Oxmarket Contemporary are looking forward to welcoming The Borderlands Artists for their exhibition in the John Rank Gallery for 2 weeks.

The Borderlands Artists are a long-established group of professional contemporary artists who live on the borders of Surrey, Hampshire, and Sussex. The members include painters, printers, sculptors, ceramists, and photographers. 

This exhibition will showcase each artist’s work and is an eclectic mixture of large and small works from large vibrant abstracts to smaller floral watercolours, large theatrical and miniature still life oil paintings, contemplative acrylics, mixed media with collage and print. Come along and immerse yourself in this diverse collection.

Oxmarket is delighted to display a collection of work by Elizabeth Jane Lloyd (1928-1995) in the Wilson Gallery. A colourist in the grand tradition of English colourists, her bold brushstrokes lay together to build dappled images in oils of luminous flowers against subtle ceramic and soft fabrics. She was a contemporary of Mary Fedden and Julian Trevelyan, and her vibrant still life’s and landscapes echo with the melodies of Cezanne and the post impressionists.

Lloyd’s talents sprung up from an artistic family and were later honed in the Chelsea School of Art and the Royal College of Art. Much of her life was spent teaching, both from her studio and in various institutions, including at Central St Martin’s, the Cambridge School of Art and a number of others. Alongside this, and raising her four children, she produced a body of work that marries a sophisticated mastery of colour with a sense play - breathing an expansive feeling of life into each painting.

Oxmarket are once again delighted to welcome Chichester Open Studios to the John Rank Gallery in April for a 2 week exhibition.
Since its inception in 2001, this esteemed event has evolved into a celebration of creativity, this year Chichester Open Studios are featuring 149 talented artists who open their studios, homes, shared venues, workshops and even garden sheds to the public.

After exhibiting at Oxmarket the Open Studio artists open their creative spaces to the community; where they can meet their audience in person, exploring their themes and processes with others and gain a fulfilling insight into why others are interested in their art. Visitors can learn directly from the artist and find out how they create artworks and processes used.

Divided into six distinct areas — City, Harbour, Downs, Eastward, Seaside and Peninsula, this event invites you on a journey of artistic discovery. Mark your calendars for May 18th, May 19th, May 25th, May 26th, and Bank Holiday Monday, May 27th, as Chichester Open Studios welcome you to immerse yourself in the rich tapestry of artistic expression across Chichester. Whether you choose to explore each area individually or venture through a variety of categories, the Art Trail promises an unforgettable experience of discovery and inspiration.

There are often demonstrations and artwork is also available to purchase and commissions are welcome. Some of the artists are full-time professionals, others create on a part-time basis and some enjoy creating in their spare time. One thing is for sure, Chichester is an incredibly artistic area with a huge talent base. All of the artists are passionate about the art-world and are looking forward to sharing what life is like as an artist with you.

Ian White will be joining us in the Wilson Gallery with a thought provoking new body of work. In “Moonlight Sonata 1940” Iain combines research, reflection, and a painterly touch to produce evergreen depictions of the senseless destruction of war, and the community that rose in the ashes.

The series began with a discovery: A collection of photographs and newspapers from the 1940’s found in his mother’s house. This instigated a period of reflection on loss and resilience, both of the Coventry Blitz and of the artist’s childhood growing up in its aftermath. Iain has twined this emotional strand with scholarly research to create a series centred on “Moonlight Sonata” the German code name for the Luftwaffe strike on Coventry in November 1940.

Using a restricted palette to suit the gravity of his subject matter, Iain sensitively portrays the destruction and loss of the Coventry Blitz and the stoicism of the people who faced it and rebuilt. A blend of representation and abstraction contrasts solid grounded figures with impressionistic wavering wreckage. This is carried out in a manner and style reminiscent of war artists such as John Piper, Graham Sutherland, and Henry Moore, while also being entirely Iain’s own. Brushstroke building on brushstroke to craft images of conflict and recovery that are at once personal and universal.

Oxmarket are delighted to welcome Christopher Cristóbal Newberry with his ever-evolving work, encapsulated in his exhibition, “Transitions”, which depicts his work at different phases of his development.  He is fascinated by symmetry, repetitiveness, cycles, change, progression.   His use of intense colour is very much influenced by his upbringing in Mexico, but his interest in truth, reality, perception and beliefs has been developing over the years, especially since the advent of the ‘post-truth world’.

As he puts it, he is “pulling at the heartstrings with the neurons of the mind”.  He has photographed parts of reality – scenes, objects or people.  Christopher says, “a photograph is literally light that has bounced off reality and into the camera”.  He transforms this reality into either impossibly ‘perfect’ images or into abstractions. According to Garry Kenard, director of Art and Mind, “in Newberry’s pictures all aspects of the image are enhanced, from heightened colours to exaggerated symmetry to sharpened horizons and outlines. All of this leads to an art which can transform our emotional perception of the material world”.

