Deptford X 2011 & 2012

Guest lead artist-curators - Hew Locke & Indra Khanna

Founded in 1998, Deptford X exists to promote the best contemporary visual art and celebrate that art with the widest possible audience.  Artists are invited to propose work to exhibit in galleries and non-art spaces in Deptford, South London, in response to the current guest artist-curator's Statement of Intent (ours below). Every year there is a substantial range of other gallery openings, open studios, events and exhibitions co-inciding with Deptford X.

"Surrender to the pleasure of the decorative. Revel in the excessive, embrace it, be dazzled. A stall stacked with lurid artificial flowers,rhythmic serpentine graffiti, baroque mermen carved over the old town hall door, all are equally a joy to the eye. Indulge yourself.

"But there is more than just the surface. Layers of decoration contain levels of meaning, messages and codes. Symbols of power, conspicuous consumption, signals of elitist knowledge, patterns of control, signs of social belonging.

"Is it all just Too Much? Visual overload, information overload, too much to digest – too much work, not enough time. Are our eyes bigger than our stomachs?"

Deptford X 2012 ran from 27th July - 12th August, co-inciding with the Olympics. For this year the main programme consisted of five programmed projects. The guest artist/curators invited three artists to make solo presentations; Doug Jones, Henna Nadeem and Chicago-based Dzine (his first exhibition in London); Sophie MacPherson and Clare Stephenson were selected to present their show Leaving My Old Life Behind, which also featured Colin Self, and Hew Locke created a major new temporary piece of work Gold Standard. Phenomenon by Dzine, Bearspace Still from Me and the Devil by Dzine A Picture Book of Britain by Henna Nadeem, Halfpenny Hatch   Non Sum Qualis Eram, Chapter A by Doug Jones, Van Kahn Gallery Leaving My Old Life Behind, Gallop Details of Gold Standard by Hew Locke, Old Tide Mill School   The 50 official fringe projects 2012 were selected by the committee from an open submission, open to artists anywhere. Deptford X 2011 ran from 30 September - 2nd October. Below is a selection of images from the forty projects selected by the guest artist/curators and the committee for inclusion in the main and fringe programmes from an open submission of local artists.