Maureen Paley is pleased to announce a solo show at the gallery by Olivia Plender. The exhibition addresses the subject of national identity, global finance and protest movements. Architectural models, posters, drawings and costumes will be included that are informed by Plender’s interest in the 1924 British Empire Exhibition, the Suffragettes, the Women’s Social and Political Union and the Kibbo Kift Kindred. Plender’s research based practice questions the ideological framework around the narration of history. Her recent projects have explored the means by which alternative systems of knowledge production are proposed by fringe social and religious movements. Drawing on social history, Plender questions how official historical narratives are constructed, and the hierarchies behind the ‘voice of authority’ that is traditionally produced by institutions in the public sphere, such as the museum, the academy and the media.

During the private view the gallery will launch Rise Early, Be Industrious - the new monograph published by Sternberg Press in collaboration with MK Gallery, Milton Keynes; Arnolfini, Bristol; The Banff Centre, Banff and Centre for Contemporary Arts, Glasgow. Edited by Remco de Blaaij, Gerrie van Noord and Olivia Plender, with texts by Angus Cameron, Maeve Connolly, Lars Bang Larsen, Olivia Plender and Tirdad Zolghadr
Design by Nuno da Luz. ISBN 978-3-95679-174-1

In 2014 Plender curated an exhibition of Sylvia Pankhurst’s art works at Tate Britain, London (with The Emily Davison Lodge). Earlier solo shows include Many Maids Make Much Noise, ar/ge kunst, Bolzano, 2015-2016; Rise Early, Be Industrious (touring) MK Gallery, Milton Keynes, Arnolfini, Bristol and Centre for Contemporary Arts, Glasgow, 2012; Aadieu, Adieu Apa (Goodbye Goodbye Father), Gasworks Gallery, London, 2009; Information, Education, Entertainment, Marabouparken Annex, Stockholm 2007; and The Folly of Man Exposed or the World Turned Upside Down, Frankfurter Kunstverein, Frankfurt, 2006.

Selected group shows include the El Teatro Del Mundo, Museo Tamayo Arte Contemporáneo, Mexico City, 2014; The Crime was Almost Perfect, Witte de With, Netherlands, 2014; Arbeidstid, Henie Onstad, Oslo, 2013; British Art Show 10, Hayward Gallery, London, 2011; Folkestone Triennial, Kent, 2011; Taipei Biennial, 2010; Altermodern: Tate Triennial, Tate Britain, London, 2009; Bucharest Biennial, 2010; The Greenroom, Hessel Museum of Art, CCS Bard, Annandale-on-Hudson and The Great Transformation, Frankfurter Kunstverein, Frankfurt, 2008; Tate Triennial Tate Britain, London and Busan Biennial, 2006; BMW: 1X Baltic Triennial of International Art, CAC, Vilnius, 2005; Romantic Detachment, PS1/ MoMA, New York, 2004.