Delaine Le Bas

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Delaine Le Bas is a British Artist from a Romany background and partner of artist Damian Le Bas.

Delaine Le Bas has shown her art extensively both in the UK and internationally, including at the International Festival of Singular Art, Roquevaire, France; the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore, U.S., Transition Gallery and the 2005 and 2007 Prague Biennales. In June 2007 her work was included in the first Roma pavilion of the 2007 Venice Biennale.

Le Bas has had several solo exhibitions, including "Room" at Transition Gallery in London; "The House of the JuJu Queen" at Galerie Giti Nourbaksch, Berlin, and at Galleria Sonia Rosso, Turin.

Her work moves expansively from a unique series of thematic departures including nationhood, race, gender and relationships. These issues are explored through freely combined media. Embroidery, painting and decoupage/"femmage" interact with sculpture and installations that reflect domestic claustrophobia, the transient nature of modern materiality and the tensions that characterise Le Bas' own experience as a Gypsy. The boundary between embellished objects and recovered items re-deposited within the installation is deliberately tested and blurred. Tapestries adorned with the Artist's own stitching and brushmarks arte confronted by items with a less unequivocal history.

Le Bas has previously been associated with Outsider Art. Outsider Art is a term used to refer collectively to self-taught, mentally ill or otherwise unconventional artists working outside the confines of the art establishment. The genre is also known by the name "Art Brut", a term coined by the French artist Jean Dubuffet circa 1945 to refer to works he collected that were "raw" or "ugly".

References

Galerie Giti Nourbaksch http://www.nourbaksch.de

Galleria Sonia Rosso http://www.soniarosso.com

Paradise Lost: The First Roma Pavilion at Venice Biennale http://www.romapavilion.org/

CHAVI: Reclaiming Gypsy Representation, Novas Gallery, London http://www.novas.org/arts/redefining-bedlam,121,PAR.html

"Room" Solo Exhibition at Transition Gallery http://www.transitiongallery.co.uk/htmlpages/room/room_pr.html

The Living Album: Hampshire's Gypsy Heritage http://www.hants.gov.uk/rh/gypsy/delaine/biog.html