Cultural Round Up: Top 5 Sussex Exhibitions Open Now
One Hand Clapping R & One Hand Clapping L, Boyd and Evans, 1998 - Charleston, Duos: The Art of Collaboration
Sussex is a cultural epicentre, with a multitude of exhibitions, events and performances happening every month. We have picked our 5 favourites for April, spanning from prolific public galleries to smaller independent ventures.
This is the first instalment of our ‘Cultural Round Up’ posts. Look out for more monthly exhibition picks on our journal.
Jane Sheppard, Full Moon Vessel 05, hand coiled & smoked ceramic, 46 x 45 cm
Cloth and Clay
Gallery 57, Arundel . 3rd Feb - 27th April
This deliciously tactile group exhibition showcases different approaches to textiles and ceramics. These rich surfaces, textures and contrasting ways of making is an expert display of contemporary craft. Our highlights from this show are Jane Sheppard’s moon jars and Patricia Kelly’s nuanced textile artworks made from recycled fabrics.
Gallery 57 is one of our favourite galleries to visit. A beautiful, airy Georgian conversion, the space has the feel of a contemporary living room. Owner and practicing artist Ann Symes curates high-quality exhibitions of artists who have an unusual approach to natural materials.
Cloth & Clay runs until the 27th April.
Figure, watercolour on arches, 28 x 19 cm
Hidden Places, Graham Dean
The Regency Townhouse, Brighton . 17th - 28th April
Hidden Places, a solo show from Graham Dean, celebrates his career to date, spanning 50 years. His work is held in prominent private and public collections across the world and he has been exhibited in notable art spaces such as: MoMA, Paris, The Whitechapel Art Gallery, the RA and The National Portrait Gallery.
Dean’s portraits explore the expansive emotional landscapes penned inside the human form, ‘putting what’s inside on the outside,’ as the artist says. His poetic watercolour portraits combine deliberate line and form and the unpredictable nature of the material. This tension between fluidity and control reflects the contradictions of his human subject: simultaneously contained and emotionally overrun.
The synergy between the raw and the beautiful in Dean’s work is complimented by the exhibition space: the dilapidated yet grand Regency Townhouse in Brighton, complete with high ceilings and peeling wallpaper. This exhibition has been curated by Cameron Contemporary Art.
The End of Figuration, 2024, installation view, De La Warr Pavilion
The End of Figuration, Manuel Mathieu
De La Warr Pavillion, Bexhill on Sea . 17th Feb - 27th May.
In this exhibition Haitian-Canadian artist Manuel Mathieu explores historical violence, cultural interpretations of the body, spirituality and nature. He is not contained by one medium; the exhibition showcases paintings, ceramics and a fabric installation which spreads through the centre of the gallery.
Mathieu enjoys the slip and flow of meaning and form, his work shifting between figuration and abstraction. He is demonstrating art’s inherent failure to capture reality whilst simultaneously being where we can discern and process past and future experiences. Mathieu strives to represent the chaos of historic violence and intimate feelings that charge the human experience.
The End of Figuration runs until the 27th May.
Angels of a Drowning World, 2023. Lio Mehiel and Wynne Neilly, Sculpture by Holly Silius.
Duos: The Art of Collaboration
Charleston in Lewes . 27th March - 8th Sept
This exhibition, which runs alongside the equally engaging Dorothy Hepworth and Patricia Preece: An Untold Story, also considers collaborative partnerships. This focus on joint creation and fluid artistic identity, was inspired by the Bloomsbury group’s permeating collaborative ethos. This exhibition features work from both contemporary and legendary artists, showing how artistic collaboration traverses the decades. See work from artist duos such as Irina Melsom and Hand Askheim alongside illustrious pairs like Vanessa Bell & Duncan Grant.
Visit Charleston with ease by hopping on the Sussex Art Shuttle, which has returned for its second season. The bus links the Towner Eastbourne, Charleston in Firle, and Seven Sisters Visitor Centre, with pit stops for local food and drink along the way.
Detail of fireplace at Farleys House.
Farleys House & Gallery, 2024 Season
4th April - 31st October
Farleys House, the home of prominent Surrealists Lee Miller and Roland Penrose, has reopened for its 2024 season and this year it’s a special one. To celebrate their 75th anniversary there will be a series of wonderful events (including their annual Surrealist picnic) and exhibitions.
We were especially interested in the contemporary guest sculptors that have been invited to exhibit their work beside the permanent collection. Some favourites are Julian Wild’s vibrant knotted sculpture and Guy Stevens’ playful abstract creature.
The 2024 season runs until the 31st October.
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