Abstract Artists, Kate Scott (painting), Abigail Bowen (painting) and Ingrid Boucher (sculpture) use the atmospheric backdrop of The Regency Town House to explore the overlapping themes within their work.

Poster for exhibition, white text on a photograph of three women in a room with artworks

The artists are linked by their desire to create timeless pieces that explore memory, transcendence and absence as presence. Aesthetically there is a link between layering and excavation which is enhanced by the house itself.

The artists Kate Scott, seated, and Abigail Bowen, standing, discuss two artworks on the wall between them
Kate Scott and Abigail Bowen

The title, ‘A House Safe for Tigers’ is adopted from the 1975 soundtrack by Lee Hazlewood and conjures a vivid dissonance between the domestic and the wild, the magical and the mundane.

Photo of the artist standing, one hand resting on an abstract sculpture supported by a plinth.
Ingrid Boucher

The Artists

Ingrid Boucher casts plaster juxtaposing smooth, calm surfaces against haphazard, unpredictable shapes. The resulting forms play with light and shadow, their holes both disrupt   and connect with glimpses of the space beyond.

Instagram: @ingridboucher
web: http://www.ingridboucher.co.uk/

Abigail Bowen uses thin glazes of oil paint to create shimmering, vibrating surfaces that dance and change in the light. Created over many months the final paintings are timeless and full of atmosphere.

Instagram: @abigailbowenstudio
web: http://www.abigailbowen.com/

Kate Scott experiences the act of painting as a conversation. Using mark-making, drawing, and layers of colour, she communicates the silent voice that cannot be heard in any other way. Through this process, the work becomes a window into another world.

Instagram: @kate_scott_paintings
web: https://katescottpaintings.com/

Exhibition - Just After
A collision of form, material and research

Showcasing the work of eight MA Fine Art graduates
from University of Brighton

Wednesday 25th - Sunday 29th October

Featured artists: Catherine Amakars, Charmaine Evans, Sam Hobbs, Scotty Norman, Molly O'Neill, Emma Scott-Child, Karen Strong, Oriana Yates-Butcher.

Catherine Amakars came to Brighton just over a year ago to study Fine Art at the University of Brighton. When she came across The Regency Town House it felt instantly that her huge and elaborate textured paintings would be at home on the walls of this elegant and dramatic setting.

Woman in a black dress sitting, head down, in front of a large abstract painting

Now, she brings a group of 8 fine artists from the Master’s degree to showcase their work from and beyond the MA.

Amakars explains the collision:
“This exhibition is a deliberately varied ensemble of textures, media, forms and viewpoints. There’s emotive vulnerability, there are sensorial elements and there’s socio-political commentary… but there’s also a simple appreciation of the individuality of these 8 art practices and the skills used to produce this huge and diverse collection of work.”

Photograph of fibrous material on a small wooden platform

Exhibition shop | The Parlour

On the ground floor, The Parlour will be set up as a shop for the duration of the show, selling original artwork, prints, cards and other merch made by this group of 8 MA graduates.

Photograph of colourful garments decorated with text, on clothes rails in a Regency interior

Follow the artists:

Catherine Amakars @catherineamakars
Charmaine Evans @charmaineevansart
Emma Scott-Child @e_scottchild_art
Sam Hobbs @arthobbs
Karen Strong @karen.strong.artist
Molly O'Neill @m.o.art
Oriana Yates-Butcher @yatesbutcher
Scotty @lovely_filth_

Artists Open House Exhibition - Rapture

Each weekend in May

Rapture is a new model to experience art.

Art image comprising one large, vivid, red ink spot and a similar, smaller one
Unattach, by Emily Stevens

Curated by Jesse Leroy Smith, Emily Stevens and Lucianna Whittle, Rapture presents 19 artists within a socially dynamic atmosphere, open to all.

Located in the evocative Town House, we will host vivid exhibitions, talks, events and multi-disciplinary performances. Profiling emerging artists alongside established artists, writers, musicians and inspiring individuals to share progressive projects and ideas.

Rapture is a collaborative initiative based on integrity, soul, and drive, built on a generosity of spirit and creativity.
Please take a look at our Instagram for further details: @rapture_live

Exhibition - Elements

Saturday 19th & Sunday 20th November

An exploration of the elements of painting, bringing a diverse and varied approach to colour, line, texture, space and form, by figurative and abstract artists: Sara Reeve, Jael O’Connor, Andy Walker and Jacqui Painter.

A combination image showing four details from colourful abstract paintings arranged in a square

Find the artists on instagram:
Sara Reeve - @sarareevedraws
Jael O’Connor - @jaeloconnor_art
Andy Walker - @thewalkergallery
Jacqui Painter - @jacquipainter.art

Exhibition - The Earth Laughs in Flowers

Saturday 12th & Sunday 13th November

The Earth Laughs in Flowers is a collaborative exhibition between local artists Amy McMillan and Lily Rigby. Set within the unique Regency Town House building, the exhibition comprises of abstract, ethereal oil paintings and bold, figurative ceramics.

Poster image with yellow text against a split background: on the left a photo of strange animal-form ceramic and three flowers; on the right, an abstract painting in pink, greys and black.

