The Artists Open Houses Festival May 2019
The Artists Open Houses festival 2019, the largest event of its kind in the UK, will take place in Brighton, Hove and beyond, over four weekends in May, starting Saturday May 4, 2019.
The Artists Open Houses festival dates for 2019 are:
May 4 & 5
May 11 & 12
May 18 & 19
May 25 & 26
Free to visit, the festival will see over 1500 artists and makers open the doors to their houses or studio spaces in more than 180 venues to exhibit and sell their artworks direct to the public. The Artists Open Houses gives festival-goers an exclusive snapshot of how artists live and work. There is a hugely diverse selection of artworks on show, from original paintings, prints, ceramics and textiles to photography, sculpture, crafts, jewellery and more.
The houses are grouped into one of 14 trails around different areas of the city and beyond, each with its own unique character and atmosphere – from the beautiful Regency houses in Brunswick to the colourful fishermen’s houses of Hanover to the urban warehouse spaces of the North Laine and cottages of the South Downs village of Ditchling.
This year the brochure cover artist – winner of the 2019 Brochure Cover Artist’s Award – is Hannah Forward (www.hannahforward.com), Brighton based artist and printmaker, Hannah works from her studio in Hove creating vibrant, colourful prints featuring images of old cassette tapes, vintage cameras, snowboarders and birds. Her artwork “Cassette Tapes” was accepted into the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition 2018. Hannah Forward will be exhibiting at her Open House at 11 Scott Road, Hove and at also The Old Market Hove in Hove from April 23 until the end of May.
For the second year running, the Artists Open Houses festival will be showcasing the work of emerging artists through a specially curated strand called New Grounds. Curated by filmmaker, director and editor Idil Bozkurt, New Grounds will be showing a programme of events, performances and exhibitions at The Old Market, Hove.
The work of marginalised artists is an increasingly important strand of the Artists Open Houses festival. For 2019, several recovery centres, mental health centres, drug and alcohol addition centres and homeless centres across the city, including Grace Eyre, Preston Park Recovery, Just Life Creative, St Luke’s Church, Creative Future at Barker and Stonehouse, The Robin Hood Health Foundation at Brighton Health and Wellbeing Centre and Mill View Hospital, will be exhibiting the work of many talented artists, writers, photographers and makers who access their support.
For the first time, the festival will be setting up an artists materials bank at St Luke’s church in Brighton, to recycle artists materials to help excluded artists.
Judy Stevens, Artists Open Houses Festival Director says, “The Artist Open Houses offer audiences the chance to see locally made, seriously good arts and crafts, as well as being an inclusive community event. We welcome artists of all ages and from all areas of the community including a significant number of venues showing the work of artists who may otherwise be potentially excluded from the mainstream art world – those who have experienced periods of homelessness, are in recovery, or have learning disabilities or metal health issues. At the core of our ethos is a belief in the great benefits of art and creativity for all, and in offering opportunities for a new and important engagement between these artists and our audiences.”
Highlights of the 2019 Festival include:
Encounters: West Hove Trail
Winner of Best Open House in 2018 and celebrating their 10th anniversary, Encounters is one of the highlights of the Artists Open Houses festival. The 2019 edition will feature Kinetic and Constructivist Art, featuring Gisseline Ottati, Patrick Rubinstein and Miguel Prypchan, alongside a retrospective exhibition of 67 Encounters’ artists from 18 countries, highlighting Carlos Sanchez’s new collection and Miladys Parejo’s installation recalling a decade of collective memories. www.encountersartspace.com/open-house
12 Langdale Road, Hove, BN3 4HN
Crying Shadows, Flesh and Bone: Fiveways Trail.
