Patronage.
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Institutional and public funding remain important to cultural production, but opportunities for independent artists and projects are increasingly restricted, competitive and uncertain.
I am interested in Patronage as another way of making work possible: one that creates the conditions for my work to exist, develop and find its way into the world.
For me, Patronage is about more than financial support. It establishes a more direct relationship between artist and cultural custodian, connecting the person who makes the work with those who recognise its value and choose to support its development.
It allows an artist to pursue ideas, processes and ambitions that might otherwise be difficult to realise within conventional funding structures. It can provide the time to experiment, the resources to make work at a particular scale, and the freedom to consider what might come next without having to define every outcome in advance.
Patronage offers a way to support that process directly, helping the work develop on its own terms while giving those who choose to support it a meaningful connection to its future.
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In October 2024, I began writing a series of journals in response to the photographic work that I first created between 1992-1996.
The journals were not intended as retrospective documentation, but they became an emotional, autobiographical, contemporary process of writing, looking and questioning work that had remained unresolved for so long.
With an overwhelming response and growth of subscribers, those journals became the impetus and backbone of Abandoned Archive.
The project has developed through that continuing process of discovery, and the work is now being transformed through new processes and forms, including music, spoken word and lithographic print.
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Patronage can be as simple as sharing this page with your network, or making a financial contribution because you want to see the work happen. There is no required minimum, it is a one-off amount, and you don't need to acquire anything.
For those who want something more tangible, there are a number of ways to participate, from printed works and working proofs through to the acquisition of one of the lithographs.
At the highest level, patronage becomes more personal: a lithograph, a working proof, an invitation to visit my studio in Berlin. There is no prescribed way to be a Patron. You decide what your participation looks like, but in all ways, Patronage will mean a new, ongoing dialogue between us.
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Firstly, profound gratitude. It will mean that I am not making this work alone.
Patronage gives me the ability to grow my network, and to realise my work with a proper financial foundation, but it also creates a direct relationship between the work and the people who have chosen to take part in bringing it into the world.
For me, that matters beyond the money. It means knowing that there are people who have seen something in the work and decided that they want to be part of its continuation.
And as the project moves through stages towards publication, that relationship continues. I don't see a Patron simply as someone who has bought something from me. I see them as someone who has helped give the work another stage of its life.
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Your Patronage will contribute towards the production, documentation and ongoing development of large-scale lithographs, helping establish the conditions in which the work can continue to develop beyond the studio.
In the short term, this includes specialist materials and printing processes, photography and documentation of the finished prints, and the practical requirements of handling and presenting the work. It also contributes towards the time, studio access and experimentation that the process demands.
The project also has a sonic dimension. The writing and development of music and spoken word form part of the wider work, with the potential for these to be released and performed beyond the context in which the lithographs are presented. Patronage can help provide the time and resources to develop this aspect of the project.
Beyond production, Patronage helps create opportunities for the work to reach galleries, curators, collectors and institutions. It may also contribute towards future presentations and the possibility of a substantial publication, allowing the work to take on another physical form.
Patronage is offered as a one-off contribution, not a subscription or recurring commitment. It provides a more secure foundation from which to make considered decisions about the work's production, presentation and future.
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Yes. But, as I do not share this work publicly online, images and further information are available by request. One page on this website features a single image accompanied by text introducing the work. For those who use Instagram, there are also one or two reels of WIP. If you would like to see more, please do get in touch, and I’ll be happy to share further material with you privately.
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Yes, please. You can reach me anytime via email at lw@studioleftwinter.com after which, we can arrange for a private call.
Real Impact.
Funding has always had an influence on what culture gets made, where it gets made, who gets to make it, and who gets to see it.
Funding supports much more than the finished work. Behind the work, funding supports the long tail of the arts – the framers, fabricators, the technicians, galleries and independent spaces whose security allows culture to take its physical form.
This system is vital, but access to funding for independent artistic practice is becoming increasingly restrictive, competitive and uncertain.