Both artists work with layers, sensitivity and 'the accident' as fertile ground for creativity. This new body of work explores themes of transformation, movement and entry ways into new phases of life.

Exhibition: Anthesis,
by Kathryn Lang

Tuesday 1st - Sunday 6th November 2022

Anthesis is the first show of Kathryn Lang's new grand scale floral paintings. It is also the culmination of a two year project to create and nurture her new garden for the source material.

This project unfurled a multitude of new directions. Each a garden path of exploring botanicals and their symbolism therein... gratitude, sympathy, celebration, herbalism, food and nutrition.

Painting of brightly coloured flowers in white, red, orange and purple, against a blue-grey background.
Painting © Kathryn Lang

After a decade of large commercial commissions, Kathryn has returned to her own work and comfort zone of mural scale, larger than life paintings. Dahlias feature predominantly, peppered with dandelions and echinacea, grown and foraged. The garden and studio have both became sanctuaries. A balance of seasons and timings.

Painting of flowers in lilac, white and pink, against a grey background
Painting © Kathryn Lang

Here at the Regency Town House, with it's height, light and faded grandeur, a perfect backdrop is provided to immerse the viewer in the bouquet.

w: www.kathrynlang.co.uk
i: instagram.com/kathrynlangpainter

Storytelling: Shadows of the Past - stories linger in the darkest places.

Saturday 29th October 2022

Come on a journey through rooms that have remained almost untouched for 200 years to hear stories from a candlelit world where all is not as it seems.

Photograph of a lit candle in front of an open book

The servants’ quarters in the basement of Number 10 Brunswick Square are haunted by the unseen presence of the parlour maids and kitchen skivvies who once laboured there. It seems at times they are only a shadow’s-width away.

We can only allow 13 visitors in at any one time and you will be guided slowly through the basement as stories from the past unfold.

Fortified by wine, you will be in the safe hands of your guide, Catherine Page, the author of Curious Tales of The Regency Terraces. She believes that the past is all around us. On occasions time can stop. Sometimes it can run backwards.

A copy of Curious Tales of The Regency Terraces (Amazon price £9.99) is included in the ticket price of £18. You will also be given a glass of wine (or non-alcoholic alternative). You may need it.

Exhibitions - Brighton Photo Fringe 2022

For four weeks in October we host this bi-annual exploration of photography in all its wonderful, bizarre and experimental forms.

Week one: Looking for Spiders

Thursday 6th - Sunday 9th October 2022

There will be an opportunity to meet the artists and take a tour of the exhibition at 2:00pm Saturday, admission free.

Spiders are a source of dread for some, fascination for others. Perhaps owing to the fact that they live on every continent except Antarctica, they appear in folklore and mythology from many different cultures.

They symbolise artistry, patience, feminine power, ancient wisdom and balance. And it is said that if a spider makes itself known to you, it is reminding you of your own ingenuity. In this post-lockdown, post Brexit time, aren’t we are all searching for some good fortune, a new way forward and a reminder of our own ingenuity?

Photo of a hand holding an uprooted bromeliad houseplant against a plain background
From 'Nest Time To Go' series, photograph ©Verity Welstead

The seven artists presented here - Rosie Barnes, Julia Biro, Susanne Hakuba, Zara Peers, Kim Shaw, Kim Thornton and Verity Welstead - are all exploring themes related to the imagined places and conditions of utopian/dystopian existence.

At this time in history, particularly in the midst of the on-going pandemic, looming environmental catastrophe, and with 27 on-going global conflicts, including war in Europe, it is unsurprising that these extreme non-places resonate so strongly with artists, and even more unsurprising that we find ourselves looking for reminders of our own creative powers, looking for spiders.

Week two: South Downs
by Tom Lee

Wednesday 12th - Sunday 30th October 2022

This project was a labour of love inspired by my approaching 50th birthday and a desire to create a piece of work that was meaningful to both me and the people who live in, or just love, the South Downs.

Photograph of turbulent seascape with Beachy Head cliffs in the background
Storm Blowing in Birling Gap, photograph ©Tom Lee

I took the boundary of the newly formed South Downs National Park as the border for the project and set out to capture the landscape in a series of black and white images. I started at Beachy Head in the East and followed a meandering route through the park over the next 10 years until I made a final exposure at St Catherine’s Hill at Winchester in the West.

The topography is revealed with the help of dusk and dawn, cloud projections from the midday sun and the workings of the farmers fields. By capturing the light of a howling gale, the isolation of a mist or detail in the darkest wood, these still images become contemplations on a unique landscape.

w: http://www.tomlee.gallery and https://www.southdownsbytomlee.com

Week three: Wilding
by Elissa Jane Diver

Tuesday 18th - Sunday 30th October 2022

Photo Fringe 2022 asks artists to consider the idea of REAL UTOPIAS. Elissa Jane Diver is presenting work made in response to the Knepp rewilding site in West Sussex.

The project to rewild 3500 acres of farmland began over 20 years ago, and today Knepp could be thought of as a real utopia, an island of extraordinary biodiversity, surrounded by roads and towns.

