Christmas Hours

The OHOS office will be closed on Wed 24 Dec, Fri 26 Dec, and Wed 31 Dec, as the administrators are away, but post, email and phone messages will be checked every few days. 
Also, there will be no arjeea21 meeting on 1 January, so next one is on Thursday  5 February 2015

In the meantime....

***A VERY HAPPY CHRISTMAS AND NEW YEAR TO ALL!***

Monster Club - OHOS artist Prabhat Basu Exhibition in Birmingham

                
Opening Event
Friday 7th November 4.30 – 8.30pm
Artists talk Sunday, 16th November 2.00pm
Open Daily from Saturday 8th November to Sunday 16th November.
11.00am – 5.00pm Monday to Friday
12.00pm – 5.00pm Saturdays and 12.00pm – 4.00pm Sundays

The Works Gallery, Jubilee Centre, 130 Pershore Street, Birmingham B5 6ND

Monster Club is a visual art exhibition of Monster themed work, including drawing, painting and sculpture as well as performance based film.  The artists bought together for this exhibition have created work that encompasses the idea of the monster. Their interest may be something innate and deeply rooted in perhaps a childhood passion for exploring or depicting a monster or masked character of some sort. The exhibition explores aspects of fear and the uncanny, as well as humour, the absurd and the fantastical. The artists tap into their passion for literary and cinematic monsters, folk stories and allegorical tales. They are conjured up and imagined, they are a dip into the pool of childhood play and the grown up performance of art. The monster makers in the show create a conversation with themselves, the other monsters makers and with you!

The monster makers come together from Birmingham and Loughborough, London and Kolkata. They include regional, national and international artists, recent graduates and current students from the School of Arts at Birmingham City University and Loughborough University. The exhibition also includes the work of a diverse group of young artists aged 8 -16 from a local art club run by Friction Arts.

The Artists: Alexi K, Amelia Seren Roberts, Andy Newman, Craig David Parr, David Miller, Hannah Honeywill, Ian Andrews, Matthew Krishanu, Ole Hagen, Paul Langford, Paul Newman, Prabhat Basu, Rafal Zar, Rebecca Nuttall, Sarah Fortes Mayer, Shelley Hughes, Yuyu Wang and the young artists of Friction Arts Saturday Art Club.

Monster Club is curated by Birmingham based artist Paul Newman. Paul has exhibited at The Jerwood Drawing Prize and Marmite Painting Prize 2012 as well as Painting Show at Eastside Projects in 2011. He is a previous prize winner at The West Midlands Open 2012 and Nottingham Castle Open 2011.

MONSTER CLUB is funded by A Grant for the Arts, Arts Council England and supported by Friction Arts and The Midlands Industrial Association.

Parcel Fever Comes to Town! - Constellation at Reading Museum - Friday 24th October 2014 5:30pm - 7:30pm

A trail of dynamic art, theatre and site-specific installations will spread throughout Reading town on Friday 24th October 2014

Parcel Fever Comes to Town –  Is OPEN HAND OPEN SPACE ARTISTS contribution to this important annual arts extravaganza.

A Live exhibition that unveils its self bit by bit... OpenHand OpenSpace's amazing collection

of artists, will be bringing a series of ‘parceled up’ art work to the museum entrance. Each

'gift' will be unwrapped as a live experience, and the exhibition will gradually grow before

your eyes. The artists will be on hand to discuss their work.

 

The Big Draw - A National Event - The Keep Sunday 19th October 2014

Join artists Martin Stubbington and Ingrid Jensen on a drawing adventure at The Keep this weekend. Try different drawing methods and materials working on large and small activities. All events are free, suitable for all ages and you are more than welcome.