 Christopher’s ‘transitions’, have been:

1.    “Gestalt Blue Skies”:  In Gestalt theory, when we are presented with a partial view of an image, we 'complete the picture'.  We invent the parts we can’t see.  We give it meaning, regardless of whether it is true or not. 

2.    “Platonic Views”:  Plato thought that our world was merely the shadow of another 'ideal', perfect world.  The post-truth world presents us with simple, ‘ideal’ solutions to complicated problems.  Like all ideals, they only exist in the mind and not in reality.

3.    “Lockdown”:  During the Covid lockdowns people were forced to look at their immediate surroundings and routines with much more time and attention. The Lockdown series consists of composite images reflecting the world at home or the mind. 

4.    “Abstractions”:  Three dimensional reality is turned into flat, abstract images using the same palette of 20 colours.

5.    “Moon Shots”:  Every night, all over the world, no matter where one is, everyone sees the same moon.  It looms over all humanity.  Perhaps judging our follies.

Christopher was born and brought up in Mexico City.  He studied Communications at the Universidad Iberoamericana.  After completing his studies, he decided to travel hitchhiking in Europe.  When a few months later he ran out of money, he went to London. Through a series of fortuitous circumstances he worked as a housing adviser in Notting Hill.  Five years later he and his partner went to Mexico, where he directed documentaries for Mexico’s cultural television channels.  He and his partner returned to London where he worked as a freelance photographer and designer.  

He has exhibited extensively in Mexico City, London and Winchester. Most recently he has exhibited at The Link Gallery, Winchester; Dean Clough Galleries in Halifax; the Creative Innovation Centre in Taunton; Hampshire Open Studios; Creates Gallery, in Bournemouth; The National Art Museum in Constanta, Romania; The Other Art Fair, King’s Cross, London; The Light Room, Alresford.

Exploring the ways in which the Beat Generation engaged with other forms of art, this exhibition takes its name from a quote from one of the movements leading figures, Jack Kerouac: “'Burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the sky”.

Whilst most famous for their writing – Howl, On The Road, Naked Lunch, Gasoline, -Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, William Burroughs, along with Gregory Corso, experimented with other creative forms such as drawing, art, performance, music, photography and film.

The results were experimental, colourful, incandescent, riotous, unpredictable, and often seen as scandalous. As well as highlighting these Beat Generation explosions, focus falls also on two other dimensions of these Beats' work: Kerouac's close collaborations with the photographer Robert Frank, and the ways in which the Beats' debts to Romanticism created fascinating links to Romantic writers with local links to West Sussex/Chichester, such as Ginsberg's debts to William Blake.

Whilst this multi-media exhibition emphasises the Beats' writings, their art and their many other creative activities will be explored, some in audio-visual formats.  Jack Kerouac’s quote used for the exhibition's title, perfectly sums up both what the Beats sought to do and what this little exhibition seeks to display.

The exhibition is curated by Beat Generation fans and experts:  University of Chichester Professors Dick Ellis and Hugo Frey and our very own Martyn Bell,  Trustee of Oxmarket Contemporary.

In March the Wilson Gallery will welcome The Philpots, 3 artists from the same family. The exhibition is titled ‘Still and Life and Art’ and will bring together 3 very different styles of work.

Ellie Philpot studied art in London and West Sussex and loves to create unique contemporary pieces that bring statement, perspectives and colour into a space. Ellie loves to use the everyday things around her as her subjects and strives to include narrative in her work, she is interested in the laws of nature and how the qualities of light and shade create form. 

Adam Philpot is a paramedic by background but a keen photographer in his spare time. He lives and works in Hertfordshire and his photography follows him everywhere. Using a mix of film and digital mediums to explore life as it passes and he hopes the viewer can appreciate the significant things he includes.

Karah Philpot studied art until A level and is now a teacher. She has returned to painting and uses gouache, acrylics and some watercolour to create colourful, straightforward and often humorous work. Motivations behind her pieces are the desire for the viewer to participate, inviting them to become an active part of the artwork.

The John Rank Gallery at Oxmarket will host Continuum for a 2 week exhibition. Continuum is a unique collaboration of MA and PhD alumni artists and makers from the UCA network in Farnham, who are now scattered across the south of England from London to Wales.

Whilst developing their own practice through innovative craftsmanship and expertise, many continue to explore the boundary between the crafts and the arts. Collectively Continuum stage regular exhibitions and present their work for public scrutiny and sale.

Continuum members work across many disciplines and techniques from textiles to metal, exploring themes such as the written word, colour, landscape, self-discovery, development and healing. As a collective the members aim for their work to be the catalyst for conversations, joy and reflection.

Continuum makers are experts and explorers in their crafts. Having all achieved an MA or a PhD they come from a place of deep exploration, development and experimentation. Their work is likely to be thematic and research led, leading them to hone new skills and techniques.

Mary Carless will be exhibiting in the Wilson Gallery at Oxmarket and we are looking forward to her vibrant and unique work being with us for two weeks. Mary’s work is joyful, happy, exuberant and colourful semi-abstract expressionism, containing themes of birds and moons, rich foliage, patterns and images from life experiences, emotions, music, and love. 