Photo: head and torso portrait of a woman, side-on and naked against a dark background. In one hand she is holding to her face part of an animal skeleton, through which she stares back at the viewer.
Deer Stalking, cyanotype on linen, toned with oak tannins, ©Elissa Jane Diver

The term ‘wilding’ holds a sense of the ongoing, the imperfect, the unfinished. The work at Knepp has been characterised by compromise. A nuanced balance has been sought, between the need for some limited human interventions, and the importance of leaving natural processes to find their way.

Elissa explores what happens when this approach is taken into the photography studio. Found objects, from the Knepp site, are the interventions that kick-start the process; playfulness allows for the emergence of unplanned and unexpected outcomes.

w: www.elissajanediver.com
i: www.instagram.com/elissajanediver

Week three: This Septic Isle,
by Tolly Robinson

Tuesday 18th - Sunday 23rd October 2022

Between 2010 and 2015 Southern Water illegally dumped sewage into our rivers and sea 6,971 times. With human waste flowing into the sea around Brighton regularly, our sewage system has not improved since Victorian times - it has deteriorated.

Blue tinted photo: a head and shoulders study of woman with long dark hair and wearing a black biker jacket.
Lee, photograph ©Tolly Robinson

Using printing techniques that were discovered in the 1800s (whilst Brighton’s first sewers were being built), This Septic Isle features prints that have been developed using the salt type method, using dirty seawater collected from the beaches around Brighton. Looking at both the private company responsible for our sewage problem and the activists trying to fix it, This Septic Isle explores the UK’s relationship with the sea and how it got so dirty.

w: www.tollyrobinson.com
i: www.instagram.com/tollyatwork

Week four: A City Inside Out - Los Angeles,
by William Morgan

Tuesday 25th - Sunday 30th October 2022

William Morgan is a Welsh photographer living in Brighton and this is the first solo exhibition of his career.

Photograph of three block-shaped buildings painted blue, green and orange, set in a rocky landscape
Monument House, Joshua Tree, California, 2022, photograph ©William Morgan

‘A City Inside Out’ is a photographic study of the city’s connection to nature. By exploring the architecture, urban design, coastline, public spaces, national parks and surrounding landscape, the project demonstrates how we can search for and incorporate elements of nature within the built environment. The recent global pandemic has further proved the importance of green open space for the welfare of our society and if we look in the right places, we can find and appreciate elements of nature, day to day, in any city around the world.

William aims for the viewer to be transported and immersed into the city, weaving in and out of its architectural and natural landscapes by presenting the work as large scale framed prints produced using the traditional process' in large format photography.

i: @w.h.morg

Exhibition: Absence/Presence,
by Rachel Cohen

Wed 31st August - Sun 4th September 2022

For five days only, Rachel Cohen will exhibit a collection drawings, paintings and photographic works dating from 1991 to 2022, bound together by their subject, a silent house.

Rachel Cohen's Doorway Drawings are a series of large drawings made in charcoal, exhibited here for the first time.

Charcoal drawing of cottage interior, view through door to shelves and cupboards
Doorway Drawing 5, charcoal on paper

'Our perspective on the same homely domestic scene, showing a lamp on a table, for instance, changes according to our angle. We can see more or less of the room inside, depending on which doorway we are coming through. And then suddenly we notice that an object which we had expected to see, has disappeared, and all the structures we had assumed were solid and immovable are revealed to be an illusion. Disoriented, the viewer can look back through the doorway to different rooms but they are all bathed in a soft darkness, offering no solution.

By contrast, her oil paintings of the same house are illuminated by the sun, washing rainbows of colour across kitchen and bedroom. But even here, you can sense a mysterious presence of the abandoned house, stealing in to the picture'

Painting depicting a mirror on a red table reflecting a bed behind the viewer
Red Mirror, oil on board

w: www.rachelcohen.co.uk
i: www.instagram.com/rachelcohenart

Exhibition - Echoes of Summer
by Camilla Perkins

Saturday 13th - Wednesday 17th August, 2022

Lewes-based artist and illustrator Camilla Perkins transformed The Regency Town House into a world of her own for her first solo-show, Echoes of Summer.

Camilla has developed a very distinctive style, a riot of colour and expressive mark-making, which is joyous to its very core. Her depictions of gardens, flowers and seascapes are inspired by her childhood experiences and local surroundings around East Sussex, as well as memories of summer holidays in the Mediterranean and beyond.

Abstract painting of flowers in vivid reds, oranges and purples
Orchid House at Sunset (detail), Camilla Perkins

The show is an ode to the feelings of hope, excitement and nostalgia that summer brings. Camilla invites the viewer to “conjure the smell of freshly cut flowers from the garden, the feeling of running through the undergrowth as a child, the smell of hot earth - to step into a world where anything seems possible”.

Detail of colourful abstract painting, showing view through open doors to garden beyond
Orchid House in Moonlight (detail), Camilla Perkins

This immersive show will be set to the backdrop of the spectacular crumbling paint layers and historical flourishes that The Regency Town House offers, with the view of the Brighton coastline and the smell of sea air.

