable materials to interrogate sites, stories, place and belonging, often as large-scale site and research responsive installations. She explores the power relationships between Africa and Europe while moving across the real and imagined, mapping the ephemeral and unmappable. The silhouette, a well-known European visual device, is utilised to make the black body visible as a site for historical and contemporary narratives of resilience, mobility, geography, and memory.
Mary Evans is transferring from Chelsea College of Art, University of the Arts London (UAL), where she served as the BA Fine Art Program Coordinator for five years, to the Slade. Evans had previously taught at Central Saint Martins, UAL, in the BA Fine Art degree. She is committed to removing obstacles to education and expanding access to the arts in her capacity as an educator.
She will succeed Slade Professor Kieren Reed, who has served as Director since September 2018 and has directed the Slade for five years. Professor Reed oversaw the Slade during a time of extraordinarily difficult, circumstances including the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to UCL, Mary Evans made the following comments on her appointment.
“I am delighted to have been appointed Director of the UCL Slade School of Fine Art. I relish the opportunity afforded me with this appointment to lead staff and students in the community of practice at the Slade and contribute to maintaining and advancing its position as a world leading art school. It will be a privilege to work in an environment that offers a transformative education to emerging artists where students and staff can express themselves and take risks in an increasingly equitable environment at this important moment when diverse knowledges are relevant and necessary.”
Professor Kieren Reed, the current Slade Director, said:
“On behalf of the entire artistic community in the Slade School of Fine Art, I extend my sincere congratulations to artist Mary Evans who has been appointed as the new Director. Mary’s dedication, expertise, and vision have been evident throughout her career, and the Slade community is thrilled to have her lead our School into an exciting new chapter. Mary’s leadership will inspire both staff and students alike, fostering a vibrant academic environment where excellence will thrive.”
