Events

At the beginning of this year, which seems a lifetime ago, I asked for submissions to an Open exhibition which I was planning to hold in the gallery this summer – then everything came to a halt. So I’m pleased to say that the exhibition is finally opening on Saturday 12^thSeptember and will run until Sunday 25^thOctober. In the event of a further lockdown that prevents physical opening of the shop, the paintings and artist statements will all be on the website on the homepage and on the events page, and a video of the exhibition will be posted on YouTube.

Organising this has not been like any other exhibition at Town House. In the early days of lockdown the submissions started to arrive and because the theme for the exhibition was the East End I found many of them very moving. For all of us involved the exhibition became something special; certainly a light at the end of the tunnel and something to look forward to, but also a chance to relate to something in lockdown that clearly means a lot to many people. The exhibition took on a sense of community, even though all of this was being conducted by email, and it is something you can feel as you read the artists’ statements now. 

There is a wide range of styles and subjects. There are many local landmarks and favourites of course: Arnold Circus, Leila’s shop, Fournier St, stations, pubs, the docks and the river (the East End theme acquired a certain elasticity as time went on and I became keen to include everyone who had submitted). Many of the paintings inevitably look at the heritage of the East End and the issues facing it today, but they use interesting and sometimes humorous ways to do so. One artist has been locked out of his studio since the beginning of lockdown and re-submitted with an entry that reflects his original focus on domestic isolation, but now with added layers referencing his own mental state, the effect of lockdown and the perceived threat outside the safety of the home. By chance the threat he has used, fire, was also what led to the naming of Brick Lane with the demand for bricks in the aftermath of the Fire of London, so I decided it has an East End theme.

Some of the artists are well known and some less, and I’m delighted to welcome back previous exhibitors here Doreen Fletcher, Eleanor Crow, Marc Gooderham, Nicholas Borden, Peta Bridle and Louise Burston and to meet the new ones. These are tough times for artists, please support them and that doesn’t have to be by buying: visiting the exhibition, commenting on social media or following them there will all help to show support and convince them it’s worth carrying on. I think all of us have doubted the future course of exhibitions, painting and art in general over the past few months.

Above all enjoy the exhibition, I’m really looking forward to seeing all these hung together in the gallery here and to welcoming you here.

Just to re-assure you there is a foot operated hand sanitiser on entry to the shop and another in the gallery, all staff will be wearing visors and although the coffee shop will be open again and ready to serve cake, in accordance with the guidelines there will be no access to the kitchen itself for the time being. 

Submissions date extended to April 30th!

Town House is having an Open exhibition this summer! The aim is to encourage as many artists as possible to submit as I want to have a wide range of artists’ work here over the summer, with many different interpretations of the East End theme. So please tell anyone you know about it who might be interested

It is open to residents of the UK who wish to submit an original painting in oil, acrylic or watercolour  up to A1 in size or an original (portable) sculpture. Submissions end on 5th April and for more details and the submission form see

http://bitly.com/THOpen20 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’m delighted to announce a selling exhibition of the East End paintings by Peri Parkes – the latest in a series of exhibitions here showcasing East End artists from the later 20^th century. Peri was living and working in Bow from the late 1970s to the early 1990s and, having trained at the Slade when William Coldstream was still its head, Peri’s work is very much of the ‘through the window’ Euston Road School. The early series of the backs of houses in Conder Street are meticulously recorded with luminous washes of paint, before he moves on to a series of paintings of city skylines and some familiar local landmarks prior to his departure for Cornwall in 1993.

The exhibition runs from 22^nd November – 8^thDecember and please get in touch if you’d like any further information

 

An exhibition to accompany publication of the book of the same name featuring over eighty of Eleanor’s watercolours from the book, including some new ones

At a time of momentous change in the high street, Eleanor’s witty and fascinating personal survey champions the enduring culture of Britain’s small neighbourhood shops. Eleanor’s collection includes eighty of her watercolours of the capital’s bakers, cafés, butchers, fishmongers, greengrocers, chemists, launderettes, hardware stores, eel & pie shops, bookshops and stationers. Her pictures are accompanied in the book by the stories of the shops, their history and their shopkeepers – stretching from Chelsea in the west to Bethnal Green and Walthamstow in the east.

The watercolours are £150 framed (A5) and larger ones are £210 framed.

The exhibition opens on the 3rd October with a book launch and signing that evening 6 – 8pm and the exhibition continues at Town House until Sunday 20th October.

Inspired by Spitalfields’ place at the heart of textile design in the past, Town House has
brought together three contemporary designers and makers for this year’s Shoreditch Design
Triangle. Each of them uses a different medium, but they are all re-interpreting textile
pattern, use and design in their work, to stunning effect.

Mary Norden takes the Japanese tradition of repairing and reusing textiles and re-works
pieces of vintage fabric by patching and stitching them together to create stunningly bold
abstract images. The layers of fabric and stitching she creates are matched by the layers of
history of the individual fabrics and each piece is accompanied by a brief narrative of all the
fabrics used, including their age and original use.

Janet Tristram and Cameron Short also work with fabric and are the artist craftsmen behind
Bonfield Block-Printers in Dorset. Every piece, whether it’s a coat, print or textile design is
imbued with an idea stemming from their love of the sea, rural life and folklore. For their
beautiful coats they use ideas from historical clothing and costume, but combine this with a
strong narrative and visual element in the printed linings. Their fabrics combine the rhythms
of natural and rural life with the repetition that is the essence of printed textiles.

Layers of narrative are also a strong element in Katrin Moye’s ceramics and for Edit 19
Town House has commissioned a collection of her work using Spitalfields’ silk designs as
the inspiration for their surface decoration. Katrin is attracted to the sinuous leaves, flora and
decorative elements which are a core part of the Spitalfields silk weavers’ designs and she
echoes the hand of the maker that is ever present in all of these pre-machine age pieces, using
a dark chocolate-brown, earthenware body which then has a thin, white slip poured over it
from a jug to make the ground for hand painted decorations. The slip has a way of dripping
and pooling, hiding and revealing the dark clay underneath which makes a lively, contrasting surface for the delicate painted decoration.

Patch, Pot, Print opens 11am Tuesday 17th September and runs to 5pm Sunday 29th September.

Late night opening Tuesday 17th September until 8.30pm