Your Patronage will provide a solid financial foundation towards the ongoing development of Abandoned Archive. It will mean being able to make considered decisions about production, presentation and promotion.
And ultimately, that is what I believe Patronage does: it does not simply enable an artist to finish a project, but it gives the work room to develop and changes the strength with which I can realise it, and what can happen to it afterwards, including it moving beyond the studio and towards a substantial publication, giving the work another physical form.
Patronage exists at whatever level is possible for you. To know that someone has chosen to put their own money behind a work before its next stage has fully emerged is meaningful. It creates a form that is very different from a like, a follower, a passing view or an algorithmic response. For an artist, that matters, and I thank you for being a Patron.
Patronage also exists within a wider network of cultural relationships. Alongside financial support, the exchange of connections can influence where work travels, who encounters it and what opportunities emerge around it. These relationships are an important part of how independent artistic practice develops and finds its place within a wider cultural landscape.
Rather than relying exclusively on institutional structures, Patronage creates a more direct relationship between an artist and the people who choose to engage with the work. A Patron can help an artist take a risk, make something at a scale that would otherwise be difficult, continue a body of work, or allow an idea to develop and flourish beyond the point at which conventional funding might end, or might never have permitted it to begin.
My large-scale lithographs are a good example. They require time, experimentation, specialist processes and materials, and a degree of technical commitment that makes them very different from simply making another print. Patronage allows me to spend more time making, looking, testing, failing, adjusting and making again. Patronage helps make that kind of experimentation possible.
Work.
LEFT WINTER
My practice moves between lens-based work, print-making and music. My present work is a complex archive that continues to explore the transformation of photographic images into new, demanding physical processes of transfer, and the material intervention of large-scale photographic lithography, music and spoken word.
Become a Patron.
€1+ — Project supporter
A contribution towards the ongoing development of my work, helping provide the time, resources and conditions needed to realise it.
Every contribution matters. Whether large or small, it represents a decision to support independent artistic practice and help create the conditions in which work can develop, take shape and find its way into the world. For this I’m grateful, and I hope that my email of gratitude to you demonstrates this.
€25 — Patron
Patronage is a way of putting your money behind a work while it is still developing, helping provide the time and resources needed to realise its potential.
By becoming a Patron, you are making a conscious investment in the work and in the value of allowing independent artistic practice the space to develop beyond the studio, and I hope that my personal email and subsequent exchanges shall express this.
€50 — Print Patron
A small, privately written, mailed ink-letter to you explores an aspect of the lithographic process, offering a glimpse into the experimentation, material decisions and discoveries involved in making the work.
The letter provides a more intimate view of the process, bringing together an aspect of the work that might otherwise remain within the studio. A handwritten note as a personal acknowledgement of your support.
€125 — Working Proof
These are not part of the numbered edition of four or the artist’s proof. They are working documents from the making of the lithographs, each recording a particular state of the stone, numbered in order of pulling and signed. Between 3-5 exist for this image. The newsprint-type paper is acidic and will yellow and become brittle with age; archival mounting and protection from light are recommended. Each is mailed in a protective tube with a certificate of authenticity.
€500 — Studio Patronage
A personal visit to the studio in Berlin.
The visit offers an opportunity to see the work and lithographic process at close hand, and to talk through the project, its development and the making of the lithographs.
We see. We chat. We eat and drink.
€1,000 — Collector Patronage
Eight impressions are made available through the patronage.
The four lithographs each have an edition of four, plus one Artist Print (AP), creating a total edition of sixteen works plus four AP. Eight of the sixteen will be made available to Patrons at an early acquisition price. Each is printed on 290g BFK Rives paper - 90×63 - all signed and numbered as part of its edition of four. Each work will be shipped to you rolled in a high protective tube as standard. For those wishing theirs to be framed, frames and shipping is by request – the costs of frames and choice of glass, shipping, and any customs, will be an additional amount agreed in writing. A certificate of authenticity comes with all.