Art for Summer
Women’s Art
The current show at Barnaby’s Lounge in Robertson Street is Gaining Ground, an all-women’s art show curated by Louise Whitham, who says “This show feels like each work has a dialogue with the next. It’s a coherent and wonderful journey.” On till 2 May.
Tessa Thonett, Yellow Hat, Oil on Board, 2026
Fire and Ice Open Call
After that, Fire and Ice is the theme for the next Art exhibition at Barnaby’s. The Curator will be Tessa Thonett. She asks artists wherever they are to apply to her before the end of this month, though applicants will then have until the end of April to prepare their work.
Stables Art Gallery
After a career in graphic design, Melissa Hall has turned her focus to visual art, creating hand-cut paper collages that use wit and insight to explore local issues and social commentary. She’s also a realist painter working in both acrylics and oils, capturing architecture, landscapes, and everyday objects with precision and warmth.
This debut solo exhibition brings together both of her artistic passions in an engaging mixed-media showcase.
Flatland
Flatland presents Soft Encounters curated by Maggie Murray. The exhibition brings together the current cohort of artists taking part in the annual Flatland/De La Warr Pavilion Studio Development Programme, based at Beeching Road Studios.
Now in its third year, the programme is rooted in a simple proposition: that time, space and sustained conversation matter. It supports artists to stay with their work, to test ideas, return to material, and allow things to unfold at their own pace. Here, soft speaks not to weakness but to an alternative to hardness and certainty – an approach that values care, mutuality and porousness.
Hastings Contemporary
See detailed article by Nick and Helen Pelling, on the Open Odyssey in this section of Hastings Independent.
Electro Studios
Turps East Sussex Mentor’s Show and Open Day is an introduction to the Turps East Sussex Programme by Marcus Harvey, Helen Hayward and Laura Wormell. Everyone is welcome.
Turps East Sussex Programme is a mentoring programme for painters whose studios are based in East Sussex. Turps mentors visit participants in their own studios for one-to-one tutorials. Participants develop a supportive network of peers across the region through regularly scheduled group criticisms in Hastings and Brighton. Monthly artist talks will take place alternately at Hastings Contemporary and Phoenix Art Space throughout the academic year.
The Mentors Show consists of work by Matthew Burrows, The Baron Gilvan, Paula MacArthur, Joe Packer and Geraldine Swayne.
Gaining Ground: instagram.com/p/DViONn-CE3R/, Sussex Open: hastingscontemporary.org/events/odyssey; Soft Encounters at Flatland Projects, Unit 22 Beeching Road Studios, 20 Beeching Road, Bexhill, flatlandprojects.com; Melissa Hall Exhibition runs until 25 April in the Art Gallery at The Stables, Old London Road. Turps Open Day: Electro Studios, Seaside Road, St Leonards, 2-3 pm. Mentors Private view 3 – 6pm Saturday 14 March. Exhibition open 12 – 5pm, Saturday 14 and Sunday 15 March turpsbanana.com/turps-east-sussex
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