“Growing up in Brighton I spent my childhood visiting these beautiful regency buildings and after visiting The Regency Town House I couldn’t think of another venue that would complement my work more. I wanted the viewer to be able to experience my pieces in a more eccentric setting than a modern gallery space.”

w: http://www.camillaperkins.com
i: https://www.instagram.com/camillaperkins_/

Exhibition - Graham Read, Paintings and Drawings

Saturday 23rd - Sunday 31st July, 2022

A retrospective exhibition of work from the archive of a thoughtful and prolific artist and inspiring teacher. Composed of beautifully observed studies of natural forms, still lives imbued with symbolism, and portraits, sometimes intense and troubling, others deeply personal. Also, large and arresting ‘narrative’ paintings and drawings, which have a theatricality about them.

Abstract painting featuring a tree branch in blossom, a lump of ice, a patch of purple rain and and area of fire.
Fire and Ice, Graham Ruskin Read

Shown too, are beautiful notebooks, with many drawings, both from observation and from the imagination – occasionally with the preparatory studies for a composition, or a discussion of ideas.

The work reveals an artist with a profound understanding of visual language and a dedicated engagement in the practice of his art.

Abstract still life featuring a mannequin, sheep's head, vase and duck on a table, against a blue background
Untitled still life, Graham Ruskin Read; photo, Calum Louis Adams

The subtitle for this exhibition might have been ‘Revelation’, for it is certainly the word which springs to mind when assembling and collating his archive - most of the pieces have been out of sight, forgotten in storage, or in various portfolio, and never fully valued or appreciated.

Black and white photo of five people working in an art studio
Graham Read (right) teaching at Croydon Art College, c.1970.

Here is an opportunity to celebrate the artist, Graham Read, to share the breadth of his work, and to give it the attention it justly deserves.

Exhibition - HOME

A group show by students at the RCA
Thursday 14th - Sunday 17th July, 2022

This year’s graduates from the Painting MA at the RCA, along with continuing students, and fellow guest artists, have chosen this space to show contemporary art practice using painting, drawing, and installation.

Home is an emotive space, never neutral. Home has the power to calm and the power to disturb. Safety, security, imprisonment, limitations, family, solitude, comfort; home can be all these things and more.

Abstract portrait depicting the profile of a head outlined in red, with a hand outlined in blue grey touching the forehead, all on a patchy grey background
She, Emily Stevens 2021, oil and acrylic on wood

This collective of artists will be creating a temporary home of our own, together; a new home for our work, with an intention to provoke questions, a sense of connection, a feeling of cohesion, and possibilities, within this show.

The artists - RCA MA Painting graduates, students and guests:
Emily Stevens
Anna Blom
Sarah Nahas
Hannah Campbell-Wharam
Lara Davies
Megan Menzies
Hilda Kortei
Tristan Gittens
Alexis Soul-Gray
Jesse Leroy Smith
Emily Ball
Lucianna Whittle

Exhibition - Textile Artwork

Friday 8th - Sunday 10th July, 2022
Our traditional summer show of vibrant and imaginative textile artworks, brought to you by the students of the Brighton Fashion and Textile School, where their City & Guilds accredited course is led and inspired by the founder of the school, Sara Cook.

Hand stitched work depicting fern-like forms against a patchwork background of orange and green fabrics
Textile artwork, Elizabeth Ganney

w: Brighton Fashion and Textile School

GB MET GRAD 22

Thursday 30th June - Sunday 3rd July, 2022
Occupying the ground and first floors and our Basement Annexe.

Abstract portrait painting of a woman in reds, yellows and pinks, against a bright pink background

Exhibition of illustration, graphic design, fine art, photography, textiles and fashion by students from Greater Brighton Metropolitan College.

Event - Decorating with Light

Friday 17th & Saturday 18th June, 2022

We invite you to recreate the world of Regency architect C A Busby, by splashing his colourful decorative designs all over our drawing room wall, using interactive technology and a very large projector!

As the architect of Brunswick Town, Busby is best known as a designer of buildings, but he also drew extremely colourful decorations for room interiors.

Wall design comprising pink square panels outlines wrapped in blue vines surrounding blue and yellow circles

Through a collaboration with University of Brighton's School of Architecture, Technology and Engineering, we are now able to reproduce these designs on the walls of the Town House.

Using a computer, a projector and some rather clever software, you will 'paint' Busby’s wall designs with just a wave of your hands.

This is the first public field trial of a collaboration between The Regency Town House and University of Brighton, your feedback will help us to shape this into the future.

Wall design comprising pink motifs arranged in vertical lines flanking decorative black and yellow panels, with a large blue and pink circular design above a central fireplace

Examples of Busby's wall designs are from his 1834 book A Collection of Designs for Modern Embellishments, © The Regency Town House archives.

Artists Open Houses - four exhibitions!

Long weekends through May: 2022
7th & 8th; 13, 14 & 15th; 20, 21 & 22nd, 27, 28 & 29th May 2022

Early Fiveways Artists exhibition and oral history film
Downstairs @The Regency Town House

Celebrating 40 years of Artists Open Houses, including a retrospective of the work of Ned Hoskins and the other 5Ways artists who were the first to open their houses, plus work by young and emerging artists.

In 1982 Ned Hoskins opened his house for the first time; he was joined by two or three other artists, living in nearby houses, the following year. Soon the Fiveways Group had formed. This exhibition shows the work of some of those early pioneers of Open Houses who all lived in the Fiveways area of Brighton; an area quite different then from now.

