theCOLAB and The Artist’s Garden presents M A R Y M A R Y, a major exhibition of public, outdoor sculpture in central London by nine women artists. The exhibition features commissioned works by Rong Bao, Candida Powell–Williams and Alice Wilson, adapted works by Lucy Gregory and LR Vandy and existing works by Olivia Bax, Frances Richardson, Holly Stevenson and Virginia Overton.  It is on view at The Artist’s Garden, a vast and once neglected half-acre roof terrace on top of Temple tube station, which is now the world’s first sculpture garden dedicated to the work of women artists, established in 2021. Thought to lie partially over the seventeenth century formal garden of Lord and Lady Arundel in which they amassed and displayed England’s first classical sculpture garden, The Artist’s Garden continues to be a place to contemplate the human/nature relationship through sculptural interventions.

M A R Y M A R Y reveals a new and rich sculptural language for public space in the context of the Garden. It positively reframes the characterisation of forceful women as ‘contrary’, long embedded in our national consciousness, as exemplified by the nursery rhyme from which the exhibition borrows its title:

Mary, Mary, quite contrary,
How does your garden grow?
With silver bells,and cockle shells
And pretty maids all in a row.

M A R Y M A R Y enacts a large-scale reclamation of public space: physically, in the fabric of the urban landscape and conceptually in the male dominated art historical canon. This diverse group of artists subverts and reimagines traditional architectural elements of the garden design: fountains become unruly and mythical, paths become a bristled critique of the urbanist’s disregard for the visually impaired, a bench invites indolence, a hut and its ‘forest’ upends hierarchies of material and form.

The garden is peopled by abstractions of ‘Mary’ (derived from the Hebrew mry meaning rebellious) from the dynamic cog to the kinetic kick tothe surreal baluster-woman-shrine. Sculpture answers back and turns itself into sound, sculpture laughs at its deft capacity to fit inside its own packing crate. Sculpture is ready to move forward.

Claire Mander, Director & Curator, theCOLAB, says:

“The Artist’s Garden demonstrates the refreshingly non-conformist approaches of women artists, offering new perspectives on the possibilities of sculpture both materially, and as a conduit for revealing untold stories about people and places. MARY MARY is a positive step towards redressing the underrepresentation of women in the arts, which remains below 30 percent across commercial galleries and public collections.”

Councillor Ryan Jude, Cabinet Member for Climate, Ecology and Culture says:

"We are delighted to support the MARY MARY exhibition at The Artist’s Garden through our partnership with theCOLAB. As part of our commitment to delivering a Fairer Westminster, we are dedicated to creating inclusive cultural spaces. By showcasing the work of nine women artists, this exhibition continues to enhance this historic space and champion diversity in the arts."

Dom Hastings, Director Arts of the British Council in China says:

“The British Council seeks to support greater connectivity, better mutual understanding, more and deeper relationships between the people of the UK and other countries, so I’m very happy that we were able to support theCOLAB and Chinese artist Rong Bao through our Connections Through Culture fund. Situating Rong Bao’s ‘Yellow Path (2024)’ in The Artist’s Garden will open a dialogue between the UK and China, allowing visitors to consider shared concerns in both our countries.”

MARY MARY and The Artist’s Garden is realised in partnership with and supported by Westminster City Council and private philanthropists with support from the British Council’s Connections Through Culture Grant for Rong Bao’s Yellow Path and with the kind permission of LUL/Transport for London. With thanks to WSP UK, Frieze 91 and Mezcal Reina for their support.

Notes to Editors

For press enquiries, image requests or to arrange an interview, please contact: Mary Doherty // mary@sam-talbot.com // 07716701499

About theCOLAB and The Artist’s Garden

theCOLAB is an independent women-led collaborative laboratory working to bring together people, land and art by realising artists’ most far-flung and life-affirming work in response to places beyond the confines of the white cube for the public. The Artist’s Garden transformed the neglected half acre rooftop on Temple tube station into a vast free public sculpture garden to give women artists the opportunity to make their first, early or greatest outdoor sculptural intervention to promote greater appreciation of their work in public. The annual programme comprises major and smaller scale commissions and theCOLAB/Royal College of Art/Yorkshire Sculpture Park Graduate Award residency. theCOLAB is a registered charity.  www.thecolab.art / @thecolab.art

About the Artists

Rong Bao (b. 1997, China) completed her MA in Sculpture at the Royal College of Art in 2023. She studied Public Sculpture at the China Academy of Art and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, receiving her BFA in 2021. She was in the Top 10 emerging artists selected by China UCCA, shortlisted for New Contemporaries 2022 and received the Royal Society of Sculptors' Gilbert Bayes Award and the COLAB/Royal College of Art/Yorkshire Sculpture Park Graduate Award, Her first solo exhibition, "Rong Bao is Me,", Saatchi Gallery (2024), was the first solo exhibition by a female Chinese artist at the gallery. She was commissioned by Tate Collective, and her work is in collections including the Art Algorithm Capital Art Foundation, LAM Museum.