For the first time One Church in Florence Road, Brighton will open as a gallery on the Fiveways Trail, hosting work by Brian Mander, a previous Best AOH winner. Questioning the validity of seemingly innocuous ‘indigenous science’ and highlighting how such parochial knowledge can be murderously allied to witchcraft, superstition, ignorance and prejudice, the work is contextualised by a continuous screening within the exhibition of the 2009 documentary Zeru, Zeru, The Ghosts by Yorgos Avgeropoulos. brianmander.co.uk
One Church. Florence Road, Brighton BN1 6DL
Art at Zerbs: Dyke Road Arts Trail
Art At Zerbs is an exciting new Open House for 2019. A large house and beautiful garden, Zerbs is owned by Jan and Linda Zerb, who ran the much loved Zerb’s Café in Gardner Street in the 1980s and 90s – the first café in Brighton to exhibit and sell artwork for local artists, many of whom worked there part time. Linda and Jan are collaborating with ceramicist Angela Evans and abstract artist Kate Scott to curate a rich mix of artists and makers including print maker Sarah Jones, painter John Haywood and quirky modern upcycled jewellery from Keri Zerb. In the garden will be striking wood carved sculptures by established Brighton artist Si Uwins amongst others.
188 Dyke Road BN1 5AA
Art at 21: Seven Dials Trail
A new house for 2019, expect a vibrant mix of paintings, sculpture, photography, prints and cards from an exciting mix of innovative and diverse artists, drawing on a range of abstract and figurative themes. The venue in elegant Montpelier Crescent provides a sympathetic setting for contemporary Art at 21. Artists include painter Kate Scott, Kate Strachan and Gary Goodman. garygoodman.wordpress.com
21 Montpelier Crescent, BN1 3JJ
6 at the Regency Town House: Brunswick Trial
Six University of Brighton MA alumni invite you to view their work in this elegant interior. Artists and works include Chris Shaw Hughes’ intense meticulous drawings of trauma sites, Hilary Kennett’s artworks inspired by Regency correspondence, Paul Tuppenyy’s paintings and sculpture concerning human chronology and being and Adele Gibson’s paintings of the sublime artic wildness.
13 Brunswick Square, Brighton BN3 1EH
Birds and Blossom: Seven Dials Trail
Established Brighton artist Heidi Langridge takes a break from her beachside studio, to create a haven for wildlife in her own home. Gold crests, robins, wrens and other garden birds, set in vivid colours, pay tribute to the natural world, reminding us to slow down and reconnect with nature. You are invited to browse through her latest collection of paintings, prints and postcards. www.wrenstudio.co.uk/about.html
87 Buckingham Road, Brighton BN1 3RB
Ruth Mulvie: West Hove Trail
Ruth Mulvie is a contemporary fine artist, known for her vivid palette and for the delightfully unexpected detail in her paintings. Old photographs are her initial inspiration for each new piece – a digital springboard atop which she dives into her latest delicious fantasy landscape. Ruth has an on-going preoccupation with pools and swimming and where better to display her most recent paintings than surrounding this charming 1940’s pool?
www.ruthmulvie.com Closed first weekend.
1 Courtyard Lane, Hove BN3 4BP
The Attic Club, Ditchling: Ditchling Trail
Celebrating their 80th anniversary this summer with exhibitions in Ditchling Village Hall, East Sussex (open May 24th – 27th). , Thirty artists and craftsmen will be exhibiting a selection of 2D and 3D original artwork. The Attic Club was founded in 1939 by a group of artists in a Ditchling attic, as they needed somewhere where they could paint and discuss aspects of their work. www.atticartclub.co.uk
Ditchling Village Hall, Ditchling.
Art on the Farm: Ditchling: FAMILY FRIENDLY
A new venue for 2019, Art on the Farm is set on a family run, organic free-range egg farm in Ditchling in the heart of the South Downs. Exhibiting art by local school children, visitors of the trail can create their own canvases, which will be exhibited on the farm for the rest of the month. Expect live music, delicious street food and a licensed bar.
