Jo Applin in conversation with Florence Peake

A conversation about Vitalities, the new exhibition for Florence Peake

Join Jo Applin, Professor of the History of Art at The Courtauld Institute, in conversation with Main Gallery solo artist Florence Peake. This is the main public programme event for Vitalities, in which they will discuss the exhibition and Peake’s wider practice.

Jo Applin joined the Courtauld Institute in 2016, after eleven years teaching at the University of York. She is the author of Lee Lozano: Not Working (Yale University Press, 2018), Alison Wilding (Lund Humphries, 2018), Eccentric Objects: Rethinking Sculpture in 1960s America (Yale University Press, 2012), and Yayoi Kusama: Infinity Mirror Room-Phalli’s Field (Afterall and MIT Press, 2012). Her most recent book, Lee Lozano: Not Working, was awarded the Suzanne and James Mellor Book Prize from the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington D.C. She is currently writing a book about art and ageing. Jo has also published widely on contemporary art and is an active critic. She has written reviews for scholarly journals including Oxford Art Journal, The Art Book, Journal of American Studies, Map, Sculpture Journal, West 86th, and Modernism/Modernity.

Artist’s biog:

Florence Peake is a London-based artist who has been making solo and group performance works intertwined with an extensive visual art practice since 1995. Peake’s work has been shown internationally and across the UK in galleries, theatres and the public realm. The solo Touring Exhibition Factual Actual was presented at National Gallery (2021), Southwark Park Galleries (2022), Fruitmarket, Edinburgh (2023), Towner Gallery, Eastbourne and Liste Art Basel (2024).

Selected group shows and performances include Victoria Miro Gallery (2025), E-werk Luckenwald (2024), Gropius Bau (2022), British Art Show 9 (2021- 2022). Arsenic theatre and Sudpol Theatre, Switzerland (2020),Venice Biennale 2019; CRAC Occitanie, Sète, France (2018), London Contemporary Music Festival, UK (2018), De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill, UK (2018); Palais De Tokyo, Paris, France (2018); Hayward Gallery, London UK (2018), Wysing Arts Centre, Cambridge, UK (2017), Studio Leigh, London UK (2017); Sara Zanin Gallery, Rome, Italy (2017); Serpentine, London UK (2016); Whitechapel Gallery, London, UK (2016); ICA, London (2016); Modern Art Oxford (2016); Harris Museum and Art Gallery (2015), BALTIC, Newcastle UK (2013), Frieze, London UK (2013), Yorkshire Sculpture Park (2012).

Peake is represented by Richard Saltoun Gallery.

Credits:

Florence Peake: Vitalities is curated by Clarissa Corfe.

Florence Peake: Vitalities is funded by Arts Council England, Henry Moore Foundation, Manchester City Council, Greater Manchester Combined Authority.

Vitalities is part of Your Meaning Not Your Materiality, commissioned by theCOLAB The Artist’s Garden, Hospitalfield and HOME.

Touring partners are Kunsthal Rønnebæksholm & Billedskolen Storstrøm and Lafayette Anticipations