The Nunnery Gallery is showing paintings by Mary Barnes (born 1923), from Friday, 16 January until Sunday, 29 March.

Barnes was a prolific painter who bequeathed much of her collection to her friend and psychiatrist Joseph Berke (“Boo Bah”).  This collection is being shown for the first time, exactly 50 years since she arrived in Bow at 42 years old, and stayed at Kingsley Hall under the care of RD Laing and his team who were exponents of the anti-psychiatry movement.
RD Laing set up an alternative community within Kingsley Hall and allowed Barnes to explore her schizophrenia through writing and painting.
She also wrote a book with Berke called “Two Accounts of a Journey Through Madness” which inspired the play “Mary Barnes” by David Edgar, performed at the Royal Court in 1978.

This exhibition launches the 2015 Nunnery Gallery Programme “In Dialogue.”

To find out more about upcoming Nunnery Gallery events and Bow Arts click here.