In Performance: John Glacier

Join us for a performance by John Glacier, who carves soundscapes with her punk-poet electronic songs, in response to works by Amy Sherald.

On the occasion of  ‘Amy Sherald. The World We Make,’ Hauser & Wirth London will host a musical and spoken word performance by John Glacier, in response to the exhibition within the gallery space.

This performance sees two worlds collide by juxtaposing the work of artist Amy Sherald and lyricist John Glacier, who both use differing mediums to expose rich interior worlds as a core part of their practice. John Glacier uses words, poetry and music to give light to emotions and their complex inner life.

Welcome drinks will be served from 6.30 pm, with the performance starting promptly at 7 pm and finishing by 7.30 pm. Both gallery spaces will remain open until 8 pm to explore the exhibition and purchase the recent publication ‘Amy Sherald: The World We Make’.

Admittance only with a valid ticket. Entry after 7 pm, once the performance has started, will not be permitted.

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About ‘Amy Sherald. The World We Make’ Amy Sherald, one of the defining contemporary portraitists in the United States, unveils a suite of new paintings in a major exhibition at Hauser & Wirth London, marking the artist’s first solo show in Europe. Featuring a series of small-scale and monumental portraits across both the gallery’s London spaces, this presentation is the artist’s largest to date with the gallery. Sherald is acclaimed for her paintings of Black Americans at leisure that have become landmarks in the grand tradition of social portraiture—a tradition that for too long excluded the Black men, women, families, and artists whose lives have been inextricable from public and politicised narratives.

‘Amy Sherald. The World We Make’ is on view until 23 December 2022.

About John Glacier The London-based rapper and producer carves soundscapes with her punk-poet electronic songs. John Glacier’s debut project, SHILOH: Lost For Words, was released last year, propelling her onto record of the year lists. The album won her front covers and features across publications such as Crack, Vogue, Dazed and i-D. Glacier is currently building up to another release, and some special live performances.

Glacier says she chose her stage name because she's ‘icy.’ But, like her pitch-shifted vocal and deadpan stare, that dissembling coldness is shattered by the blistering reality of her lyrics.

Growing up in Hackney, John didn't think much about making music. John's therapy, from a young age, was writing. Chronic illness forced her to drop many of her classes as a teenager. Her primary musical education was reggae, dancehall, soca and R&B that would play in her family home. That, and her childhood pop loves, Anastasia and Britney Spears.

Through her tender, strange compositions, John has been piecing herself back together, and her debut project SHILOH: Lost for Words was a montage of the highs and lows of that journey.