OCTOBER/NOVEMBER | GROUP SHOW
THE BLIND LEADING THE SEERS
6 OCTOBER - 8 NOVEMBER
A group exhibition curated by Charlie Caldecott
Featuring Sarah Pager, Louisa Mahony, Jo Casling, Dougal Kirkland, Emma Coop, Helen Goodwin, Rachel Bird, Amy Rosenthal, Rose Arbuthnott, Michael Bury and Andrew Boyd.
The Blind Leading the Seers brings together nine artists whose work responds to a poem written by curator Charlie Caldecott.
The exhibition began with a story about an abstract painter in Dorset who worked outdoors at night, using black paint, straw and the surrounding landscape, allowing touch, instinct and the physical act of making to guide the work rather than sight alone. This approach inspired Caldecott’s poem, which imagines “the blind” leading “the seers” across a dark moor, where familiar ways of seeing and understanding begin to dissolve.
Rather than illustrating the poem literally, Sarah Pager, Louisa Mahony, Jo Casling, Dougal Kirkland, Emma Coop, Helen Goodwin, Rachel Bird, Amy Rosenthal, Rose Arbuthnott, Michael Bury and Andrew Boyd each interpret its ideas through their own distinctive practice. Together, their works explore darkness, landscape, material, instinct and the limits of perception.
The exhibition asks what might emerge when knowledge and certainty are set aside. Can we encounter a landscape through memory, movement, texture or imagination? Can losing sight of the familiar allow us to see differently?
The Blind Leading the Seers invites audiences into a shifting, sensory landscape where the unknown becomes a creative space and where those assumed to be without sight may ultimately be the ones who lead the way.
NOVEMBER OPEN CALL | SHADOWS & LIGHT
10 NOVEMBER - 3 DECEMBER
Light and shadow shape how we see and experience the world. They reveal and conceal, create atmosphere, distort familiar forms and transform the everyday into something strange, dramatic or extraordinary.
Shadows & Light invites artists to explore the relationship between illumination and darkness in both literal and symbolic ways. Work might consider dramatic contrasts, silhouettes, reflections, changing skies, artificial light, hidden spaces, nocturnes or the subtle movement of sunlight through a landscape or interior.
The theme can also be interpreted through ideas of memory, hope, uncertainty, secrecy, vulnerability, transformation and revelation. What emerges from the shadows? What remains unseen? How can a shift in light alter a place, figure, object or emotion?
Whether expressed through landscape, portraiture, abstraction, photography, sculpture, ceramics or installation, we welcome contemporary interpretations that capture the visual, emotional and atmospheric possibilities of Shadows & Light.
Theme Keywords
Light – Shadow – Contrast – Glow – Silhouette – Reflection – Radiance – Darkness – Illumination – Concealment – Liminal – Twilight – Dusk – Dawn – Nocturne – Atmosphere – Memory – Mystery – Revelation – Transformation – Duality – The Unseen
Key Dates
Submission deadline: Monday 2 November at midnight
Successful applicants notified: Thursday 5 November
Artwork hand-in: Sunday 8 November
Exhibition: Tuesday 10 November–Sunday 6 December
Private View: Saturday 14 November
Artwork collection: Sunday 6 December
DECEMBER OPEN CALL | ILLUMINATE
8 DECEMBER – 10 JANUARY
As the year turns and winter settles in, Illuminate invites artists to explore light in all its forms: natural and artificial, fleeting and enduring, intimate and expansive.
Light can guide, reveal, celebrate and transform. It can gather us together in darker seasons, create warmth or spectacle, and shift an ordinary scene into something vivid, magical or unfamiliar. Work might consider festive light, glowing windows, streetlights, firelight, moonlight, reflections, neon, winter skies, moments of gathering, or the quiet brilliance found in everyday places.
The theme may also be interpreted symbolically through ideas of hope, connection, resilience, joy, memory, revelation and renewal. What do we choose to illuminate? What light do we carry, share or seek out?
Whether expressed through landscape, portraiture, abstraction, photography, sculpture, ceramics or installation, we welcome contemporary interpretations that capture the visual, emotional and atmospheric possibilities of Illuminate.
Theme Keywords
Light · Glow · Radiance · Illumination · Winter · Warmth · Firelight · Moonlight · Candlelight · Neon · Reflections · Colour · Night · Celebration · Gathering · Connection · Hope · Joy · Memory · Wonder · Revelation · Renewal · Transformation
Key Dates
Submission deadline: Monday 30 November, midnight
Successful applicants notified: Thursday 3 December
Artwork hand-in: Sunday 6 December
Exhibition: Tuesday 8 December – Sunday 10 January
Private View: Saturday 12 December
Artwork collection: Sunday 10 January