365 drawings 365 dessins

Click here for an album of the Open Day

Last week at the Keep, curators Cally Trench and Tineke Bruijnzeels brought together their year-long drawing project.  This included the work of 51 guest artists from England, France and Switzerland, many of whom gave talks and performances.  About 100 visitors participated in lively discussions and a sumptuous banquet.  Many thanks to all who made this event such a success!  For anyone who missed it, there will be another chance to see the drawings at  La Galerie d’Anières,  near Geneva in Switzerland,  4 - 17 May 2015.
www.365drawings365dessins.co.uk

The Boundless Museum at Reading Museum: The Last Week!

Join OHOS artist Jon Lockhart at Reading Museum for the final week of his Arts Council England funded exhibition: The Boundless Museum. Open Tuesday-Friday 10am-4pm.

Drawing for Beginners

Wednesdays 7.30 - 9.30pm,  24 September, 1, 8, 15 and 22 October
Tutor: Ingrid Jensen.  www.imjensen.co.uk
Ground floor of the Keep.  £60 for five sessions, or £13 for each one. 
Enjoy drawing, build skills and confidence, explore techniques and materials.  Basic materials provided.  Booking essential

You Only Look Once

Exhibition of Fine Art Photographic works
Saturday 6 September 2014, 7-10pm
Maggie Shannon (New York), Baoyang Chen (Beijing), Rehan Miskci
Curated by www.youonlylookonce.org

OpenHand OpenSpace
Brock Keep, 571 Oxford Road, Reading RG30 1HL
Free entry, free parking behind the Keep (via Brock Gardens)

Exhibitions and Archive Assistant from the University of Reading

OpenHand OpenSpace was delighted to to appoint Lisa Barnard for the summer arts internship post kindly funded by the University of Reading.  Her official title is "Exhibitions and Archive Assistant" and she has been working very hard to bring new order to OHOS's 30 year archive.  All kinds of interesting documents and images have emerged from her researches, including photographs of a very young Douglas Gordon installing work in OHOS's car park in 1989.  Some of Lisa's finds will be displayed in the Keep during Heritage Open Days, 12 - 14 September 2014
http://www.heritageopendays.org.uk/directory/brock-keep
Lisa has also been an impressive source of help with other exhibition related tasks, and we hope she has gained much useful experience into the myriad tasks and skills needed to keep a small arts centre running smoothly.  Lisa will shortly be returning to her MA Fine Art course at the University of Reading, but we hope she will continue to be part of the OHOS community in future.

Graduate Platform Prize

Peter Driver's March for Optimism

Congratulations to OHOS artist Peter Driver and his colleague Kirsty Smith, both from Winchester School of Art, who have been selected by Aspex Gallery, Portsmouth as candidates for the Graduate Platform programme 2014. The five regional galleries (Turner Contemporary, Oxford Modern, Aspex, De La Warr Pavillion and MK Gallery) select two graduating artists from each university in their respective parts of the South East to show in a group exhibition, one artist is shortlisted by each gallery and eventually one of the shortlisted graduates is selected for a bursary, programme of professional development and solo show.  On Friday 5 September the Lord Mayor of Portsmouth will be previewing the exhibition at Aspex from 6-8pm.  The show runs until 9 November.
www.aspex.org.uk The prize shortlist will be announced in the autumn and the winner of the prize will be announced at Aspex Gallery, Portsmouth on 1 November.

Cornelia Parker, artist – portrait of the artist - Founding member of OHOS talks about her work

20th September 2014 - Save the Date - Jon Lockhart - Reading Museum Exhibition

Summer visitors to the studios

Trying out the artists' sofa!