Mary gained her BA in Fine Art in the late 1960s at the Art Department of the University of Newcastle -Upon-Tyne, sharing a studio with the now world-famous painter, Sean Scully. And then went on to gain a Graduate  Certificate in Education to teach Art to secondary-school children. 

After University, Mary married her childhood boyfriend also from Chichester and they set off on their adventures together, travelling and living in Portugal, Alabama, Alaska, Curacao, New York and finally settling in Sao Paulo, Brazil where they lived for nine years before returning to Chichester to live in the street where Mary grew up.

Mary gained a wealth of experience and inspiration for her art from visiting, living and working in these places but it was Brazil with its vibrancy, colour, music and art and especially the Primitive paintings and artifacts that inspired her use of vibrant primary colours, exciting patterns and repeating themes of jungles and animals. Her love of the Fauve painter Andre Derain, the painter of animal and jungle scenes, Henri Rousseau, Brazilian Naïve art in the the Museu Internacional de Arte Naïf do Brasil (MIAN) in Rio and graffiti and street art are all influences in her work 

Mary paints for pleasure, and hopes that this exhibition will excite the senses and bring light, colour and enjoyment to lift people’s spirits in these often troubled times.

Oxmarket are looking forward to welcoming Samuel McGann to the John Rank Gallery in March. Samuel moved to the city to study Fine Art at the University of Chichester. He stayed in the area and works as an art instructor for adults with learning disabilities. He returned to the University where he once again took up painting and completed his Master’s degree.

Samuel describes himself as a mixed media artist working in acrylic paint, acrylic ink, oil paint, oil stick and charcoal on his work and he struggles with the idea of being a painter but rather an artist who draws with paint and other materials.

Samuel represents the human form in his work but toys with scale and proportions, he never looks for a true or perfect figure. “People are not perfect so why depict them as perfect”. He is concerned with capturing emotion or feeling. The work speaks strongly of his direct engagement with sociable and uninhibited environments. 

In his most recent work Samuel uses photography, he then redraws the scene from a combination of memories and photographs working quickly to capture the moment. The photographs are often using a panoramic view or a fish eye lens or are multiple images taken from a variety of different angles in the room. Samuel moves around the area or through the crowd. As a result straight lines seem to bend and perspectives become skewed. Working in such a way he is able to encapsulate what it felt like to be in the drawn environment. The intentional use of bold  fluid charcoal lines evoke movement in the works and persuade the viewer’s eyes to be drawn around the entire canvas.

Influencing artists include Henri Matisse, Toulouse Lautrec and Pablo Picasso.

Oxmarket are delighted to welcome Sylvia Kopeček and Maureen Brigden to the Wilson Gallery with their exhibition Terra Firma. The sculpture and the paintings in this exhibition demonstrate how two artists have developed their work alongside each other, sharing similar ideas about the human condition and interpreting, in complementary ways, issues of representation, time, place and change. Sculptures and paintings have been brought together to remind us of the changing physical environment in which we live.

Sylvia Kopeček gained a first class honours degree in Fine Art at Reading University and subsequently an MA from the University of Brighton. She has spent almost a lifetime painting, drawing and making. Sylvia’s work is concerned with the exploration of issues of fragility and the vulnerable nature of human, animal and plant life. Imagery is used to convey ideas. All the work is figurative and often contains elements of the tragic and the comedic. Humour, or at least a lightness of touch, often plays a part in these works.

There are usually clues to be discovered in each painting which offer the viewer the opportunity to explore a narrative about the content. These clues might be few in number or scattered and legion within a field of colour. The suite of small insect watercolours and the paintings on canvas appear to include anthropomorphic figures – are they human, part human, part imagined, or do they represent real insects?

Sylvia says ‘When beginning a new painting or drawing, the aim is to create something worthy of being looked at and enjoyed and hopefully to offer something that has not been said in quite this way before’.

The title of the exhibition Terra Firma, indicates a concern for the environment and the future of living things. The paintings are intended to celebrate the diversity of life. The purpose of exhibiting these paintings is to create a dialogue between the viewer and the work. For the viewer, the visitor to the exhibition, it is hoped that time is spent looking and considering what might be discovered within the layers of colour and imagery. Each title can give a clue as to how the content might be approached.

In 2000 after a career in nursing,  Maureen Brigden changed direction and studied Sculpture with the Open College of Art leading on to enrolling on the B.A. course, part time at Chichester University, completing her  Fine Art Degree in 2007.

Maureen works with smoke fired clay and has a fascination with the material remains of our human history. To illustrate this she works instinctively using different clays including locally sourced clay from Chichester harbour. This clay has a debris of past times including stones, roots, organisms and ferrous metals left over from previous occupations. The process of  hand-building  and firing the work renders it vulnerable, capable of sagging, or at worst, collapsing, drawing parallels with the human condition.

As a member Of Artel she exhibits regularly at the Oxmarket, her work is mostly figurative  and reflects her interest in local history and more recently environmental issues. She has exhibited in Chichester, Brighton, London and Harrogate.

