Exhibition

YESS LAD

A large number of small ceramic weasels about 8cm high. The front one is holding a banner say 'we want change'.

A selection of ceramic blue plaques presented on a white gallery wall.

A collection of small wooden square panels hung on a white gallery wall, with illustrations of various different characters.

Two abstract paintings in white frames on a white gallery wall.

A collection of 9 colourful abstract stencil prints in white frames hung on a white gallery wall.

People looking at blue ceramic plaques in the gallery at YESS LAD exhibition

Ceramic milk cartons with the words Blood Milk painted on the side.

Framed photographs of everyday life, hung in white frames on white gallery wall.

Artist Barry Finan stood in front of his long scrolls of text.

Two people looking at Leslie's Thompson hero figures collection hung on a white gallery wall.

After a critically acclaimed run during Frieze London 2022, this summer YESS LAD tours to The National Festival of Making, in Blackburn. The National Festival of Making is a unique celebration of UK making, from the kitchen table to the factory floor, presenting a programme of work that combines art, manufacturing, making and communities.

YESS LAD is a Venture Arts group exhibition of eight learning disabled and neurodiverse artists, first shown last autumn at TJ Boulting in Fitzrovia, London, in partnership with A Modest Show. Showcasing new, contemporary visual art, each of the eight Manchester based artists has a unique identity and visual language which, when brought together, demonstrates the rich and diverse practices that are integral to our national arts ecology.

We’re thrilled to see the exhibition recreated in the north at Blackburn Cathedral Annex, as part of a world class festival programme. Expect inspiring, humorous and vibrant work in a variety of mediums, from Dominic Bennett’s ceramic Army of Weasels to Barry Anthony Finan’s porcelain postcards, Horace Lindezey’s irreverent, commemorative blue plaques to Violet Emsley’s beautiful abstract paintings.

Venture Arts Artist TalkSat 8 July, 2.30-3pmLed by Jamie Holman, four of the featured artists, Dominic Bennett, Barry Finan, Horace Lindezey and Leslie Thompson, will be taking part in an Artist Talk, exploring the work on display and the ideas behind it.

Time Out London recently selected YESS LAD for their alternative Turner Prize… “Yess Lad, [the small group show of their work] at TJ Boulting in Fitzrovia, was art stripped of all artifice, all pretension and all bullshit, leaving behind totally joyful, free, gorgeous creativity.”