About

Aspex exists to support emerging artists, expose the creative process, and engage new audiences with visual art.

It achieves this by delivering an exciting and varied programme of exhibitions, off-site projects and participation events. Aspex's aim is to make the creation and enjoyment of art a more inclusive activity.

For the last 40 years, the gallery has supported sensational artists at the early stages of their careers. Artists such as Mona Hatoum, Richard Wilson and Susan Collis, all now internationally acclaimed, received support from Aspex.

Today, it continues to offer the next generation of contemporary visual artists a platform from which to launch their careers.

Keep up to date with exhibitions, events and workshops via the website: aspex.org.uk.

Sorry I'm Not Sorry by Lauren Joy Kennett

12 April - 30 June

Aspex Portsmouth and Photoworks present Lauren Joy Kennett's (LJK) first solo show and the debut of her newest body of work Sorry I'm Not Sorry.

Commissioned as part of the In Focus programme, this work explores the artists' experience of living with undiagnosed autism. Through autobiographical and archive photography, LJK uses cutting and collaging techniques to explore self-discovery, confrontation of life's traumas and experiences that have shaped her existence.

These fragmented and reassembled self-portraits serve as a visceral expression of the autistic experience. They capture the frustration of perpetual misunderstanding and an incapacity to articulate inner turmoil. The images encapsulate the alienation and loneliness experienced and the exhaustive effort to conform.

Using old family photographs, the artist reconstructs and reinterprets childhood memories; a process of dismantling and piecing together her identity to understand her past. LJK returns to her childhood home in the countryside, seeking understanding and resolution with her parents. As she watches her son play as she once did, she begins to form new memories and look towards the future. This journey reveals new strength, grounded in self-awareness and acceptance.

Sorry I'm Not Sorry not only reflects LJK's personal story but also resonates with the wider late-discovered autistic community and neurotypical people, inviting empathy and a deeper understanding.

This exhibition is commissioned as part of In Focus, a partnership between Photoworks and Aspex Portsmouth and part of the Explorers Project, a national creative programme to increase the visibility and representation of neurodivergent artists in contemporary visual arts, led by Project Art Works with cultural partners nationwide. Explorers is supported by Arts Council England and the Paul Hamlyn Foundation.