Art/Lit Salon (In person)
Art/Lit is The London Library’s brand new regular salon event, exploring all things art, literature and where the two forms collide. Every few months, host Katy Hessel of the Great Women Artists Instagram and podcast will speak to writers, artists, art historians and general enthusiasts. Join us for chat, discussion, drinks and thought-provocation.
Kicking things off in true style, we’re delighted to be bringing together writer Olivia Laing and artist Chantal Joffe – friends, collaborators and both at the very top of their respective games. In conversation with Katy, they discuss the ways both art and literature intersect in their work, the artists and writers who inspire them and some of the greatest practitioners who have worked across both forms.
Chantal Joffe is an American-born artist who lives and works in London. She holds an MA from the Royal College of Art and was awarded the Royal Academy Wollaston Prize in 2006. She has exhibited nationally and internationally with venues including Victoria Miro, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Whitechapel Gallery, The Lowry, National Museum of Iceland National Portrait Gallery and Galleri KB in Oslo. A Sunday Afternoon in Whitechapel is her major new public work for the new Elizabeth Line station in Whitechapel.
Olivia Laing is a writer and critic. Her books include To the River, The Trip to Echo Spring and The Lonely City, a novel Crudo, which won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, Funny Weather: Artin an Emergency and Everybody: A Book About Freedom. She writes on art and culture for the Guardian, Financial Times and New York Times, among other publications, and has written catalogue essays on contemporary artists, including Andy Warhol, Agnes Martin, Derek Jarman, Wolfgang Tillmans and Chantal Joffe.
Katy Hessel is a curator, broadcaster, art historian and founder of The Great Women Artists Instagram and Podcast. She wrote and presented Inside Museums on Artemisia Gentileschi for BBC Four, has lectured at The National Gallery, The Courtauld and Tate and featured in various publications including Vogue, The Sunday Times and i-D. She has curated exhibitions at galleries including Victoria Miro and Timothy Taylor and her debut book, The Story of Art Without Men, will be published in September this year.
Books by Olivia Laing and Chantal Joffe are available from our partner bookshop Hatchards.
N.B. This event will take place in person with limited capacity at The London Library in alignment with up-to-date government COVID recommendations. Please see our Event Access and COVID Guidelines before you arrive. Doors (and the bar) open at 6.45pm, the talk is from 7.15 to 8.15pm and the bar will close at 8.45pm.
London Library events are subject to Terms and Conditions.
