Residency

General Assembly provides emerging artists the opportunity to stay and work at Le Moulin de Marnay, in the Loire Valley, as part of it's residency program.

 

Selected artists are invited to spend time making work, exploring, and being inspired by the verdant landscape of the Loire Valley, France. Working with local patrons, and custodians of local historical chateau, General Assembly hosts events introducing new audiences to artists’ work.

 

Residencies are followed by a solo show at General Assembly’s premises in Mayfair, London, or at a partnering location in the Loire Valley.

 

 

  • Loire Valley Residency Summer 2024

    Will Maddrell and Mia Graham
    Will Maddrell, Will on participating in the residency
    Learn more about Will's Loire Valley show

    Will Maddrell

    Will on participating in the residency

    "At the residency, I’m very excited to be working full-time on new works and not worrying about going to the many jobs I have back in London. I can literally wake up, eat a pain au chocolat, make a coffee, get straight to work in the studio upstairs, and work until very late. Without distractions, my output is very prolific. Annual leave never felt so good. 

     

    I’m considering the legacy of the artists who have, over the centuries, spent time in this region. It is here where architect-engineer-artist Leonardo da Vinci spent his final years by invitation of Francis I; where the writer Balzac, now remembered as a foundational figure in the development of the realist novel for his complexity of character and acute observation of society, was born and spent time; and where surrealist Max Ernst and sculptor Rodin respectively took up residence in search of a tranquil environment conducive to creativity. It is not only a shared history in this region which links these artists together, but also, as their lives’ works demonstrate, an interest in the mechanics of reality. 

     

    The work I’m making here explores what it might look like if this conceptual lineage meets a contemporary self-awareness about the role of the artist in fabricating a realism of today, and that of total rest, relaxation and pleasure in the countryside in generating productive creative labour and organically getting closer to reality."

     
  • Mia Graham, Mia on participating in the residency
    Learn more about Mia's solo show at General Assembly

    Mia Graham

    Mia on participating in the residency

    "Having this immersive period to create has been so invaluable for my practice. In London, the pace of life and necessity to graft can make it difficult to retain a connection and openness to the sources which drive and influence my work, which are so often drawn from time spent in natural spaces, reading, introspection and viewing art made by others. Whilst I’ve been here, I’ve been able to completely surrender to a direction of painting which has taken on a life of its own. The simplicity of my routine is reflected in my approach to painting as I become increasingly connected to intuition.

     

    There is a growing element of physicality within my practice, which has flourished during my time here, where my own corporeal presence, and that of the nature which I am surrounded by, leaves traces on the surface of the canvas; I have been using my hands to make marks and working outside. I welcome the soiling of the fabric and reject sterility as the works develop a materiality of disintegration. In their fragile state they edge closer to becoming remains in themselves."