Granite and Gesso

This exhibition ends on the 15th August 2026. James Moir is a man who will be instantly recognisable to many people in the UK, but with a different name, Vic Reeves.  It is also curious that even more people would recognise his artistic humorous style without having any clue he is also the popular Jim'll Paint It.  As Jim'll Paint It he sells his computer produced art on t-shirts and the like. I find it really curious that he has these three identities and while he does not hide the connections, most people probably don't connect them all together.  I imagine it also really helped having a stage name to hang his fame on as he was building his name as an artist.  Of course, that would only have helped if he didn't meet people in person. There is not doubt now that he is an established and desirable artist.  His skill as a comedian only adds to his art and makes it more desirable to people at this point in his career.   I admit though, I often have issue...

This exhibition runs until the 4th October 2026. This was an interesting set of displays in the Active Archive at the Box.  The art community created around the Arts University has changed considerably in the 170 years it has existed.  The pieces exhibited showed how things change and some of the stories of the community. I think the story that stood out most to me was the story of young women at the university.  In the 30s, women attending took part in women's crafts which was promoted as a way to earn a living and an enjoyable thing to do in your spare time.  In the 60s, if a woman was successful in their application, their acceptance letter would be addressed to their father.  If a man was successful, their acceptance letter was addressed to them.  The age of legal adulthood was not lowered to 18 until 1973 but women were seeing as being more dependant.  The first female apprentices in the art printing department were not accepted until 1973. ...

This exhibition closes on the 4th October 2026. In a smaller room, at the top of the stairs, lit up panels are alive with a huge variety of art.  the art is selected entries from the open competition the Box ran this year for children and young people ages 0 to 25 years old.  Anyone from Cornwall, Devon, Somerset and Dorset could enter using any medium they wanted.  The theme was art and emotion. A few three dimensional pieces were displayed in cabinets to the immediate left and right of the entrance.  There was a film entry shown on a screen to the left.  All the other submissions chosen for display had been reproduced on to the backlit panels.  This took away some of the variation in size and medium that would have existed in the original submissions, but it did make the pieces more equal in some ways.  They ere displayed from floor to ceiling.   It was a fascinating and incredible display, with a huge range.  I would absolutely want t...

This exhibition closes on the 21st October 2026. This is a film being shown in the media lab that runs for 7 minutes and 9 seconds.  It shows across five screens but there are only two versions, so it is fairly easy to watch.  There are two aspects to the film.  The audio and the visual. The audio is an interview with Dr Gray Atherton, a psychologist from the University of Plymouth.  In the interview, she talks about how children learn to make associations and connections from a very early age.  Connecting with others is vital for our survival.  Babies learn to recognise smiles before they learn to recognise anger, they learn to smile early.  We need others to survive, we need to connect, we need to bond.  We learn to recognise genuine affection.  We do all this long before we learn language. The visual is taken from Pro Grip, the UK arm wrestling championship which was shown on TV in 1990.  It's a curious film, something I know nothing ...

This exhibition closes on the 4th October 2026. This exhibition is upstairs in three galleries.  Her paintings are huge and colourful and very abstract.  There was some quotes on the walls as well and one of these was "Painting is a visual thing, and that's it.  People like to understand, and I wish they wouldn't!  I wish they'd just look!" For me, this is the whole problem I had with this exhibition.  I am really, really driven to understand.  It's incredibly important to me.  If I can not understand it, then I need to find it attractive.  If I don't find it attractive and I can not understand it, I just don't know what to do with something.  It's like I don't have a hook to get inside.  It leaves me a little lost and confused. Those paintings of Gillian Ayres that I liked, I really really liked.  A combination of the colours and shapes that just worked and fit what I liked.  The rest of the paintings, I just don't really know...

This exhibition finishes on the 20th September 2026. This exhibition features works from the government collection and is on display in St Luke's, opposite the main Box building.  The Government Collection is a fascinating thing.  It was established in 1899 and consists of nationally owned artworks.  These artworks grace the walls of national buildings, from no.10 Downing Street, British Embassies, Government Departments and the residencies of British Ambassadors, High Commissioners and Consulates-General.  The collection is also on loan to many other organisations, from shopping malls, libraries and sports venues.  The collection currently is on display across more than 125 countries. New works by British artists or that reference British life continue to be collected.  The collection is seen as a soft form of diplomacy and is used to present our national identity around the world.  It is an important national resource that many people have no idea e...

The sculptures in this art trail can be seen until September 13th 2026.  The lighthouses will be auctioned on the 1st October 2026. St Luke's is a hospice in Plymouth providing end of life care.  It entirely relies on charitable donations in order to keep running.  The proceeds raised by this art trail will ensure St Luke's continues to have the funding it requires to provide it's invaluable services but it is also a great community event. The centrepiece of the exhibition is a series of lighthouses installed around the city.  Over a hundred artists submitted their ideas of how they would like to decorate the lighthouses.  The charity in partnership with the event sponsors, selected the successful entries.   The resulting 40+ large lighthouses have been placed all over the city.  The most northerly on is at the main train station and they stretch downwards from there in a rough triangle to the sea.  The western most corner is at Royal William...

This exhibition closed on the 1st August 2026. I have done a lot of thinking about this exhibition and I have come to conclusion that I was very lucky to see a version of it, even if it was not the iteration of this exhibition that most perfectly meets the artists vision.  This exhibition was initially shown at the Focal Point gallery in Southend and was in more than one different space with four films on in rotation on a big screen as well.  It is clear the  full environment of each space was fully considered and implemented in the original version. It must be incredibly difficult to take an exhibition meant for a larger space laid out in a very different way and present it in a very different space that is much smaller.  KARST is a small independent art gallery that really impresses in it's ability to secure very high quality art.  This is not an art gallery that is able to move walls for each exhibition.  It has a fixed layout and the services are as th...