Art in my luggage

Just back from installing Stowage at the Barnaby Festival in Macclesfield. It's been an interesting challenge to take a show developed for a series of active retail premises in Exeter and re-make it for a single disused shop at the other end of the country. But Stowage was designed to be portable, so it's finally realised its full potential.

It was a busy few days, but we managed to fit in a flying visit to another Barnaby visual arts show: Save Us at Christ Church. Curated by Karen Gaskill, it features work by artists with links to Macclesfield, including Ian Davenport, David Shrigley, Nick Crow & Ian Rawlinson, as well as Stowage artists Hilary Jack and Ben Cook.

Stowage Shackleton & Sons, 2-4 Church Street, Macclesfield SK11 6LB until 2 July 2010
Save Us Christ Church, Bridge Street, Macclesfield SK11 6EG until 4 July 2010 (see website for opening times)

You, me and the rest of the world

Networking outside of Devon has been a big thing for me this year. I love living in the South West but, at a grass-roots level, it can be very inward-looking. So, in 2009, I got together with fellow Exeter artist Felicity Shillingford to find ways to strengthen links with practitioners in other parts of the country.

First up was Stowage, a chance for South West and North West artists to exhibit together in Exeter and Macclesfield, curated by the two of us. Then, along came an invite to help develop Nexus, an exhibition specifically about artists' networks, dreamt up by Exeter Phoenix curator Matt Burrows.

He wants to show the way Exeter connects with other locations via artists networks and has asked four local artists to invite two artists each to exhibit alongside us - one from the SW region, one from outside.

It's been hard to choose just two, but I decided to pick Rupert White, from Cornwall, who I made a connection with fairly recently via my art writing...and Sally Barker (Yorkshire via London), who emailed me out of the blue about four years ago, also on the back of a review I wrote.

Their work interests me in different ways. Rupert's seems to have strong points of connection with the nature/culture theme that's emerging for the show, while Sally builds models and other objects that often refer to landscape and/or the power structures surrounding artists.

My fellow contributors/selectors for Nexus are Felicity Shillingford, Volkhardt Muller and Francis Ives.

Nexus 16 July - 1 September, Exeter Phoenix, Gandy Street, Exeter EX4 3LS

Photos from 'Flown' at Greenway

Exeter on the art map

Two key Exeter art venues dominate the June edition of a-n magazine. Exeter Phoenix gets the front cover, featuring work by Fiona MacDonald, who is currently showing there with Ann Gathmann. Meanwhile while Spacex get a double-page spread on their show Random Acts of Art, where Volkhardt Mueller and Martha Crean talk about the collaborative relationship between artist and curator.

All will be well in the garden

First meeting of Nexus artists with curator Matt Burrows of Phoenix Galleries. Four Exeter-based practitioners, including me, have been tasked with putting together a coherent event that explores artists' networks and includes work from people in our networks, but which doesn't look like a traditional white cube show.

Our starting point has been some kind of garden landscape in which different work, events, conversations and interactions can take place. The discussion is lively and interesting but I keep catching echoes of Peter Sellers in Being There. "Sometimes plants escape from the garden," I'm saying. Or "The garden can be a series of enclosed spaces, where one space leads on to another."

Hmmmm.

Nexus, 16 July - 1 September 2010, Exeter Phoenix Galleries, Exeter EX4 3LS

Departure of Stowage, arrival of Strandbeest

Took down Stowage on morning of 15th May and packed it all up ready for transport to Macclesfield in June, where it will feature as part of the Barnaby Festival. For the time being, at least, I can focus on two other projects happening this summer: my own show Flown and a group event exploring artists' networks called Nexus.

Then on to the opening of Theo Jansen at Spacex. This Dutch artist and engineer creates amazing strandbeests (or beach animals). They are huge mechanical creatures, possessing basic nervous sytems, which are powered by the wind. A 14-metre strandbeest known as Ventosa Siamesis will arrive in Devon this summer to explore Exmouth beach 25-27 June, before visiting Exeter city centre 2-4 July.

The gallery houses artefacts, drawings and film relating to the strandbeests until 3 July.

Spacex, 45 Preston Street, Exeter EX1 1DF15 May–3 July.

Flights for Flown

Detail of one of three monotypes from a series Flown that will feature in my forthcoming exhibition at National Trust Greenway, near Brixham. It was made by tracing the flights of passing birds directly on to the window, then using the window surface as a printing plate.

Gabrielle Hoad: Flown 2 June - 27 June, Barn Gallery, National Trust Greenway, Devon TQ5 0ES