In 2015 Maureen won The Sculpture prize for “Earworm” at the  National Society of Painters, Printmakers and Sculptors annual exhibition in London and  also had work selected for the National Open Arts Exhibition in Harrogate. In 2020  she won 2nd Prize for Her Sculpture “Reaching Out” at the “Knockout Lockdown Exhibition” at the Oxmarket.

Oxmarket Contemporary will be welcoming back Oscar Romp for a solo exhibition in February 2024 in the John Rank Gallery.  Oscar originally trained at The Royal College of Art specialising in Fine Art printmaking but for the last 35 years his focus has been on figurative drawing and painting. Oscar draws ‘live on site, ’in ‘real time,’ - in order to capture the atmosphere and energy of the event time or place.  Artworks are often conceived in situ and then reworked back in the studio.  This shows through in his final paintings where you can see the movement of his figures and almost hear the music. 

Oscar’s exhibition - The Path Taken is a curation of work of various subjects and media which are reflections on a life lived and a floor danced, a path taken.

Fusing his figurative painting skills with his ‘people skills’ and cultural awareness, Oscar forges a parallel career as a site-specific artist. He delivers commissioned murals, participatory projects, residencies and workshops to host-organisations in healthcare, community and education settings. Clients include The National Trust, Positive East, The Sussex Beacon, The Brighton Oasis Project, Zeit!Raum Vienna, Frimley Park, and Kings College Hospital NHS Trusts.

‘Oscar is currently artist in residence at Denmans Gardens’, Chichester.

Tea Coffee & Tequila, the brainchild of artists Louise Duggan and Bobby Dazzler are kicking the new year off with a bang and delivering a pioneering new show at the Oxmarket Contemporary this February.

After the standout success of their initial show in December, the duo are back to bring you their new event – Unapologetic – An all-female group show displaying some of the most exciting and successful artists from the UK .

Each respected artist has been hand-picked for inclusion not only for their artistic prowess, but also because of their success in addition to their practice. They are business leaders, gallery owners, working mothers, highly educated, motivated, successful role models who have not allowed adversity to stand in their way.

Never before has such a group been seen together under one roof, but the thing that really sets this show apart from others is the inclusion of a fully immersive installation room. Whilst the main show of the artists current practice will take place in the Rank Gallery, a TCT requirement for entry is that each artist produce a unique piece, solely for this show, that looks inward and explores something deep within them - something rarely seen in public view. These works will form the basis of ‘the installation room’ in the Wilson Gallery – a powerful, touching, emotionally charged and fully immersive viewer experience. You may think you know these artists – but get ready for an insight into their lives that celebrates their success ‘in spite of…’. An inspirational show designed to offer something for everyone, you won’t want to miss this!

Artists include Ruth Mulvie, Hannah Shillito, Sarah Arnett, Pam Glew, Haus of Lucy, Alice Hesketh, Georgie Wheeler, Alexandra Barto, Ellie Pompili, Jane Wilson, Andi Hazelden, Bob & Eve, Meghan Durham, Jessie Woodward & Louise Duggan.

At the end of January Oxmarket will welcome Kate Lloyd to the Wilson Gallery for an exhibition of photography. For Kate photography was a passion expressed rather late in her life. Kate trained with a number of expert photographers, including most recently Jonathan Chritchley and Valda Bailey. With Jonathan Kate travelled quite extensively, finding the lesser known parts of Venice, and the West Coast of France, both of which are featured in this exhibition. With Valda Bailey she gained experience in the techniques of abstraction, and discovered a different vision and photographic capabilities she didn’t know were possible.

Water, reflections in water and associated subjects, like boats and buildings have become a major theme in Kate’s work. As Kate loves to travel this means she has fallen completely in love with certain places. An overnight gondola park in Venice, a boat yard in France, where the fabric of the boats is steadily decaying, even the lesser known, seriously neglected parts of a city or village can feature as her favourite subjects.

Kate is an abstract photographer using Multiple Exposure (ME) and Intentional Camera Movement (ICM) to create different versions of a subject. These layers are then blended, drawing out colours that are hidden in the material, and not seen with the naked eye.

For those who know, or have visited Venice, the exhibition will perhaps resurrect memories of their visits. We all enjoy pictures of places we know. Kate feels that now that mobile phones are almost universal many people regard themselves as photographers and, perhaps consequently, rate the medium as less interesting, and less valuable than other artistic techniques. Kate would like people to come away with a sense of the validity of Fine Art Photography as an artistic medium, and an awareness that there is much normally hidden to the naked eye, or which is unnoticed.

Kate would like the visitors to realise that such aspects of life and art can nevertheless be interesting, evocative and even emotional.

Oxmarket are excited to host The Modern Makers Exhibition. This is a showcase of Design Led Contemporary Craft in Sussex and the surrounding area. The exhibition highlights the strong platform of the craft tradition in our area, with a diverse range of work in categories including ceramics, glass, wood, print, metal, textiles and basket weaving. It is curated by Gael Emmett, herself a local multi disciplinary designer maker, with a long standing relationship with the gallery. The carefully selected work features design led crafts from makers with a strong basis in the traditions of craft brought into a contemporary context.