In Kate Lockhart's studio

More young visitors from Springfield School visited OpenHand OpenSpace's studios in Brock Keep this summer.  They looked at paintings, sculpture and photographs, asked lots of questions about how the art was made, and found out about what it was like to be an artist.  The school is also taking the children on trips to London, so they had fun identifying some of the buildings in Kate Lockhart's paintings. 

tree little milk egg book

OHOS is pleased to present this exhibition of recent work by London-based artist Steve Perfect.  His drawings, photographs and books take the viewer on a thoughtful journey through urban "sidelands," making the most of what most of us overlook, and capturing small instances in  time and place.  His drawings are variously poignant, funny, glum, beautiful, puzzling - and altogether enjoyable.  Don't miss them!
Open 11am - 5pm Sat 14 - Sun 15, and Wed 18 - Sat 21 June 2014.
Closing event: Saturday 21 June 2.30 - 4.30pm: all welcome.
www.steveperfect.com

New Grounds

Big Boy, by Sarah Britten Jones

Letters from Overseas, by Gill Goodwin

Sand, by Katy Pike

Come and see "New Grounds" at the REME Museum of Technology, Isaac Newton Rd, Arborfield, Reading, Berkshire RG2 9NH.  Work by OHOS and arjeea21 artists responds to the activities of the Corps of Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, and has provided many new insights, and provoked some interesting discussions between artists, soldiers and museum staff.  Many thanks to Jennifer Allison, curator at REME Museum, and to Arts Council England for providing the supporting Grant.  There will be summer art workshops open to all - for details please see  www.rememuseum.org.uk and there is a catalogue with more information about each artist and art work.  For a review by the artist and curator Janet Curley Cannon please see www.artinthegreyzone.com
This summer is a good opportunity for Reading residents to see REME's excellent museum collection while it is nearby, before it moves to Lyneham in Wiltshire in 2015.

Test Pieces

"Test Pieces" was part of OHOS's partnership with the REME Museum of Technology, funded by Arts Council England.  The exhibition at the Keep examined the process of making models, drawings and small-scale sculptures in preparation for making larger work in both science and engineering.  It included examination pieces machined to fine tolerances by REME's apprentices, drawings of motors and other technical equipment, and explorations of artwork by the OHOS and arjeea21 artists commissioned to make work for the "New Grounds" exhibition at Arborfield.  It also showed some work by distinguished sculptor Eric Stanford - see image above of drawings and maquettes carved in stone made in preparation for much larger outdoor sculptures of Diana and Actaeon.

Springfield School visits OHOS studios and gallery

Students and their teachers from Springfield School visited OHOS at Brock Keep during West Berkshire and North Hampshire Open Studios.  They climbed up the tower to see two floors of artists' studios upstairs, talked to the artists and learned about the processes of making art.  They also spent some time in the ground floor gallery studying the exhibition "Hanging Tough" and making their own drawings.  All the year groups will be visiting during May and June in a programme coordinated by OHOS artist Kate Lockhart.

Open Studios and Hanging Tough exhibition

Artists Kate Lockhart, Mary Riley and Peter Driver discuss OHOS's May exhibition "Hanging Tough, showing work by current OHOS artists as part of West Berkshire and North Hampshire Open Studios.

March for Optimism in Winchester

OHOS artist Peter Driver leads a public procession through Winchester city centre celebrating optimism, acceptance and embrace of all humankind.  This work is part of a major project for Peter's degree show at Winchester School of Art, 16 - 22 June, 10am - 5pm.  A slide show was shown at OHOS's recent Open Studios exhibition "Hanging Tough, and some work from the project will also be on show at the The Bargehouse, Oxo Tower wharf, on the South Bank, Friday 11th - Sunday 13th July.
www.peterdriver.info
Winchester School of Art

Royal Holloway students shoot film at Brock Keep

In May OHOS was delighted to help out undergraduates from Royal Holloway, University of London when they were looking for a venue for their film project.  Their film was about an artist in his studio, so it was convenient for the students to tour OHOS's studios upstairs, looking for inspiration.  It was also easy for the artists to lend some props to give the film extra authenticity.  A good time was had by all, and we look forward to seeing the final production.