The accompanying oral history film hears from these artists about their reasons for inviting the public into their homes, what they learned and experienced; how their practices as artists changed as a result of a more direct dialogue with their audiences.

Black and white photo of a group of fourteen people, one carrying a flag with the word 'open'.
Early Fiveways Group, courtesy Annelies Clarke

Exhibiting artists: Ned Hoskins, Annelies Clarke, Rex Matthews, Judy Stapleton, Harvey Daniels, Adrian Turner, Colin Ruffell and Fran Slade.

Current AOH artists: Towards the Light
Upstairs @The Regency Town House

Although in the early years the Open Houses movement was based solely in the Fiveways area, over the years it has grown to encompass all parts of the city, out to Ditchling and to several villages and towns across the Downs. It is a tribute is to the strength of Ned Hoskins’ original idea that the festival continues to build and flourish and is now in its 40th year.

The theme of this exhibition, Towards the Light, is taken from the title of one Of Ned Hoskins’ paintings. The exhibition invited submissions, connecting to the theme, from all artists taking part this year in the Artists Open Houses festival.

Summer Light, Emily Jolley

Exhibiting artists: Becky Blair, Catriona Muir, Claire Knill, Emily Jolley, Laurence Wallace, Lucy Bristow, Miranda Ellis, Bob and Eve, Dion Salvador Lloyd, Eve Gnoyke, Abigail Bowen, Jon Mills, Kate Scott, Lucy Cooper, Mami Houlton, Melissa Birch, Jo Watters-Pawlowski, Ali Stringell, Sophie Wake, Kay Aplin, Amy Dury, Debbie Lawrence

University of Brighton students: Towards the Light
10 Brunswick Sq., basement housekeeper's room & servants’ hall

The exhibition at Regency Town House Basement features artworks by four current University of Brighton Fine Art course students. The artists employ a diversity of art practice forms when addressing the contemporary subjects of relationships, migration, workers value and considerations of identity.

Painting, background image of two boys, overlaid with red sunburst
Isaan, Sara Paowana

Sara Paowana investigates her Thai and British heritage in the slide and sound installation work Isaan.

Melanie Woodward's Omang series uses fingerprints as a form of self-portraiture to explore and reclaim identity in response to nationality renunciation.

Finn Gayton's interactive, live performance installation, Lorry Boy, comments on the sociological and political themes of employment relationships and the commodification of people. Performances: Saturdays and Sundays: 11am – 1pm, 2 – 3pm and 3.30 – 5pm

Megan Ryan's wax casts of feet in Journey, depict the cycle of a relationship. The wax feet come together, walk in unison and drift apart.

Emerging artists: Towards the Light
10 Brunswick Sq., basement kitchen

Ned Hoskins believed in encouraging young artists. He was an inspirational tutor and took the work of young artists very seriously, inviting students and fellow artists’ children to exhibit in his Open House. Nurturing the next generation of artists was crucial.

Reflecting Ned’s concern, this exhibition invited artists just setting out on their creative practices to submit work connecting to the theme Towards the Light. A title taken from one of Ned Hoskins’ paintings.

In recognition of the difficulties that the last two years has brought to exhibition making, especially for those in the early stages of their careers, this exhibition seeks to showcase new or recent works by emerging artists in the Brighton and Hove area, reflecting ways in which they have continued to create and push boundaries despite recent challenges.

All the artists exhibiting in this exhibition are within the first three years of developing their practice.

Painting, a largely dark canvas with a single small building illuminated at its centre
Shelter (Night), Jack Shearing

Exhibiting artists: Jack Shearing, Jemma Day, Louise Ward Morris, Charlotte Graham-Spouge, Mitchell Robertson, Heather Curwen, Danit Ariel, Hazel Davis.

w: https://aoh.org.uk/

Exhibition - Women Waltzing in Time
by Anna Cambier

Friday 29th April - Tuesday 3rd May, 2022

Photo showing panel containing dialogue in black text on a brown background

‘Women Waltzing in Time’ is a collaborative multimedia installation exploring a fragile world where time and identity are lost while the power of imagination and playfulness still remain. It is an homage to my grandmother and to all the women I have worked with.

Photo showing a mannequin head, painted orange and black, supported by a tree branch

The work has been developed by researching involuntary movement, patterns, rhythm, and unconscious forms of expressions of people living with dementia. It explores how time suddenly becomes non-linear, like a dance backwards and forwards in time, parallel to anyone else.

Photo showing light patterns projected into the wine cellar

When you enter the house of The Women Waltzing In Time, you are transformed into a complex web of ever changing information - what was once a memory of yourself is now a memory of your daughter. Every act of remembering becomes an act of creation. Is the truth still important?
Exhibition programme PDF

Exhibition - 'emotive'
studies in Sequentiual Design & Illustration

Tuesday 8th - Sunday 13th February, 2022

Logo for exhibition, it reads: emotive, public statements out of private matters

Multi-disciplinary exhibition of the work of thirteen artists and designers, whose story telling has led them to explore their individual subjects with an emotive response. Each artist has chosen the medium with which to best tell their story; some are incomplete with more to add, and some of the stories will never reach a conclusion. What the artists have in common is that their narratives draw upon private matters which are shared as public statements.