Oxmarket Contemporary is committed to supporting and promoting crafts and makers, and this exhibition is testament to this philosophy. Each of the artists featured bring a unique perspective and style to their work. The techniques used to create their work, derived from long standing traditional methods, are seen here in new and exciting contemporary works in the Applied Arts.

Whilst exploring the wealth of local talent to bring this exhibition together, it was exciting to discover designers and makers that were new to us. We hope to build on these relationships and this event in the future.

It is the techniques and materials used by all these makers and their vast knowledge and skills that are the platform for this exhibition. The process of basket weaving will also include the growing and harvesting of the materials used. Printmaking processes and photography print processes, such as silver gelatin, use technical  skills that are a craft in themselves. The exhibitors workshop spaces are places of collaborative creative energy with beautiful materials, such as willow, clay, timber, leather, glass & metal all around to inspire their design and making process.

There are over twenty exhibitors and so many different  hand made pieces of work by extraordinarily talented designer makers, that it truly is a great showcase for Craft in our local area.

Oxmarket are delighted to welcome back Catherine Barnes in 2024. Catherine will be starting the new year with a collection of her paintings in the Wilson Gallery. Catherine studied to be an artist, firstly at Folkestone Art School in the 1960’s where the focus was on drawing, and then she gained one of a dozen places at Camberwell School of Art where she was taught painting by artists such as Anthony Eyton and Euan Uglow. Later Catherine undertook a 4 year course of History of Art at London University (Goldsmiths’ College).

Apart from Catherine’s experience of exhibiting at the Florence Biennale, the opportunity to exhibit in solo exhibitions in 2014, 2016, 2019, 2021 and 2023 in her own city at the Oxmarket, has always been a highlight for Catherine and for us and every painting or artwork she allows out of her studio she considers is a hard-won image.

As for communicating, Catherine says ‘when I was seventeen and studied on the Pre-Dip course at Folkestone Art School I met Sir Kenneth Clark at his Saltwood Castle. Apart from his impressive art collection, I remember he told me  “A work of art should scoop you up and carry you away”.  I have strived all my life to create just this’. 

Catherine has never knowingly had a process as such, she says ‘a process implies that if you do one thing, and go on from there, eventually you will arrive at the end of the process. Art, I have found, is rather more wayward. Different subjects require different approaches’. “Reality is one part of art; feeling completes it” (Camille Corot 1796 – 1875).

Catherine often draws her titles from her favourite poets, and music is vital.  Catherine feels the truth art brings is the feeling that it engenders – emotion shared between the viewer and the artist. A painting is something that is added to the world, it does not necessarily have to reflect it and artists have to have credibility to be trusted with the viewer’s feelings.  So the artist has to have, as Maria Callas said, “integrity of imagination”.  

From our county’s unofficial anthem of Sussex by the Sea by William Ward-Higgs to William Blake’s poems Milton and Jerusalem, the south coast and its Downland surroundings have long inspired artists of all disciplines. It seems fitting then to kick off 2024 with an exhibition showcasing local artists whose work connects with a literal or emotional ‘wave’.

Chichester’s connections with the sea are long standing, from the 13th century thriving port at Dell Quay and the Canal which opened in 1822  directly connecting the city to harbour, the sea initially  played an important part in the commerce and prosperity of Chichester. Nowadays our relationship with the sea is primarily recreational: the harbour is a much-loved place for many local residents to sail, paddleboard and kayak and beaches such as the Witterings and East Head are where we all head when the sun shines. I think most of us living in and around Chichester have an affinity with the sea so it seemed natural to have an exhibition which explored different contemporary artists’ emotional response to our coastal waters.

The exhibition features 14 artists including painters, ceramicists and sculptors and includes both artists who are new to the gallery and new work from artists who are firm favourites with our visitors. Artists whose work is featured include David Peduzzi, Nicola Martin, Nic Cowper, Kate Henderson, Nicola Rose, Rob Corfield, Bridget Greenwood, Sue Ransley, Alison Orchard, Sophie Keir, Jodie Whitby, Fiona Bell Currie, Gemma Bedford and Jane Eastell.

Sam Pattman will be showing her work in the Wilson Gallery at Oxmarket for 2 weeks. Sam studied a BA in textile design and is heavily influenced by textural surfaces. She recently completed an MA in fine art at Brighton university, as she sought the opportunity for further study and development of her painting and sculptural practice.

Her work approaches subjects such as transience, loss and the human condition. The subject matter is spiritual in nature. Geological processes and structures, archaeological discoveries are influential and evidential in the forms and patinas of her work, suggesting the passage of time and the fleeting nature of existence.

The textural surfaces of Sam’s work are achieved by multiple applications and removal of layers of paint. The process is synonymous with the uncovering of the ancient within an archaeological dig or the peeling plaster of antiquity: The resultant, partially - visible image is in turn, reflective of incomplete memories. The processes involved in the production of the artwork; the addition and removal of paint layers add a different perspective and help convey the spiritual nature of the work.

