Studio A4 | 2025
The 'Human Life in Motion' workshop (2025) features Maia Ruth Lee, Olivia Oyamada, Sofia Yala, Jade Foster, and participants Marwa Soliman, Hanan Shaikh, Maha Hadid, Shahlaa Al-Battawi, and Azza Elkareh from Heya Nottingham. Process shots of creating the sixth 'Bondage Baggage Banner' were taken in Studio A4 at Primary, Nottingham, UK. Photo by Tom Morley. Image courtesy of Primary and the artist.
Artists: Maia Ruth Lee, Dr Ruth Charnock, Lynn Fulton, Santiago Mostyn, Adam Seid Tahir & Amina Seid Tahir, Eelyn Lee
Studio A4 is a residency programme offering an uncommon opportunity for artists, particularly those based internationally, to conduct research in a studio, receive long-term curatorial support, develop new work in Nottingham, and work amongst resident artists at Primary.
Our ongoing residency programmes, such as Work in Common, established in 2018, have brought extraordinary artists to Nottingham, such as Turner Prize 2024 winner Jasleen Kaur, Libita Clayton, Larry Achiampong, Hardeep Pandhal (2018 artists-in-residence), Nathalie Anguezomo Mba Bikoro, Voices that Shake! (2019), Matthew Arthur Williams, Chiemi Shimada (2023), and Madi Acharya-Baskerville (2024). We have also hosted artists Palani Kumar Mayilraj and Hairunisha Kasim Moulana, activating the space as part of their exchange during Kolam. And now we know international residencies at Primary introduce an artist, sometimes for the first time, to the UK arts scene.
We, alongside our residency partners, support or (co-)commission emerging and established artists from the UK and internationally to showcase their first major exhibitions in the UK. Supporting artists Dora Budor, Julian Abraham ‘Togar’, Allan Weber—in partnership with Nottingham Contemporary—and Maia Ruth Lee have enabled something intangible and special to happen that nobody could have envisioned. We are lucky to be present in many ways for the risk-taking and experimentation, collaboration through unexpected encounters, and the fated breakthroughs (however small or big) that contribute to shaping an artist’s career moving forward.