BEN OKRI & ROSEMARY CLUNIE
June 2024
24 x 30 inches
acrylic on canvas
harmonising with nature
Ben Okri has been collaborating with Rosemary Clunie for the last few years on these visual poems. Their recent exhibitions have been Firedreams at the Bomb Factory in 2023 and Long Shadows, Bright World at the Marylebone Theatre 2024. Revolution Earth, the dance drama about climate change, with choreographer Charlotte Jarvis also premiered at Marylebone Theatre in 2024.
Rosemary Clunie was born in Scotland, and as a child lived and travelled in the Middle East, Africa and Europe. Her artworks have been exhibited widely since 1991, including at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Abergavenny Museum, and Cumberland Lodge in Windsor Great Park. Her paintings are held in eminent private and public collections.
She also creates conceptual artworks with Booker prize winning author Sir Ben Okri in a rare dialogue between text and image. Their current show, "Long Shadows, Bright World", at the Marylebone Theatre until 1st June brings together the worlds of painting and poetry. "Firedreams", a major exhibition of 24 large works, was a huge success at The Bomb Factory in Marylebone in April 2023. Earlier collaborations about climate change, commissioned for platformearth, sold at Frieze in October 2021 and at the Superblue 'Ode to the Oceans' event held at the RA in February 2022; one of their prints is now on show at the Venice Biennale. They exhibited with WaterAid at the British Art Fair in October 2022. A previous exhibition, at ROSL in Mayfair, also a collaboration with Ben Okri, arose out of their book 'The Magic Lamp', published by Head of Zeus. Her contribution to the book was described: "The original paintings, beautiful, playful, intimate and dreamlike, pull you into a land of colour and vision." The FT stated her work "recalls that of Joan Miró or Quentin Blake", while the New Statesman wrote: "Clunie's use of colour is billowing, rich and dreamlike."
She has written and illustrated her first children's book, "Serena and the Little Blue Dog", published in March 2024 by Zephyr, an imprint of Bloomsbury. Her second book "Serena and Laloolee Fly Away" comes out in September.
Sir Ben Okri is a poet, playwright and novelist. He has published many books, including THE FAMISHED ROAD, which won the Booker Prize for Fiction in 1991. His other novels include STARBOOK, THE AGE OF MAGIC, DANGEROUS LOVE, and ASTONISHING THE GODS. He has published eleven novels, four books of Short Stories, two collections of essays, and three volumes of poems. He has invented a new form of storytelling called the " Stoku", which is a cross between the short story and the haiku.
His works have been translated into 27 languages. He has been a Fellow Commoner in Creative Arts at Trinity College, Cambridge and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. He was awarded an OBE, and was knighted in 2023 for services to literature.
Ben Okri's books have won numerous international Prizes including the Commonwealth Writer's Prize for Africa, the Paris Review Aga Khan Prize for Fiction, the Chianti Ruffino-Antico Fattore International Literary Prize, and the Premio Grinzane Cavour Prize.
The recipient of many honorary doctorates, he is a vice-president of the English Centre of International PEN and was presented the Crystal Award by the World Economic Forum for his outstanding contribution to the Arts and to cross-cultural understanding.
He wrote the script for Peter Krüger’s film N: THE MADNESS OF REASON, which won the 2015 Ensor Award for Best Film. He wrote a much acclaimed adaptation of Camus’s THE OUTSIDER for The Coronet, in London in 2018, which won The Offies Award for Best Theatre Production. In 2020, his play, MADAME SOSOSTRIS was performed to full houses at the Pulloff Theatre in Lausanne, Switzerland. His most recent plays are MOBY DICK: QUEEQUEG SPEAKS, performed in Belgium, and CHANGING DESTINY which ran recently at the Young Vic. In 2019 his novel, ASTONISHING THE GODS, was selected as one of the BBC’s ‘100 novels that shaped our world.’ Recent books are THE FREEDOM ARTIST and a volume of short stories, PRAYER FOR THE LIVING. His latest book of poems, A FIRE IN MY HEAD, was published in January 2021. His environmental fable for children and adults, EVERY LEAF A HALLELUJAH, has just been published. His most recent novel is THE LAST GIFT OF THE MASTER ARTISTS
He is an honorary Fellow of Mansfield College, Oxford. He was born in Nigeria, and lives in London.
Ben Okri also makes art and collaborates with artists. Recent painting collaborations with artist Rosemary Clunie include REVOLUTION EARTH, featured in FRIEZE 2021, and SHAKE THE SLEEP OF THE WORLD at the SUPERBLUE ‘Ode to Oceans’ event at the RA, in February 2022.
www.benokri.co.uk
www.instagram.com/rosemaryclunieart