She strives to communicate time of contemplation over spiritual existence.

Oxmarket are looking forward to Tea Coffee & Tequila (TCT), the dynamic pairing of UK artists Louise Duggan and Bobby Dazzler. Individually accomplished and widely recognized, their works can be found in collections around the world. However , as TCT they aim to combine their skills, presenting collectors with exclusive creations not found elsewhere.

Louise Duggan is a Chichester based artist who, after graduating from Leicester University trained as an interior designer. Working throughout London for many high-end interior design firms before relocating to Dubai where she spent the next 20 years designing and producing artworks for hotels and the private residencies of the worlds elite. Her work is an explosion of colour, distorting and reshaping her subject matter, taking the viewer on an emotional journey and exploration of the self.

Bobby Dazzler is a Brighton based artist specialising in combining retro styles with a modern, street art aesthetic. Inspired by the street art mentality for bold designs, rough cut execution and a penchant for anonymity, Bobby combines digital & analogue materials to create a pulp-fuelled cocktail of striking, surreal (and often a little kitsch) imagery – always with a wry edge and subtle humour.

For each exhibition, the TCT group collaborates with a guest artist, and for this show it’s none other than Chichester based artist T-Boy. Having studied at Worthing College of Art & Design his work is very much grounded in the world of Pop Art. Taking heavy influence from music, pop culture, iconic faces and special moments in time. With a meticulous eye for detail and precise degree of workmanship T-Boy is dedicated to creating work in which you can appreciate the time & effort involved and which can ‘simply be enjoyable’.

An Unspoken Discourse: A conversation in paint

Oxmarket Contemporary is proud to exhibit a unique collection of paintings and drawings by two exceptional south coast artists, Colin Merrin and Malcolm Crocker. The exhibition, entitled ‘An Unspoken Discourse’, will run from Tuesday November 28th through to Sunday December 10th. This will also include a talk by the artists on Saturday December 2nd from 2pm to 4.30pm. 

‘I take a stream of consciousness approach to my work, making fairly random ink drawings, mostly based on the human face, then work into them with a variety of materials’ said Colin, a former headteacher of a London pupil referral unit. ‘I’ve always been an artist and showing my work in such a fantastic space as the Oxmarket and to encourage people to come along and see it, will be a great pleasure’.  His paintings and drawings reflect his interest in behaviour and the human condition and how it impacts on events in history. ‘My work is graphic and slightly comic strip in appearance as it focuses on the absurd and questions the idea of meaning.’

Like Colin, Malcolm has been an artist all his working life. He worked as a town planner in the past and was the chief executive of a local authority. ‘I paint imaginary strange dystopian landscapes and structures,’ said Malcolm. ‘I’m interested in the future of our tiny green planet, which is barely a dot in the universe. I enjoy the interplay of landscape and architecture which questions the idea of time and issues around the disintegration and erosion of earth and the gradual return to nature.’

Malcolm commented, ‘Both Colin and I decided to show our work together as a conversation in paint and image making and we were so bowled over when we saw the beautiful building and space at the Oxmarket, that we decided we’d like to use both galleries.

Colin and Malcolm are established artists who have exhibited in galleries and spaces both nationally and internationally. They agree that art in its true sense is something unique to each artist. It has to embody integrity. ‘We’re stylistically very different,’ said Colin, ‘however our work is both imaginative and unusual. We respect each other’s individualism and while there’s always some remote resemblance to the work of other artists, I think we both avoid cliché.’

Malcolm concluded, ‘In terms of what we’d like to achieve, apart from selling some work, we decided the show should include a talk. It is after all about a discourse between two painters who have certain views about the world, so we’d like to open this up as a discussion with people who are all welcome to come along for free on Saturday, December 2nd from 2pm.’

This exhibition is witty, colourful and thought provoking. A visual feast and a must for your diaries.

Oxmarket Contemporary is looking forward to welcoming artist Robin Richardson with his exhibition in the John Rank - Relentless. The exhibition explores a lifetime of Robin’s relationship with the sea, his continuing journey and part of that journey is his associations with fellow mariners over that time. The reports of the mariners experiences and stories have inspired and humbled Robin.

The paintings for Robin’s Exhibition Relentless are his interpretation of the sea, with its ever changing and varying moods. Benign and calm one minute and in short order there is change. Robin says ‘the sea rarely stays the same for long - maybe this show should be titled ‘Restless rather than ‘Relentless’.

The sea has been a major influence in Robin’s life and he is aware it touches most of us in varying ways. Some are comfortable on the water others are not. So many conflicting emotions - such incredible beauty, an ever present danger and peril.

Within this show you will find paintings representing peace and calm, grey foreboding skies, driving light, bad visibility and then of course those paintings of the sea when it is angry. Many contrasts.

