Workplace is pleased to present Still Moving, an exhibition of new works by North-East based artists Phyllis Christopher, Kuba Ryniewicz and Jade Sweeting.

The exhibition delves into the intricate themes of relationships, portraiture, and the body whilst exploring the diversity and intrigue of subcultures.

Phyllis Christopher focuses on the human body as a site of empowerment. The work included in this exhibition is a portrait of the body prior to a medical mastectomy. Requested by the sitter as a way of acknowledging the significance of her breast and as a way of saying goodbye, Elizabeth is Christopher’s first work in her new series ‘The Queer Body in Peril’ where she returns to using traditional photography to investigate bodies in transition. Christopher invites viewers to contemplate the complexities of identity, transformation, and the human experience through intimate images of the human body.

Kuba Ryniewicz’s work defies conventional notions of portraiture. His photographs seek both to capture the essence of the individual and to serve as windows into their untold stories, providing a space which gives permission for the sitter to reveal their uninhibited identity, often through interaction with surrounding objects or landscape. Ryniewicz’s distinctive approach challenges the boundaries of traditional portraiture, inviting viewers to engage with the layers of meaning through witnessing the sitter in tension with their environment; and the hidden personal stories suggested through each image.

Jade Sweeting explores an intimate relationship with found imagery, motorbikes and objects that are central to her identity. Sweeting’s ongoing research into biker women and the ‘chopper’ culture of the North-East, along with found and recycled imagery, are refined and re-presented by Sweeting through traditional analogue printmaking techniques to create images that are iconic and erotic. Her prints of zips, leather and chains, close-up crops of biker regalia selected by their owners become alternative and intimate portraits by Sweeting of her biker community.

The title of the exhibition Still Moving references the documentary film portrait of musician Patti Smith by Robert Mapplethorpe, which portrays the unique relationship between Mapplethorpe, the artist and Smith, the subject. The title of the exhibition highlights the intimate relationships between the three artists as well as their unique connection with each sitter. Each artist maintaining a respectful and sensitive collaboration with the sitter.

Phyllis Christopher (b.1963, Buffalo,NY, USA) is based in Gateshead, UK. Christopher has exhibited nationally and internationally, selected solo exhibitions include Contacts, BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, UK (2022); Heads and Tails, Grand Union, Birmingham, UK (2022); Passionate Acts in Virulent Times, Celine Gallery, Glasgow, UK (2019); Pretending To Be Free Of Time, Center for Sex and Culture, San Francisco, USA (2012); and Retrospective Show, Good Vibrations, San Francisco, USA (2011). Selected group exhibitions include Still I Rise: Feminisms, Gender, Resistance, Nottingham Contemporary, Nottingham, UK, and De La Warr Pavaillion, Bexhill-on-Sea, UK (2019); Women, Daniel Cooney Gallery, New York, USA (2018).

Her work has been featured and reviewed widely in periodicals including FRIEZE, The Guardian, British Journal of Photography, Art Montly and AnOther Magazine.

Kuba Ryniewicz (b. 1980, Poznan, Poland) is based in the North East of England, UK. He completed his MA in Philosophy at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan, Poland in 2005 and carried out his BA in Contemporary Photographic Practice from Northumbria University, UK in 2008. Ryniewicz had exhibited nationally and internationally, selected exhibitions include Parallel Stories from Here, Newcastle Contemporary Art, Newcastle, UK (2022); Daily Weeding, The NewBridge Project, Newcastle, UK; 3538Org, Paris, France; and Village, Leeds UK (2021). Selected group exhibitions include The Everday Politcal, Southwark Park Galleries, London, UK (2018); Idea of North, BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, UK (2018); and North: Fashioning Identity, Somerset House, London, UK (2017). He has worked internationally with clients including Gucci, Loewe, Balenciaga, Google, COS, Stella McCartney, Fantastic Man, Luncheon, BUTT, Dazed, Financial Times, Replica Man, Apartamento, The Gourmand, The Plant, Pleasure Garden, PIN-UP, Vogue Poland, Wired (Japan), Wire, and Wallpaper*.

Ryniewicz is currently Visiting Fellow at Northern Centre for Photography in Sunderland, UK.

Jade Sweeting (b. 1987, Middlesborough, UK) is based in Newcastle, UK. She completed her BA in Fine Art: Print Making at Northumbria University in 2010. Sweeting has exhibited nationally including I’m A Cliché, Northern Stage, Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK (2022); Hell Cats, Middlesborough Institute for Modern Art, Middlesbrough, UK (2021); Humanalia (n)., One Paved Court, London, UK (2021); Hell Cats, BALTIC 39, Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK and Village, Leeds, UK (2020); Censored: A Photography Exhibition, The NewBridge Project, Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK (2018); and Deep Down Body Thirst, Glasgow International, Glasgow, UK (2018). She has co-curated exhibitions including On Our Backs: An Archive Featuring Phyllis Christopher, The NewBridge Project, Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK (2017) and has delivered artist talks nationally and internationally including South London Gallery, Whitworth Gallery and Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art. In 2022 Sweeting worked on Proud All Over, commissioned by Channel4 and Gay Times.