The artists who will in-residence at Wysing during 2016 are - (spring) Beatrice Dillon, Wojciech Kosma and Florence Peake; (summer) Henna-Riikka Halonen, Evan Ifekoya, Lawrence Lek and Laura O’Neill; (autumn) Larry Achiampong, David Blandy and Gary Zhexi Zhang.

The artists work across music, performance, performative writing, text, computer game technology, video and sound, and they bring an international perspective to Wysing's programme this year. Many of the artists have a political dimension to their work and all share a commitment to working within the structure of Wysing's programme for 2016, Wysing Poly.

Scroll right to read about the artists and click for more images.

Larry Achiampong and David Blandy share an interest in popular culture and the post-colonial position; examining communal and personal heritage within their collaborative practice and using performance to investigate the self as a fiction. Achiampong and Blandy, as individual artists, have been exploring issues surrounding race and culture for many years, albeit from completely different cultural backgrounds. They have been collaborating as Biters and on the Finding Fanon series for over two years, resulting in a body of work including digital imagery, performance and video. Over the past three years, they have exhibited and performed internationally including at Fabrica, Brighton; Iniva, London; Modern Art Oxford; Spike Island, Bristol; ICI/Savvy Contemporary, Berlin, and have an upcoming exhibition at Tyneside Cinema, Newcastle. Their films are distributed by LUX and David Blandy is represented by Seventeen Gallery, London.

Beatrice Dillon is a producer, composer and musician. She has collaborated widely with a range of visual artists producing music and sound for film, performance and installation. Her recent releases Blues Dances, Face A/B and Studies for Samplers and Percussion (a collaborative LP with Rupert Clervaux) were selected for FACT, Juno Plus and Quietus’ Best of 2015. Dillon has performed and DJ’d internationally across venues and galleries including Southbank, Barbican, Tate, ICA, Palais de Tokyo Paris, Lisson, Whitechapel, Center of Contemporary Art Geneva and MONA Tasmania amongst others. In 2014, Dillon was selected for Sound And Music’s portfolio scheme. She’s produced a host of acclaimed mixes for The Trilogy Tapes, Blowing Up The Workshop and Rinse FM etc and released a split cassette with Ben UFO on Wichelroede in February 2016. Beatrice presents a monthly show on London’s NTS radio. 

Henna-Riikka Halonen has worked on and produced many collaborative large scale video projects and commissions and shown her work widely in international exhibitions and festivals such as Research pavilion, Venice Biennale 2015, You Imagine What you Desire, Biennale of Sydney 2014, Eden The Pow(d)er of Fear, Lilith Performance Studio, Malmo, Sweden, Fictitious Entry, Uqbar, Berlin, Ny Finsk Videokunst, Kunsthall, Grenland, Norway,Video Dumbo festival, Eyebeam Art + Technology Center, New York, Gallery Factory, Seoul, Korea, Saison Video, France, Transmediale, 2012, Berlin, Centre Pompidou, Paris, Festival De Nouveau Cinema, Montreal, Brussels Short film Festival, Musrara Mix, Jerusalem, Israel, Collective Gallery, Edinburgh, Berwick Gymnasium Gallery, UK, Loop Video Art Fair, Barcelona, Grim museum, Berlin, Gstaad Film festival, Switzerland, Incheon International Biennale, Korea and ARTE TV Channel (France/Germany) etc. Halonen lives and works in Helsinki and her residency has been made possible through the support of Frame Finland, HIAP and The Finnish Institute in London.

Evan Ifekoya is an interdisciplinary artist and educator, exploring the politicisation of culture, society and aesthetics. Ifekoya’s current work investigates the possibility of an erotic and poetic occupation using film, performative writing and sound, focused on co-authored, intimate forms of knowledge production and the radical potential of spectacle. Recent exhibitions include normcore, IAb, Bielefeld, Germany; All Of Us Have A Sense Of Rhythm, David Roberts Art Foundation, London; Embodied Spaces, FramerFramed, De Tolhuistuin, Amsterdam - both curated by Christine Eyene; Studio Voltaire OPEN, London and 30 years of the Future, Castlefield Gallery, Manchester (2014). Recent performances have taken place at David Roberts Art Foundation and Tate Modern, London as well as The Marlborough, Brighton and De Tolhuistuin, Amsterdam.

Wojciech Kosma explores multiple aspects of relationships and sociality, working within a performance framework and together with a number of close collaborators. The effects of this process are manifested both in the social realm and in artistic productions. Kosma’s collaborations with Dylan Aiello, Dwayne Browne, Sjoerd Dijk, Brian Doose, Gordon Douglas, Ligia Lewis, Sofia Lomba, Ewa Majewska, Irene Moray, Timothy Murray, Paulita Pappel, Llewellyn Reichman, Yunuen Rhi, Ingrid Sattes, Jessica Lauren Elizabeth Taylor and Judith Vrancken were presented at Interstate Projects in New York; Chisenhale Gallery, London; Schinkel Pavillon in Berlin; Galerie Kamm, Berlin; Human Resources, Los Angeles; Transmission, Glasgow; Outpost, Norwich; LEAP, Berlin; and Muzeum Sztuki, Łódź among others. In 2015, Kosma was the recipient of Scholarship for Visual Arts awarded by the Berlin Senate and resident artist at Triangle in New York.

Lawrence Lek uses architectural fabrication and video game software to produce virtual worlds, video performances and immersive installations, often based on real places. His work deals with the uncanny experience of simulated presence, and how themes of desire, memory, power, and immortality drive our encounters within virtual realms. Lek is a graduate of the Cooper Union, New York, the Architectural Association, London and Trinity College, Cambridge. Recent projects include Secret Surface, KW Berlin; Software, Hard Problem, Cubitt Gallery; The Uncanny Valley, Wysing; Unreal Estate, Royal Academy; Performance as Process, Delfina Foundation; Sky Line for Art Licks Weekend 2014 Digital Commission; Continental Drift, Channel Normal; Bodyscape, Parasol Unit. Lek is a resident artist at The White Building and winner of the 2015 Dazed Emerging Artist Award and ICA/Tenderflix Artist Video Award.

Laura O’Neill describes herself as "a maker and a shaker; to which I question the act of looking". Past projects include Focal Point Gallery’s Big Screen, Southend-on-Sea, 2016; Bikini Wax, Mexico City, 2015; ICA, London, 2015; Camden Art Centre, London, 2015; Baltic 39, Newcastle, 2014; Liverpool Biennale, 2014; Spike Island, Bristol, 2013 and a recent film commission from Mexico City Metro. She currently lives and works in Mexico City.

Florence Peake’s practice encompasses visual art, dance and performance. Peake works with drawing, painting and sculptural materials combined with found, appropriated and fabricated objects placed in relationship to the moving body. Site and the placement of performance and audience, live and recorded text, as well as a well-developed sense of wit and humour, are key to her work. She has shown nationally and internationally, presenting work at the National Portrait Gallery, London; BALTIC, Gateshead; Hayward Gallery as part of Mirrorcity, London; David Roberts Art Foundation, London; Yorkshire Sculpture Park; Modern Art Oxford; Chapter Arts, Cardiff; the Harris Museum, Preston; and the Herbert Museum, Coventry.

Gary Zhexi Zhang is an artist and writer whose work is concerned with private and political narratives of the virtual. Recent screenings and exhibitions include Would You Like Help at EMBASSY Gallery, Edinburgh and Tenderflix Film Festival at ICA, London. He is a regular contributor to Frieze and Elephant magazines, and is currently studying for a Masters of Philosophy in Criticism and Culture at Cambridge University.