The collective of artists and designers, some recent University of Brighton MA graduates, others, current students, have allowed their individual journeys to lead them to unpredictable discoveries and the exhibition has many themes, but they are all connected by the urge to provoke conversation about emotive topics.

The process / act of exploring individual themes has led each artist to experiment with a range of media and contexts, each searching for a way to ask meaningful questions and hopefully, to answer them. In doing so, the artists hope to open dialogue on universal issues and bring this into the public realm.

Featured artists: Alice Cathcart, Anni Axworthy, Ellen Higgins, Erin Keen, Eva Thompson, Gary Kaye, Jiating Yang, Jo Pinto, Josie Taylor, Julia Kwinto, Lois A Pawson, Maria Scard, Stephen Anderson.

Download a PDF about the exhibition and all the artists here.

Exhibition - Out of the Blue
by 7 Dials Artists & Makers

Group show of artworks
Thursday 4th - Sunday 7th November, 2021

Abstract painting by Sarah Weedon, depicting land with big sky, predominantly in blue, brown, pink and white.

Autumn Exhibition featuring 23 members from 7 Dials Artists & Makers Collective: Jules Allan, Mackenzie Bell, Amanda Blunden, Abigail Bowen, Nichola Campbell, Sez Carlisle, Jessica Christie-Miller, Laura Darling, Erin Donohoe, Tracey Elizabeth Downing, Samantha English, Adam Gower, Renée Graham-Adriani, Gareth Hayward, Martine Jans, Renush, Linescapes, Peeky Free, Shyama Ruffell, Bluebell Roebuck, Kate Scott, Kate Strachan, Sarah Weedon

Artists' biographies available here as pdf

Exhibition -
This Has Travelled Through The Night To You

Group show of artworks
Saturday 9th & Sunday 10th October, 2021

Abstract print of trees and mountains with text overlay

Featured artists: Bob Matthews, David Blandy, Emma Bang, Finlay Taylor, Ian Brown, Jasmine Padjak, Jill Vigus, Jo Love, Kate Scrivener, Meg Rahaim

Bringing into alignment these artists, just briefly, exposes their shared relationships to thinking about the surface of the planet where life exists.

It’s a layer about a kilometre thin and is recently being referred to as the critical zone. This term is still being defined, and itself does not refer to the entire planet but just the very, very small layer which enables life to exist.

This pop up exhibit, or revealing of work by these artists, shares narratives and alternative ways of thinking and seeing our habitat.

This Has Travelled Through The Night To You comes from the nocturnal side of the planet and touches down in Brighton, delivered like a desirous message after an onerous journey. The exhibition will be accompanied by a publication of new texts and works developed especially for the pages.

Exhibition - In a Silent Way
by The Iris Collective

Monday 20th - Sunday 26th September, 2021

Photograph depicting the Moon as two overlapping images on a dark background

In this exhibition, members of the Iris Photography Collective explore a range of contemporary societal themes. Some have used the rhetoric of activism, others a more contemplative, reflective visual language, but all inspire us to think about the challenges that face us in today’s complex and divided society.

The photographers

Iris Photography Collective is made up of six photographers, all based in Sussex and all currently studying MA Photography at the University of Brighton: Bill Brooks, photographer & printmaker; Torz Dallison, fine art photographer & printer; Elizabeth Doak, photographic artist and educator; Lorraine Edridge, photographic artist; Andy Lloyd, a photographic artist; Syl Ojalla, fashion & fine art photographer

Exhibition - Adapt and Adjust
by Difficult Darkroom Womxn

Tuesday 14th - Sunday 19th September, 2021

The womxn: Abigail Evans, Esme Follas-Shell, Ola Teper,
Sofia Smith

Photograph of a woman in a red top, loading a film roll into a white photographic enlarger

Difficult Darkroom Womxn was formed during the turmoil of the first national lockdown last year. The current members of the group: Abigail Evans, Esme Follas-Shell, Ola Teper and Sofia Smith, are all met during their MA in Photography at Brighton and first came together in order to provide moral support for each other as the conditions of our education were changing rapidly. The show will consist of mixed photographic techniques along with presentations of visual research.

Abigail Evans studied graphic design before undertaking a MA in photography at the University of Brighton. Her approach to photography is both playful and serious exploring themes of family, intimacy and belonging, often combining mixed media to create detail oriented fragmentary bodies of work, which are both deeply personal and hauntingly engaging.

Two black and white images shown as one work, one of fabric, the other of a person's back and arms

Much of her work focuses on how photographic processes can be used and combined with sensitivity to convey intricate human interactions, with recent projects exploring maternal relationships and the materiality of image making. Her current work continues to explore the interpersonal through an eclectic mix of photographic objects, both found and made.

Esme Follas-Shell has an artistic practice rooted inherently in darkroom photographic practices. In the past, her work has explored historic family trauma and the female experience as a photographic subject. In her current work she explores themes of grief, mental health, masculinity and family. She is instinctively drawn to fine art black and white portraiture, printing everything by hand.

