Tag archives for Gareth Stevens
A Sense of Place
GARETH STEVENS talks to painter James MacKinnon Courtesy of the artist At times, the best visual artists I get to know are not always especially articulate about what they are…
Music for Justice
GARETH STEVENS meets Suman Joshi, the mastermind behind Eparapo’s stunning new album. Suman Joshi, whose bass playing is very much in demand by a number of African and Latin bands…
RESEARCH & Development
GARETH STEVENS talks to Anthony Elliott whose exhibition, RESEARCH, is currently being held at The blackShed Gallery. Anthony Elliott Sometimes, you come across art that has no recognisable precedent and…
Gates to Heaven
GARETH STEVENS reviews the stunning work of Yun Hyong-keun, currently on show at Hastings Contemporary. The ambivalence I have towards abstract art has always baffled me. The fact that I…
Refugee Week 2023
GARETH STEVENS This year’s Refugee Week in Hastings, Rother and Wealden will launch on Sunday 18 June at at the Hastings Contemporary. The sheer span of the events and activities…
Art For Health
GARETH STEVENS gives an update on recent news from Arts On Prescription. Arts on Prescription has gone from strength to strength since it was initially founded in 2019. AOP delivers…
Education Matters
Gareth Stevens introduces a new education section in Hastings Independent. The great American philosopher, psychologist, and educational reformer John Dewey once said that “Democracy has to be born anew every…
Touching Eternity
GARETH STEVENS meets with Babalola Yusuf whose exhibition “The Quality of Eternity is ((is now))” is currently at Flatland Projects gallery in Bexhill on Sea. There’s a well-worn trope in…
We Out Here
GARETH STEVENS reviews a groundbreaking exhibition at Hastings Contemporary. Since the murder of George Floyd in May 2020 and the global upwelling of the Black Lives Matter, there is little…
Spirit in the Mass
Gareth Stevens reviews the Soutine | Kossoff exhibition currently running at Hastings Contemporary and argues that it is a ‘must see’ show. Kossoff, Building Site, 1961, Property of a European…
Bigger and Better
GARETH STEVENS talks with two ceramicists whose vision for a community-based project is to expand into a huge new space which will enable them to extend their reach. Having already…
Community Housing Through Collective Effort
GARETH STEVENS and MERLIN BETTS Recently I met with Sarah Gomes Harris, a co-founder of the Hastings Rental Health (HRH) campaign, set up by a group of renters “fed up…
Rolling Thunder
GARETH STEVENS explores the power and ritual of community drumming and the historical tradition of taking it to the streets. Organising an outdoor carnival parade on a Sunday in mid-February…
An entanglement of roots
Gareth Stevens attends the launch of an exciting new publication produced exclusively by a group of young migrants in St Leonards. What do we actually mean by the word local?…
No place like home
BY GARETH STEVENS Emily Allchurch’s upcoming show, ‘Closer to Home’, is a tenderly crafted love letter to the East Sussex countryside and the antecedent artists who have shared her preoccupation…
Hotels of Shame
Gareth Stevens uncovers the horrific truth hidden in a Hastings hotel. On November 8, the Refugee Buddy project (RBP) found out by chance that a hotel in Hastings had been…
Enfolded by Nature
Gareth Stevens engages with Stephanie Fawbert’s new exhibition Being in the natural world and forging a relationship with it, is vital for wellbeing and, for Stephanie Fawbert, it is the…
Café of Sanctuary
Gareth Stevens talks to Rossana Leal and Yeser Mohammed at the Refugee Buddy Project’s new Dove Café on Bexhill Road. In a month in which a government minister conceded that…
Souls o’ the Drowned
Gareth Stevens visits a new exhibition with strong maritime undercurrents at the De La Warr. Can’t You See the Sea Changing? features work produced over the last 14 years by…
Contemporary at Ten
2022 is the ten-year anniversary of the gallery that is now Hastings Contemporary. To mark the event, they are currently hosting three major exhibitions each of which, says Gareth Stevens,…
Site number: 102222
