Nottingham Articles, Interviews and Features

Tender Coven: The Monthly Subscription Box That Merges Wxtchcraft and Support for Emerging Artists

Alex Stubbs catches up with artist, curator and educator Wingshan Smith to discuss Tender Coven, an online community and monthly...

Street Art or Graffiti? Why Banksy's Notts Visit Shouldn't Distract from the City's Own Artists

24 October 20

Alex Kuster looks at the recent media circus surrounding Banksy's visit to Notts, and why local street artists aren't treated with the same level of respect...

Nottingham Contemporary is Reopening with Grace Before Jones: Camera, Disco, Studio

15 October 20

Art Preview: The Near Room at Bonington Gallery

16 October 20

Muhammad Ali described “The Near Room” as a mental space he would enter during a boxing match – an otherworldly state where you are accutley aware of your own mortality. Sophie Cundale’s new moving-image work, The Near Room (2020), gives substance to this imagined space. Set in a vivid hallucination in the mind of a disorientated boxer, The Near Room muddles historic references with the fantastical and supernatural...

Lakeside Art's Djanogly Gallery Reopens with Mat Collishaw Exhibition

16 October 20

After closing doors in March due to the pandemic, Lakeside Arts will be reopening from Saturday 17 October with the first major solo exhibition of a Notts-born contemporary artist…

Review: The 2020 Harley Open

12 October 20

Kelly Holmes headed to the picturesque Welbeck Estate to check out the 2020 Harley Open at the Harley Gallery

Exhibition Review: Lost Stories at Surface Gallery

07 October 20

Kelly Palfrey headed down to Surface Gallery to check out their latest exhibition, Lost Stories...

MOAN Zine on Female Pleasure, Illustration and This Month's Cover

18 September 20

Since 2018, MOAN has been exploring female pleasure through the perspective of women. After two successful issues and this month’s LeftLion cover, we chat to the woman behind it all about how it all began, receiving and illustrating stories around desire, and what the future holds for MOAN...

The Chimera Plantarium Project Are Working with Primary School Kids to Create Art

17 September 20

Lenton locals may have spotted the remnants of The Chimera Plantarium Project on Church Drive. Two vividly coloured and curiously shaped murals command a presence that hints towards their leafy beginnings and leaves passers-by turning their heads. They are just some of the work delivered by artist Chiara Dellerba and the children from Years 5 and 6 at Edna G. Olds Academy, as part of Primary’s Making Place project. Working together, they explored and created artwork based on the idea of spontaneous plants – wild, urban flora. Spontaneous plants are resilient creatures and their perseverance to thrive almost anywhere, even in abandoned, overlooked, or routinely neglected areas, is something us humans could learn from. We spoke to Chiara, to find out more about the project…

Leading From the Back: The Backlit Artists Creating Exciting Projects

18 August 20

From its three-story base in the heart of Sneinton, BACKLIT is home to more than eighty studio artists, spanning a diverse range of practices, including fine art, contemporary craft and creative businesses. The independent, artist-led gallery has provided affordable studio spaces for artists, graduates and emerging local talent for almost twelve years. With the studio currently still closed to the public, we took a look around to find out more about some of their exciting artists, including what they’ve been up to during lockdown...

Under Cover Artist: Stuart Jones

05 August 20

We’re back in print with a bang, and Stuart Jones’ cover – a love-letter to all things print – is the cherry on top of this 48-page cake. We chat with this month’s cover artist to find out more about his work...

Nottingham Arts Mela Returns to the New Art Exchange for Its 32nd Year

04 August 20

As Nottingham Mela Network, in partnership with New Art Exchange, gets ready to celebrate the 32nd year of Nottingham Arts Mela in the UK, Alex Stubbs previews the exciting, eclectic online programme of cooking, films featuring South Asian diaspora worldwide, music, dance, debates, poetry and spoken word, family art workshops, murals, archives activated, morning raags and yoga…

Exhibition Review: Dot Dot Dash

27 July 20

Ewan Cameron checked out Dot Dot Dash, Surface Gallery's eclectic online exhibition which is still available to view...

Art Works: Naa Ahinee Mensah

21 July 20

Artist Naa Ahinee Mensah tells us about her George Floyd triptych...

Art Works: Kai-Yan Lai

11 July 20

After bagging success at the Young Creative Awards, Kai-Yan Lai has earned himself a successful career behind the camera...

Exhibition Review: Aftermath at Nottingham Contemporary

09 July 20

With its usual venue of The Space out-of-bounds due to COVID-19, Alex Stubbs checked out Aftermath - the annual Nottingham Contemporary-hosted exhibition held in collaboration with Trent students - as it moved exclusively online for the first time...

Exhibition Review: Sets and Scenarios at Nottingham Contemporary

09 July 20

Alex Stubbs reviews Sets and Scenarios, Nottingham Contemporary's latest online installment curated by the students of the Royal College of Art’s MA Curating Contemporary Art programme

Stop Wars to Stop Racism: The History Behind Belward Street's Iconic Street Art

24 June 20

For years, Richie 'Pops' Baker's 'Stop Wars' design stood as one of Nottingham's most recognisable and iconic street art pieces. Having recently been reimagined as the new 'Stop Racism' piece, the artist, who now calls New Zealand home, explains the history behind his design...

Isolation Art Mail Allows You to Work Creatively with Others Through the Post

16 June 20

In a bid to inspire creative communication through traditional, tangible methods, Tracey Meek is combating loneliness and isolation the old-fashioned way. We caught up with the artist to discuss Isolation Art Mail, her community art intervention project that encourages people to share a collaborative chain letter of unfinished artwork...

5 Nottinghamshire Artists You Can Support from Home

13 June 20

Back in mid-March, before our lives took an unexpected turn, Nottingham Contemporary hosted a fair celebrating all things print. It was my last cultural day out, and with a variety of workshops and some thirty stalls to browse, it did not disappoint. The fair introduced me to many talented makers based here in Nottingham, and now, without galleries to visit, it’s a great time to bring art into the home, while supporting Nottingham’s creative community. Here are a few of the featured artists, whose works are available for purchase…

To Be Continued: Sensing Systems So Far

26 May 20

Technologist and digital artist Matt Woodham had spent months gearing up for his debut solo exhibition, Sensing Systems, at Bonington Gallery at the beginning of the year, which was unfortunately cut short by the pandemic. This page space had initially been blocked out for a retrospective look on a key cultural moment in Nottingham. Now, our Music Editor Eileen Pegg, speaks to the artist about how he has managed to assemble and reassemble the show in a new form…

Interview: Corrina Rothwell on Life as an Artist and the End of Blather

18 May 20

After almost two years of unleashing the manic brilliance of writer Adrian Reynolds in an illustrative fashion, our regular feature, Blather, sadly came to an end last month. Instead of getting all melancholy about things, we chose to celebrate its time between the pages by catching up (over email, of course) with the local lady behind the brushes: Corrina Rothwell. Under the spotlight we get chatting about Blather’s beginnings, the pleasures and perils of being an artist and the inspirations behind her brand of explosive abstract workings.