There is a group of paintings of a rescue in the Southern Ocean in horrendous conditions of a fellow competitor from his sinking vessel. Both were sailing singlehanded and is an amazing story of luck combined with an amazing act of Seamanship.

Robin says ‘We are of course dealing with the sublime. Artists like Caspar David Friedrich and Rothko continue to influence my painting’.

Copyright © 2023 Robin Richardson, All rights reserved.

Tim is a self-taught artist and has exhibited his atmospheric, contemporary expressionist land and seascapes In London, Bristol and Guildford as well as selling directly to the public from his studio in Hawkley where he has lived for over 36 years. Although he has previously participated in a group exhibition at the Oxmarket Gallery this will be his first solo exhibition.

Some people produce music or write poetry but for Tim it is through painting that he can express himself. Art is the creative medium through which he can express his feelings or capture fragments of memories of time and place. Rather than attempting to capture a particular landscape or scene, he aims to express an idea, feeling or emotion. He rarely paints in situ but paints predominantly from memory so he is free to allow his imagination to dominate reality.

Rather than impose a particular vision through his paintings, he hopes that the viewer will have their own emotional response to and interpretation of his art.

Emsworth Printmakers second group exhibition at Oxmarket Contemporary brings together nine of its talented members to showcase a wide variety of printmaking techniques. From screen printing to etching, lino to collagraph and woodcut to monoprint, the exhibition demonstrates many traditional and experimental approaches to printmaking. An Emsworth Printmaker is stewarding the exhibition and will do their best to answer any of your questions about printing techniques.

Emsworth Printmakers is a proactive community of artists that meet regularly to share their printmaking knowledge and to support each other on their creative and personal journeys. One of its members, Jules Roper, is facing her own battle with cancer and the group has decided by way of support to each donate a piece of original work for sale that will raise money to help the ovarian cancer charity Ovacome.

Ovacome is the national UK ovarian cancer charity focused on providing support and information to anyone affected by ovarian cancer. This includes people who have either been diagnosed with the disease or think that they might be at risk, as well as their friends and family and healthcare professionals.

An Emsworth Printmaker is stewarding the exhibition and will do their best to answer any of your questions about printing techniques, the group of printmakers are Jean Mallan, Bea Veness, Julie Turner, Marion Forster, Jules Roper, Fabiola Knowles, Carol Price, Sue England and Sue Long.

Oxmarket are delighted to welcome Jan Bennett to the Wilson Gallery for 2 weeks. Jan left school at the earliest opportunity to escape the academic bias and join the real world. Art College was suggested but rejected as she had no work to show and instead began an apprenticeship which led to running her own business. Somewhere along the way the window displays took a new turn, at times bearing little connection to that of the business inside and prompting one vinegar-tongued customer to remark upon their resemblance to that of a funeral parlour.

Finally seeking a new direction in 1995, Jan closed the business and enrolled at Chichester College for a 2yr City & Guilds course of interior paint effects.  Along with new-found freedom among other creatives who bounced ideas back and forth, this was the beginning of her love affair with paint.

Further exploration followed, flitting from collage, embellishment, recycled & found objects to papier-mache models which echoed her autumn-inspired paintings. This time the former shop windows played host to themed displays which provided a little fun for passers-by, not least during Covid restrictions.

Jan now concentrates upon painting, seeing herself as an untaught artist. Preferring to work with oils, she produces colourful abstract works which unfold as she paints, likening them to vivid, fragmented dreams recalled from the previous night and wondering, what on earth was all that about?

The most important characteristics for Jan’s art are imagination, originality and impactful colour, she paints for the love of it, somtimes experimentally, thus all are unique.

Oxmarket Contemporary are delighted to welcome Sussex born Artist and Architect Neil Holland to the Gallery. Neil has spent 40 years painting the Sussex landscape, but more than that - he has helped to build it. For many years he resided in Arundel running an architectural practice which specialised in contextual architecture i.e. new buildings of all kinds relating to their context historically and in terms of landscape. It gained 60 Architectural awards. During this period Neil never ceased to paint the landscape he built in.

Many of Neil’s buildings can be seen prominently in the landscapes he has painted in the Arun Valley, Chichester Harbour and in and around Chichester. Neil has been motivated to capture a ‘spirit of place’, so that his watercolours, rich in colour, pattern and distorted perspectives produce an image with the quality of memory, to translate the landscape into a place where our experience is not merely visual, but emotional.

The recognition of the importance of the impact of nature to us in a deep and meaningful way encourages us to consider the greater impact it has in shaping our shared identity, and whether such a link can endure in an urbanised world.

The act of painting is one of fondness for others to say “here is my Sussex, this is what I see and feel”

Oxmarket are excited to welcome Nick Carrick in the John Rank Gallery in September. Nick uses the representational world as a starting point  in his work. Old photographs, sketches and found objects all  play a role as metaphors for emotive memories and feelings he has with places and situations. Recurring motifs and themes  such as mountains, paths and trees take on new meaning relating to situations. The  path can convey an escapism or path to enlightenment. The mountain about human struggle and the terrains of a life. This can be ambiguous as Nick wants the viewer to find their own meaning within his work.