Reading and the Great War

OHOS artists were invited by the Friends of Reading University to organise a heritage display for their succesful and moving event commemorating "Reading and the Great War".  Because OHOS occupies Brock Keep in Reading it organises occasional exhibitions about the Royal Berkshire Regiment, for which the Keep was originally built.  The Rifles Museum in the Wardrobe, Salisbury kindly lent items for this event at the Institute of Education, London Road Campus.  Artists Anna Mitchell and Roxi Shields photographed some of the exhibits using photographic equipment bought with the help of Battle Community First.  Members of the public also brought in personal items for display and to be photographed.
Friends of Reading University
The Rifles Berkshire and Wiltshire Museum,
Battle Community First

OHOS at Reading Contemporary Art Fair 25 - 26 April 2014

Please join us at this super event that celebrates reading talent and also invites artists from all over the country to exhibit and to sell their work.

We are stall 35. You will not miss us!

Jon Lockhart Crippling the Blacksmith Part II: The Boundless Museum P.V Thur 17 April 6:30 - 8:00

Jon Lockhart
Crippling the Blacksmith Part II: The Boundless Museum
P.V Thur 17 April 6:30 - 8:00
Exhibition 22 April - 16 May
Thu - Sat 1-8pm, Sun 1-5pm (or by appointment)
The Bracknell Gallery, South Hill Park Arts Centre,
Berkshire, RG12 7PA
T: 01344 416240
E: kate.ratcliffe@southhillpark.org.uk
http://www.southhillpark.org.uk/15306/shows/crippling-the-blacksmith-part-two-the-boundless-museum.html

17th International Contemporary Artists' Book Fair

OHOS artist Ingrid Jensen is exhibiting with AMBruno at the 17th International Contemporary Artists' Book Fair at The Tetley in Leeds, 7-9 March 2014.  AMBruno is an alliance of artists that makes artists' books, short films and performance works based on current artistic thought, practice and sensibility.  It is led by Sophie Loss with help from many others, especially John McDowall
www.ambruno.co.uk

www.the tetley.org

Consultation - Thank you!

Very many thanks to all who helped with OHOS's successful consultation and activity days in February, especially the eight  history students from the University of Reading who volunteered to help as part of their second year course "Themes and Practice."  We gained much useful information from the hundred visitors who came over two days, and were delighted with the World War One information and artefacts brought in by the public.

Rotate Response - ASPEX Gallery, Portsmouth

OHOS Artist Jon Lockhart is exhibiting at Aspex Galley until April 2014.
The project involves four artists responding to each others work and spending time making within the gallery itself.

Community First Exhibition and Activity Days at The Keep 14th February

Community First Portraits workshop at Reading Museum 1 Feb 2014 1pm-3:30pm

Experience a working photographic studio within the Making Faces: Tudor to Modern exhibition at Reading Museum with OHOS artists Anna Mitchell and Jon Lockhart. Have your photograph taken and be transported digitally to a variety of exotic and familiar locations using editing software.
If you wish you can bring along a favourite object to add to your image and say something about you - like many of the people whose portraits feature in the exhibition. See our ongoing archive of 'The Faces of Reading'  here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/105138563@N02/sets/72157636464692784/

Next to Nothing

Excellent exhibition of  contemporary art by University of Reading students at the Keep.  Well done!
Watch out for their degree show in June, and find out more about the Department of Art at http://artreading.wordpress.com/

Next to Nothing

Wed 22 - Sat 25 January 2014Open Wed - Sat, 11am - 4pm, free entry, all welcome.
Private View: Friday 24 January, 6pmAn exhibition of contemporary artwork by Reading University students. Dan Coogan, Lucy Hatch, Ro McCarthy, Faye Nelson, Bethany Oram, Hannah Purvey Tyrer, Jamie Sorensen, Olivia Stagg, Will Wilford.

I'm Glad You're Alive!

14 - 18 January 2014, 11am - 5pm
New contemporary artwork by Peter Driver and Lydia Heath at the Keep seeks to establish a dialogue between their practices as they exhibit together for the first time.  Asking what it means to be politically motivated, they allow the relationships formed through the juxtaposition of their work to expose tensions, parallels and observations about the political and social implications of living in a complex world.

All welcome, free entry, free parking.