Sometimes you just gotta display!!!!!!
Pop star; fashion icon; not a girl, not yet a woman: Britney Spears can do it all, and in 2017 she added ‘artist’ to her impressive roster of titles after sharing a video of herself painting on Instagram. Now, a gallery in France has announced that it will be displaying the singer’s original artwork as part of her “first solo show”.
Galerie Sympa, in the southwestern village of Figeac, shared details of the exhibition on Instagram. “We’re thrilled to announce that we will be opening @britneyspears first solo show in a contemporary art gallery on Saturday January 18 2020, from 6-9PM.”
The show is titled Sometimes you just gotta play!!!!!! after the caption Spears gave her IG post, and will run “till the world ends” – a nod to her 2011 song of the same name. The gallery’s website doesn’t offer any further details, leaving fans to speculate whether the exhibition actually involves Spears or is simply an unofficial show centred on the musician’s debut artwork.
Spears donated the iconic flower painting – seen on her Instagram, and used to promote Galerie Sympa’s exhibition – to a Las Vegas charity auction back in 2017, where it sold to Robin Leach, host of CBS series Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, for $10,000 (£7,708). The singer donated the proceeds to victims of the shooting that happened at the city’s Root 91 Harvest music festival a month before. At the time, Spears reportedly said: “The flowers in my painting represent a new beginning, and it’s in that spirit that we move forward.”
The gallery has also shared the #FreeBritney hashtag alongside news of the exhibition on Instagram and its website. The hashtag refers to a movement organised by fans who, according to Rolling Stone, are “collectively concerned about the state of her long-running conservatorship”. Spears’ father was given complete control of the singer’s assets in January 2008 after she was admitted to psychiatric hospital for five days. Despite the conservatorship scheduled to end in 2009, it’s still ongoing today, with many fans criticising it as an abuse of power and violation of her human rights.
Further details of the upcoming exhibition are still TBC, including whether Spears knows about it, what other artworks will be on display, and whether the singer will be at the opening. But one thing’s for sure: during our turbulent times, this is the show the world needs.