Photograph of a hand holding a gilded frame containing an image of a person

Her project is an examination of the natural connections between images she has made of her partner in their shared home, and images of her father as a young man that she has selected from his archive of letters and snap shots collected by him before he passed away almost twenty years ago.

Most recently the work has started examining different aspects of spirituality and belief, surfacing as art which combines gilding with photography. Both creating and re-creating habitual rituals undertaken and influenced by her father.

Ola Teper has background in fine art photography. They work mainly with analogue and darkroom technologies, often meticulously experimenting with the boundaries of representation within the limits of what we understand as photography. Previous work has focused on the intersection of post traumatic memory and the materiality of darkroom process and image making.

Photograph of a woman in black in a dark room, her hands and face illuminated by a red light

Their current project developed from the notions of imagined memory, shared collective trauma and machine vision while using inherited historic photographic equipment and engaging with ontological photographic theories. After repetitive engagement with the machine the project explores the process of becoming a technical ensemble of human and nonhuman parts. Their work deftly conveys complex ideas through application of creativity to conceptual imagery.

Sofia Smith has a background in literature, creative writing and critical theory and came to photography as a mode of storytelling through the organisation Miniclick, of which she is now a curatorial member. She is also one of the founding members of Capturing the Chimera, an arts education organisation that specialises in teaching creative writing and photography.

Image comprising two black and white photographs showing a hand and part of a body

Her previous work shows an interest in collaborative process, compulsive photographic practices, the act of collection and archival interactions. In the making of images, she is concerned with acts of transportation, exploring the camera with the world, rather than exploring the world with the camera.

Her project Pinner’s Bone makes use of a collection of historical images sourced from one-hundred-year-old medical text books. It explores the ethical questions surrounding the documentation of medical treatment for educational purposes, while engaging with her own personal history of medical treatment. The project aims to examine the intersection between the anticipated female surgical subject and the medical institution by reframing the archival images with collage and print techniques.

Exhibition - Reconfiguring
group show

Friday 10th - Sunday 12th September, 2021

Artists: Tiffany Barber, Amy Dury, Craig Simpson

Three Brighton based artists invite you to The Regency Town House for a show of figurative paintings. All three artists combine fresh expressive paint with classic and contemporary subject matter. They share a fascination in capturing human existence and expressing the ways in which we connect with people, memories, moments and history. This exhibition is free to attend and there will be the opportunity to meet the artists on the opening night.

Tiffany Barber is a contemporary figurative artist based in Brighton. Born in Scotland she was raised as an athlete & the disciplined nature of her upbringing is reflecting in the meticulously detailed artworks she now creates. Tiffany spent four years Studying at Edinburgh College of Art, a term of which was spent at the Hungarian University of Fine Art. Living & studying in these cities full of classical architecture & sculpture acted as the catalyst for the inspiration behind her paintings.

Tiffany chooses to fuse classism & contemporary in her current practice. They aim to provoke a dialogue concerning current social or political issues. Placing mundane objects of the everyday with renaissance sculptures builds a connecting bridge to our realities. The concepts behind the imagery is left open to interpretations, purposefully ambiguous to act as a propeller for debate or discussion.

Amy Dury is a painter from Brighton who works with both portraiture and narrative scenes. She studied Printmaking at the Glasgow School of Art and is now Head of Art at Varndean College. She was recently asked by the Tate Gallery to conduct a livestream portrait painting session, painting Cornelia Parker, that has been viewed 130,000 times.

Painting depicting seven boys standing on various parts of an abstract structure
'Boys on the Pyre Square', Amy Dury, 200cm x 100cm, acrylic on canvas

She says, "My subject matter is mostly figurative, I am naturally drawn to imagery from the past, especially the 70s and 80s, and the work of British social documentary photographers. Looking back into our recent past is an act of remembering and nostalgic mis-remembering, with photographs becoming the memory which constructs stories about ourselves.

Craig Simpson is a self-taught artist, originally from Manchester and now living in Brighton. In the five years Craig has been painting he has explored a variety of subject matter though he now chooses to concentrate on figurative compositions.

Painting of a seated female figure in a red dress, with head partly obscured by her hand and one eye visible
'Woman in Red Dress', Craig Simpson

Craig is fascinated and takes his subject inspiration from the first half or the twentieth century. You can expect to see paintings focusing on portraits, interior living and jazz musicians. Craig is fascinated by people and feels compelled to paint individuals, he works with vibrant flesh tones to record strong facial expressions.

Exhibition - Textile Artwork
by Brighton Fashion & Textile School

Friday 3rd - Sunday 5th September, 2021

Tapestry showing abstract scenery in yellow, orange and red

A display of vibrant and imaginative textile artworks by the students of the Brighton Fashion and Textile School.
See more textile artwork here.

Exhibition - My Adopted Family by Jo Teasdale

Saturday 7th - Sunday 15th August, 2021

Black and white photograph showing a close up of a hand reaching towards the viewer, with the four fingers each inserted into downwards a head of a small doll

Jo Teasdale comes from a Fine Art background and worked in the arts for many years. Since moving to Brighton she took up photography and hasn’t looked back. Having won Landscape Photographer of the Year - Take a View - 2013, she has gone on to win competitions, been published in books and has had work shown at exhibitions.

