Alma Singer – Not Big Or Clever

Jealous welcomes Alma Singer’s latest exhibition ‘Not Big or Clever’, which explores a distinctly British playground humour through a series of equally childishly conceived drawings. In a purposely naïve style she refers to as ‘a bit shit’, Alma pairs text with images in a way that taps into the child (and childishness) in all of us. It’s the kind of exhibition you would have dreamed of experiencing on a school trip at the age of nine.

‘For better or worse, as I’ve got older, I’ve started to appreciate how important laughter is, no matter how stupid the thing we’re laughing at. Adult life is challenging and in the periods of my life that have been most difficult I’ve found that laughter, alongside tears, has been an essential part of being able to cope. As the years pass, I’m increasingly nostalgic about my childhood - playing outside until out it got dark, drawing for hours without any pressure to create something ‘good’, and the joy of laughing at the most childish of things.

There’s something very special and kind of profound about children’s drawings, and their humour, and I guess I’ve been tapping into the seven- year-old I used to be for this show. Writing boobies on a calculator may not be big or clever, as my teacher once angrily informed me, but it is funny. Whoever named a bird a Tit, and a planet Uranus, must have been smiling when they did. In all honesty a part of me also takes a little pleasure thinking how much the stupidity of this show would piss off my serious over-earnest art tutors at university'. - Alma Singer

‘Not Big or Clever’ will open on Thursday 31st October for its Opening Night between 6.30pm - 8.30pm and will run until Saturday 23rd November at Jealous, 53 Curtain Road, London, EC2A 3PT.