By Gareth Stevens Kenton Lowe, the director of blackShed Gallery is always keen to swerve from the script. He always does things a little differently. Site number: 102222 is an…
Ghost of Hogarth
By Gareth Stevens Mark Spelman says that his exhibition is a conversation between him, a destitute drunk he saw in Elephant & Castle, and the ghost of William Hogarth who…
Getting Around to it
By Gareth Stevens I have been meaning to write this article for some time, but told myself I first need to undertake some concerted field research. Yes, I have been…
Mine’s a Double
By Gareth Stevens Whiskey and Soda, a new play by Ben Randall who currently lives in Peasmarsh, is set in December of 1979 at the British Embassy in Washington DC.…
All at Sea
By Gareth Stevens It is perhaps apt that, in the year in which Hastings Contemporary celebrates the 10-year anniversary of the building it inhabits, it chose to host an exhibition…
A Giant Leap to Addiction
Gareth Stevens talks to the filmmaker Ben Cole whose feature length documentary Talking Addiction is being screened at the Electric Cinema on Friday 8 July. Despite starting his professional life…
Rules for Radicals
It is fifty years this June since the American leftish activist Saul Alinsky died. Gareth Stevens revisits his classic handbook of pragmatic advice for those organising positive social ; I…
Jazz Experience
By Gareth Stevens Near Jazz Experience were never a consequence of premeditation. Like the improvised set that they performed at Kino-Teatr on a March Saturday, the band just happened. Just…
Meeting the Old Master
Gareth Stevens spends an afternoon with avant garde composer George Newson. Stone-in-Oxney sits atop an ‘island’ hill in the otherwise relentless flatland of the Romney Marsh. The village is the…
Covid, Mother of Invention?
By Gareth Stevens It is often said that necessity is the mother of invention. Whilst lockdown has had a catastrophic effect on art exhibition schedules, and led to all galleries…
Witchcraft on the Stade
Review by Gareth Stevens It is always a ‘pinch yourself’ moment to sit in the East Hastings Angling Association club at The Stade and to realise that in such a…
Shadows from the Durbar Hall
Gareth Stevens previews an exhibition of works by Monika Veriopoulos at the blackShed Gallery, Robertsbridge - 12 February - 5 March. Monika Veriopoulos was born in Athens in ; She…
Are Animals Necessary?
Gareth Stevens profiles Hastings’ musician Keith Rodway and his new album Despite having always been obsessed with music, Keith Rodway tells me that he only really became actively involved in…
A Very Live Parrot
Gareth Stevens reviews ‘Parroting’, a multi-media exhibition by Josie Rae Turnbull and Kate Tipler currently at Zuzushi Art Laboratory. The significance of this exhibition is multi-layered and complex. A subtle…
14 Months of Solitude
Gareth Stevens previews an upcoming group show by four Hastings based photographers at Electro Studios Project Space. Many local artists from across the range of creative endeavours have alchemically developed…
Rest, Observe and Listen
By Gareth Stevens Many would forgive Nancy Odufona for politely declining the opportunity to prepare a one person show at BlackShed Gallery. After a tough academic year, she recently landed…
Fishing Families Caught on Camera
Gareth Stevens reviews John Cole’s book of photographs: Generations: Hastings Fishing ; The great photojournalist Robert Capa once said that “If your pictures aren’t good enough, you aren’t close enough”.…
Flip The Script
Following a successful exhibition at Bermondsey Project Space in London, in partnership with The Good Governance Institute, Tim Nathan brings his large format seascape photographs home to the Lucy Bell…
BlackShed voted Best Gallery in Sussex
Gareth Stevens, who has a long association with blackShed, discusses with gallery director Kenton Lowe what winning the Muddy Stilettos Award means for ; The Muddy Stilettos lifestyle website came…
Vox Salva
GARETH STEVENS reviews Juliet Russell’s breathtaking new album: Vox Salva. Like us all, I truly appreciate the depth and breadth of musical talent that we have in our town, but…