 Olivia Bax (b. 1988, Singapore) graduated from the Byam Shaw School of Art in 2010 and with an MFA Sculpture from Slade School of Fine Art in 2016.  She spent her twenties working as a studio assistant to Anthony Caro. She was Artist Research Fellow at the Henry Moore Institute in 2023, was awarded the Mark Tanner Sculpture Award in 2019 and the Kenneth Armitage Young Sculptor Prize in 2016. Exhibitions include: Handrailing, The New Arts Centre in collaboration with Sid Motion Gallery, Roche Court, 2024; Floss, Holtermann Fine Art, London; These Mad Hybrids: John Hoyland and Contemporary Sculpture, Royal West of England Academy, 2024 and Eartheaters, Lustwarande, Tilburg, 2023.  Her work is held in the Arts Council Collection, The Ingram Collection, Tremenheere Sculpture Gardens and private collections.

Lucy Gregory (b. 1994) graduated from The Ruskin School of Art, University of Oxford in 2016 and The Royal College of Art with an MFA in Sculpture in 2018. She won the Ingram Prize in 2019 and her work is now part of the Ingram Collection. She received the Gilbert Bayes Trust Studio Grant and the RCA Arts & Humanities Art Criticism Prize in 2018. She won the People’s Choice Award for the National Sculpture Prize at Broomhill in 2021 and was selected for theCOLAB Body and Place Residency in 2023. She has exhibited at Bold Tendencies in 2020, MK Gallery in 2020 and 2024, Christie’s Auction House, as well as being included as a finalist in the 2021 Robert Walters UK New Artist of the Year Award at the Saatchi Gallery.  In 2024, she will exhibit at Orleans House Gallery. She lives and works in London and Buckinghamshire.

Virginia Overton (b.1971, Nashville, US) holds a BFA and MFA from the University of Memphis, Tennessee. Recent solo exhibitions include Landcraft Garden Foundation, Mattituck, New York (2023); Hypermaremma, Orbetello, Italy (2023); Frist Art Museum, Nashville (2022); Goldsmiths CCA, London, The Mill, Lismore Castle Arts, Ireland, Ogunquit Museum of American Art, Ogunquit, Maine (2022); White Cube Hong Kong (2020); Socrates Sculpture Park, New York, The Martha and Robert Fogelman Galleries of Contemporary Art, Memphis, Tennessee (2018), Westfälischer Kunstverein Jahresgaben, Munster, Germany, Museum of Contemporary Art, Tucson, Arizona (2017); Whitney Museum of American Art, New York The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, Connecticut (2016) and Kunsthalle Bern, Switzerland (2013).  Group exhibitions include The Milk of Dreams, 59th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy (2022); The Ranch, Montauk, New York (2021); Among the Trees, Hayward Gallery, London (2020); FRONT Triennial, Cleveland, (2018); Museum of Contemporary Art, Detroit (2017); Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (2016); High Line, New York in 2012 and 2014, Storm King Art Center, New York 2014.  Her work is held in numerous collections internationally including Cheekwood Estate & Gardens, Tennessee Kunsthaus Zürich, Switzerland, Museum of Contemporary Art, Tucson, Arizona The Museum of Modern Art, New York, San Antonio Museum of Art, Texas, Stiftung Kunsthalle Bern, Switzerland Stiftung GegenwART, Bern, Switzerland Whitney Museum of American Art, New York Zabludowicz Collection, London.  Addditional commissions and public works include those at LaGuardia Airport, New York; Celine, Paris, Untitled (cascade), Goldsmiths CCA, London; Untitled (HILUX), Art Basel (Parcours), Storm King Art Center, ALL RISE, Seattle, Washington; Pier 54, High Line Art, New York; Change of State, Projection on the Façade of the New Museum, New York Memphis, TN Social, billboard at Monroe and Marshall, Memphis, Tennessee; R4, in association with FIAC, Ile Seguin, Paris, Frieze Projects, Randall’s Island, New York; Off the Grid, Brooks Museum, Memphis, Tennessee. She is represented by White Cube and she lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.

Candida Powell-Williams (b. 1984, London) graduated from the Royal College of Art, London in 2011 and the Slade School of Fine Art London in 2009.  She was awarded the Mother Art Prize, 2018 and the Eric and Jean Cass Sculpture Award in 2011.  She was Artist in Residence at the Warburg Institute and undertook the Sainsbury Scholarship at the British School at Rome in 2012-3. Selected exhibitions: The Goddess, The Diety and the Cyborg at The Women’s Art Collection Murray Edwards College Cambridge, 2024; Crystalis Zabludowicz Collection Finland, 2023; Tilt Shift: Shadows of the Seasoned Sun, Southwark Park Galleries, 2022;The Gates of Apophenia, Bosse & Baum London, 2019); Command Lines, Void Gallery Northern Ireland, 2019; Lessness, still quorum, performance, Serpentine Galleries, London, 2018, Tongue Town, Museum of Modern Art, São Paulo, 2017; Cache, Art Night Associate Programme, London, 2017.