The surface of each painting is rendered and sanded down to reflect the passing memory of each place and sensation. The paintings take on a life of there own through this process which hold hidden meaning. Painting for Nick is a way to make sense of the world and document the everyday happenings that are so overlooked.

Travelling has been a constant source of inspiration for Nick, especially Spain. The history of art, culture, food and people along with the decaying grandeur of the north of the country and arid unforgiving terrain and climate of the south. There's a resilience to the people throughout history that I admire. The Sussex landscape and Spain are merging and creating new vistas that more reflect an emotive response. Intoxication of images a sanctuary, in its original meaning, is a sacred place, such as a shrine. By the use of such places as a haven, by extension the term has come to be used for any place of safety. This secondary use can be categorized into human sanctuary, a safe place for people, such as a political sanctuary; and non-human sanctuary, such as an animal or plant sanctuary.

Oxmarket are delighted to show work by Harry Durdin Robertson in the Wilson Gallery. Harry was born in 1985 in Wexford, Ireland to parents who were both artists and into an environment which was always strongly involved in the Arts.

Harry is currently working in London and Ireland with frequent trips to the rest of Europe, North America and the Middle East.

“This series ‘Greengrocer’ was inspired by breaking down more complex still life compositions into individual studies of just one element, in this case fruit and vegetables. It allowed him to fully focus on the subject whilst also being able to think about how each piece harmonises with the other paintings in the body of work.

Harry paints all paintings from life whilst also supporting his local greengrocer, hence the title.

Harry says ‘It has been a challenging yet fun series to work on and ultimately has proved to be a satisfying endeavour for me as an artist.”

Harry’s work is in several private collections worldwide and he is represented by the Oriel Gallery, Dublin and Pip Simmons on Harbour Island, The Bahamas.

Oxmarket are excited to welcome Christopher Villiers for an exhibition in the Wilson Gallery. Christopher is an actor with over 29 films (Top Secret, Bloody Sunday, First Knight, Sliding Doors) to his name and over 90 television programs (The Crown, Dr Who, Vera, Mansfield Park, Mile High, Mood). Christopher started painting as a therapy to the film and TV industry (where you have no control) and when he is not working, prefers to sit in front of an easel and paint.

Christopher’s work has always been colourful and naïve, however his work has progressed and become more complex and ambitious. He has always painted on heavy paper using many layered paints, to create intensity and depth.

Christopher met David Hockney when he was 20 years old and he became a major influence. Christopher hopes that his paintings bring a bit of sunshine, colour and contrast to people’s lives, he says that the pictures should be part of a story and allow the viewer to walk into the paintings and lose themselves.

 Christopher’s wife likes him to paint as she tells him that it keeps him quiet!

Russell Webb was the winner of the Sculpture Prize in the Oxmarket Open 2022 and will be exhibiting with us in the John Rank Gallery in September. Russell makes trompe l’oeil sculptures, usually with wood and paint. They are the result of playful meditations about our place in the universe and they depict ordinary things: a ball of twine, feathers, a bundle of sticks, old books, satsuma peels, a wristwatch, leaves, worms, discarded banana skins, grass, and on it goes.

 There is both humour and sincerity about Russell’s observations, and the outcome of his studies is a kind of interpretive diary of objects. It is a personal catalogue of mementoes and souvenirs that relates closely to the tradition and themes of still-life painting.

Each sculpture is an attempt to suspend time in a world where everything is temporary. Russell says he doesn’t intend to elevate the subjects; it has been enough to notice them. Thus, the comic incident is presented as equal to the tragic - be it a memorial to his Dad via the depiction of his wristwatch or the memory of being chosen by the Gods of Comedy to slide upon a banana skin.

Often, Russell’s subjects are presented much larger than life-size. This enables a truer reflection of the idea that the closer we look, the smaller we become.

Sian Appleyard exhibited previously at Oxmarket Contemporary in September 2021. Sian’s life was cut short too soon on 27th March, 2023 and Oxmarket are proud to show some of her beautiful work in an exhibition in the Wilson Gallery, profit from the sale of Sian’s work will go to The Oakhaven Hospice, Lymington and Cancer Research UK.

Sian was an accomplished printmaker, winner of the ‘Mary and John Symonds Memorial Prize’ at St Barbes Open Exhibition in 2019, and a prolific producer of work which has always been in demand at exhibitions and galleries. Alongside her skill at capturing the colour and composition of her beloved New Forest land and seascapes, we also remember her generosity and kindness in her words of advice and support to her fellow printmakers.

Sian’s images are inspired by the ever changing landscape: a distinctive shape, the interesting placement of man-made forms or the way in which the passage of time has altered surfaces to produce beautiful colours, patterns and textures.

Sian found inspiration from exploring coastal areas and inland, observing and capturing in print, features which caught her eye. From her base in the New Forest to further afield, Sian’s prints often start with sketches drawn on location and she enjoyed playing with both figurative elements and abstract to convey her ideas.