The Mac’s Farm, Dumbrells Court Road, Ditchling BN6 8GT
Kellie Miller House and Garden: Clayton
For the very first time, artist Kellie Miller opens the doors of her home and gardens, which nestle in the South Downs just outside Brighton. Her space is a work-in-progress project four years in development. On show will be contemporary art and sculpture from artists from the Czech Republic, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, France and UK including legendary print maker and neighbour Bernard Lodge. Kellie’s work has graced the pages of The Times, The Guardian, Elle Decoration and Homes and Gardens amongst others. www.kelliemiller.com
Bluebell Cottage, Underhill Lane, Clayton, Hassocks BN6 9PN, UK
Barker and Stonehouse: Creative Future
Creative Future is a Brighton-based arts charity that provides opportunities for underrepresented artists to have their work seen. They will be working in partnership with Barker & Stonehouse for AOH 2019. Creative Future Artists will be exhibiting their limited-edition prints at the Barker & Stonehouse furniture store in Hove throughout May 2019. There will also be opportunities to meet the Artists during each weekend in May. www.creativefuture.org.uk
184-186 Old Shoreham Road, Brighton BN3 7EX
Limbo: Beyond the Level Trail.
Limbo isn’t just the imaginary place or state of all holy souls after death, but a real condition. The artists in the exhibition present limbo spaces that have risen due to Brexit, austerity, socio-economic insecurity, racism and xenophobia. They explore on a personal and national level what it is to be in-between and to live in uncertainty.
The exhibition includes paintings, photography, installations, video art and free workshops.
SEAS: Socially Engaged Art Salon, www.seasbrighton.com
10a Fleet Street, Brighton BN1 4ZE
Crescent House: Fiveways Trail
A collection of peculiar and fascinating art with workshops and performances by two of our four artists whom should know better, but choose not to! Mary McMillan Sloan is an artist, writer and Brighton based lecturer-constructing work in various media including collage. Mary’s work features themes from motherhood, to anatomy, nature and superstition – she creates unique creatures, many of which have been inspired by an exchange of personal histories between friends. Mary will be exhibiting papier-mâché sculpture, jewellery, inks, prints and cards, Karaoke Kazoo and papier-mâché workshops. Other artists including Gary Goodman (drawings, paintings and performance poetry), Hope McMillan Sloan and Christopher Prewett (inks, watercolours, oils). www.maryworks.co.uk/
2 Hollingbury Crescent, BN1 7HD
Aymer Actually: WEST HOVE TRAIL
New House: Following a diagnosis of Crohn’s disease Matt Goddard gave up his career in IT and started to take landscape photographs. His photographs of Sussex landscapes reflect his personal moments of peace and escapism, which have allowed him to leave the day-to-day behind and gain an improved sense of perspective.
Matt was shortlisted in the Landscape Photographer of the Year 2018. He will be joined by Helen Hodson (ceramics), McKenzie Bell (painter and Creative Feel Designs).
4 Aymer Road, Hove
Morris Nitsun: HOVE TRAIL
South African born successful artist and psychologist, Morris Nitsun, will be opening his house for the first time. His paintings, themed ”Dolls: the little people” are based on images of vintage dolls, exploring the tension between real and unreal, doll and person. Morris has exhibited extensively in the UK, most recently showing at Highgate Contemporary and Sally Hunter Fine Art Gallery in London
48 Stirling Place, Hove.
Full listings can be found at www.aoh.org.uk
For media information or images please contact:
Pandora George at Bullet PR [email protected], 01273 775520 (office) 07729 469220 (mobile)
Notes to Editors
About Artist Open Houses
Brighton and Hove Artist Open Houses, the originator of the Open House movement, date back to 1981 when an artist from the Fiveways area of Brighton, Ned Hoskins opened his house to the public to view his work, and that of a group of friends. Other artists in the area followed suit to form the Fiveways Artist Group. In a city full of creatives, the idea proved popular and soon Artist Open Houses sprung up all over the city.
The Artist Open Houses festival is now the largest event of its kind in the UK. Around 200 houses and studio spaces across the city open their doors for the main festival in May and around 60 open during the Christmas festival. Over 2,000 artists and makers share their work and homes each year.