Frances Richardson (b.1965, Leeds, UK) studied BA (Hons) Fine Art at Norwich School of Art and Design, Norwich. She received a Commonwealth Foundation Fellowship and trained as a Yoruba carver under Master Carver Segun Faleye in Nigeria. On her return to London, she met Robert Loder the collector, philanthropist and co-founder of the Triangle Network, and in 1994, Richardson instigated his involvement in an artist-led project for the provision of studios and for hosting international artists in residency at Gasworks in Vauxhall in London. In 2006, Richardson received her MA in Fine Art Sculpture from the Royal College of Art, London. In 2021, she received the prestigious Bryan Robertson Trust Award. She was nominated for the Max Mara Art Prize for Women 2015-17 in collaboration with Whitechapel Gallery and won the Mark Tanner Sculpture Award and Chiara Williams Contemporary Art SOLO AWARD in 2017. In 2022, she gave the Courtauld Institute of Art Sculptural Processes Group’s Annual Artist’s Talk.  Richardson exhibits nationally and internationally. Key solo exhibitions/commissions include theCOLAB Women’s Work Commission 2023, Performed Object: Fig. 09130123, indolentia’, The Artist’s Garden, London, 2023; Still attached at all four corners, Bobinska Brownlee New River, London, 2022; If I measure it must exist, Karsten Schubert, London 2021, Not even nothing can be free from ghosts, Standpoint Gallery, London, 2018; In times of brutal instability, Chiara Williams Contemporary Art, London Art Fair, 2018; Performed object: Fig. 090616, Concrete Canvas Treforest Industrial Estate, Cardiff, 2016; Loss of object and bondage to it, Lubomirov-Easton, London 2015; Fig 2, Bermondsey Square Sculpture Commission, Vitrine Gallery, London 2015; and Ideas in the Making: drawing structure, Trinity Contemporary, London 2011. She lives and works in London, is Carving/Fine Art Tutor at City & Guilds of London Art School and is represented by Tom Rowland.

Holly Stevenson (b. 1975) holds an MA in Art History from the University of Glasgow and an MA in Fine Art from the Chelsea College of Art and Design. In 2012 she was awarded the MFI Flat Time House Graduate Award supported by the John Latham Archive and Foundation, held a guest fellowship at UAL and became a Mother Art Prize Finalist in 2020.   She was commissioned by Procreate Project in 2020, theCOLAB the Artist’ Garden Women’s Work Commission in 2022 and was selected for their Body and Place residency in 2024. Her work is held in collections including Leeds College of Art Special Collection, Marcelle Joseph Collection, Ömer Koç Collection, University of the Arts, London, Permanent Collection. She has exhibited at Richard Saltoun Gallery, Rome and London, Frieze Sculpture 2023, Marcelle Joseph Projects and Sid Motion Gallery. Forthcoming residencies/exhibitions include at Jane McAdam Freud Museum and Gallery in the Czech Republic and the Freud Museum, London in 2024/5. 

L R Vandy (b. 1958, Coventry) graduated from Camberwell College of Arts with a BA Graphic Design and an MA Royal College of Art in Furniture Design.  Most recently, she was commissioned by National Museums Liverpool to created Dancing in Time: The Ties That Bind Us, for the Canning Dock in Liverpool for the third iteration of the International Slavery Museum’s MLK Pop Up series. She exhibited at Frieze Sculpture, Regents Park, 2023, Get Up, Stand Up Now at Somerset House, 2019. Since 2018, she has exhibited at October Gallery and 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair, London and New York. including Her work is in the collection of the British Museum, National Museums Liverpool and private collections. She was selected for theCOLAB Body and Place Residency in 2022. She is represented by October Gallery, lives in London and works in Chatham Historic Dockyard. 

Alice Wilson (b.1982) graduated from her BA at Loughborough University in 2005 and her MA Fine Art from Wimbledon School of Art in 2011. She is a fellow of the Higher Education Academy and holds an MA Academic Practice from UAL, 2023. Recent solo exhibitions include The Matter Facts at Coleman Projects, 2023, A Mild Epiphany on My Bike at domobaal Gallery, 2021, one hundred and eighty nine at 303 Projects, Lowestoft, 2022 and ISLAND at JGM Gallery, 2019. Other recent exhibitions include KK Trove with SqWLAB, Mumbai, 2023 and New Forms at Saatchi Gallery, 2022. She received international development funding from the British Council in 2017 to install work in a Danish forest. She was selected for theCOLAB Body and Place Residency in 2022 and has work in the collection of the National Maritime Museum.

About the Future Programme Women Artists in Public Space

MARY MARY will extend its reach in May and June 2025 to interrogate women artists’ strategies for taking up public space with the Women Artists in Public Space Summit, a collaborative conference between theCOLAB/the Artist’s Garden and King’s College London/Dr Kate McMillan to include site-specific commissions ‘Sirens’ by Kate McMillan in the Roman Baths in Strand Lane, a walking performance by Daisy Collingridge and a performance lecture.

theCOLAB/Royal College of Art/Yorkshire Sculpture Park Graduate Award recipient for 2024, Flora Duley, will be in residence in the Artist’s Hut from December 2024 to March 2025.  She will explore the site’s history and aspects of play, participation, rules and colour.