‘My Adopted Family’ is her latest major body of work, since being awarded her Fellowship from the Royal Photographic Society in 2016. ‘My Adopted Family’ is a photographic project exploring the concepts of family, memories and inheritance. Using cherished possessions collected over time, Jo has created her own family history. This is a personal narrative that invites the viewer to travel through time and participate in the stories that unfold around them.

Jo uses large-scale prints to exaggerate the realness of objects and creative displays to transform the identity and personalities of the subjects. Her abstracts, created from extreme circumstances, produce images akin to Rothko and Blake.

Exhibition - FUSE
by graduates of
University of Brighton’s Painting BA course

Tuesday 13th - Sunday 18th July, 2021

Poster for FUSE exhibition, with F U S E in black on a montage of four images

FUSE is a visual art exhibition featuring the works of the University of Brighton’s Fine Art: Painting BA 2021 graduate class.

Following the cancellation of their physical degree show due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the artists have committed to conduct and curate a successful exhibition displaying their graduate works in a group exhibition independently to the university this summer.

FUSE celebrates this coming back together after a period of anxiety and isolation through the experience of viewing art in the flesh. Art has been mediated through a screen for so many this past year and FUSE aims to reconnect viewers to the physicality of art through the sensuous medium of painting.

Featured Artists: Lydia Durnall, Nathan Grace, Roxanna Salamian, Jordyn Ive, Isabella Connell, Beth Swan, Barry Joyce, Argjenda Bitiq, Melissa Mullen, George Coll, Ella Richards, Imogen Patel, Hannah Mellul, Oscar Fenner, Harry Baker, Caitlin Knight, Marty Jankus, Gabriella Hall, Isabelle Killen, Mary Martin, Jess Harris, Becky Harris, Sarah Na, George Adams, Joe Ring, Jade Cottrell, Aaron Parish, Bliss Coulthard, Mair Elen Park, Esther Cox, Naomi Williams.

Exhibition - Below Stairs at No.10

Saturday 5th - Sunday 13th June, 2021

Having shown in the grandeur of upstairs at No.13 last summer, Fleur, Hilary and Sharon, joined by Mark, are excited to exhibit in the basement at No.10, as part of Artists Open Houses in October 2020 (which became May 2021).

The basement, with its own particular richness of story, provides a dynamic setting.

Abstract oil painting in grey, blue, pink and yellow.
Sharon Hall, Fat Armpits, 2020 Oil on canvas 60 x 50cm

Abstract sculpture made of clear plastic wrapped around wire
Hilary Kennett, Left Behind, 2016 Aluminium and plaster

Artwork comprising four areas of strips of translucent material, each in mauve green, blue and grey.
Fleur Cowgill, Visible Light Spectrum - Blue Embedded, 2019 Screenprint on paper 42 x 59cm

Oil painting depicting a dark and wild sky above a flat plain grass foreground
Mark Wilson, A Wide Sky, Oil on Card 63 x 32cm

Art & Infection: The BioArt of Anna Dumitriu

September, 2020

Detail of white dress embroidered with gold thread and with a large bundle of lavender protruding from the neck

Anna Dumitriu has been making art about infectious diseases for over 20 years. Her BioArt works not only explore diseases like the plague, MRSA and tuberculosis, but actually incorporate killed bacteria and DNA of those organisms. She has worked with the viruses that infect bacteria, known as bacteriophages, and created works using CRISPR DNA modification.

The aim of her wide-ranging body of work has always been to bring attention to the significance of microbes and the societal, cultural and individual impacts of infectious diseases. She is inspired by history and new technologies, and her work draws threads across time. Living in the City of Brighton and Hove she has also been inspired by Regency fashion.

Dumitriu works in laboratories alongside leading scientists and medical professionals. She was the 2018 President of the Science and the Arts section of the British Science Association and holds visiting research fellowships at the University of Hertfordshire, Brighton and Sussex Medical School, and Waag Society. She is artist-in-residence with Modernising Medical Microbiology at the University of Oxford, and with the National Collection of Type Cultures (NCTC) at Public Health England.

Dumitriu’s project will look at the impact of self-isolation and quarantine due to the COVID-19 Pandemic and the risks to women from domestic violence now they are confined to their homes for up to twenty-four hours per day with their potentially abusive partners.

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Previous exhibitions

Exhibition - A House Safe for Tigers by Abigail Bowen, Kate Scott & Ingrid Boucher

Exhibition - Just After A collision of form, material and research

Artists Open House Exhibition - Rapture

Exhibition - Elements

Exhibition - The Earth Laughs in Flowers

Exhibition: Anthesis, by Kathryn Lang

Storytelling: Shadows of the Past - stories linger in the darkest places.

Exhibitions - Brighton Photo Fringe 2022

For four weeks in October we host this bi-annual exploration of photography in all its wonderful, bizarre and experimental forms.

Week one: Looking for Spiders

Week two: South Downs by Tom Lee

Week three: Wilding by Elissa Jane Diver

Week three: This Septic Isle, by Tolly Robinson

Week four: A City Inside Out - Los Angeles, by William Morgan

Exhibition: Absence/Presence, by Rachel Cohen

Exhibition - Echoes of Summer by Camilla Perkins