Cultural Round Up: August Exhibitions
Installation view of Voyage at Morena di Luna
Sussex is a cultural epicentre, with a multitude of exhibitions, events, and performances happening every month. We have picked our 5 favourites for August, spanning prolific public galleries and smaller independent ventures.
Jane Merfield, Norwegian Fjord
Time Travel
A solo show from Jane Merfield
Meiklejohn Gallery, 1 Malling Street, Lewes
13 July - 24 August
“Memories are a sort of time travel,” says Jane Merfield. Created in her Sussex studio, remembered landscapes of Greece and Scandanavia have inspired the oil paintings included in this new solo show with the Meiklejohn gallery. Organic shapes, dreamy compositions and imaginative colour combinations create otherworldly abstract landscapes. Merfeild is drawn to spaces which have an unsettling atmosphere such as fjords, glassy lakes, and dusty cliff faces. Her paintings, with their vibrating yet often unusual colour combinations and bold high-contrast tones, relay this feeling of disconcertion. Yet Merfeild’s work has a playfulness too, the crisply contained forms are dynamic, the hues vibrant, the atmosphere transportive.
Still from Wilding
Wilding
Screenings at Towner Eastbourne Cinema
Throughout August
The Towner Eastbourne cinema is screening ‘Wilding’ throughout August. This film, based on Isabella Tree’s bestselling book of the same name, tells the story of re-wilding the Knepp Castle Estate. The failing ‘un-farmable’ estate was inherited by conservation trailblazers Isabella Tree and Charlie Burrell who allowed nature to re-take the land, battling entrenched tradition and local outrage along the way. The project’s enormous success has turned it into a beacon of hope for the regeneration of biodiversity in Britain and beyond. From the trailer, the atmospheric cinematography and theatrical storytelling makes a tale about rewilding a farm as thrilling and drama-packed as a fast-paced action movie.
Installation view of Frank Walter’s ‘spool’ paintings.
Voyage
Maureen Paley, Morena di Luna Gallery, Hove
Until 15 September
This otherworldly exhibition pairs artists from across continents and time periods. From Merlin James’ 1984 Boat and Doorway to Caspar Heinemann’s 2022 carboard sculpture Glorie #12, each piece is unmoored by specifics of time and place, instead building worlds which consider gender identity, self, and transcendence. Paley’s show draws these artists under the banner of ‘Voyage,’ a title and theme inspired by Georges Méliès 1902 silent movie Le Voyage dans la Lune. Paley feels that the absurdity and sublime nature of the film is shared by this collection of artists. Housed in the Georgian light-drenched Hove gallery, this mixed show is poetic and pensive.
Anne Rothenstein, Unknown Territory 1
Anne Rothenstein
Charleston, Firle
Until 13 October
Anne Rothenstein’s luminous paintings draw us in with their curious narratives and characters. She draws on personal experiences, memory and found imagery, creating uncanny pieces which combine everyday objects, figures, and abstract landscapes. Her poignant compositions and use of sinuous line, create pieces bathed in psychological atmosphere. Although often melancholic, her paintings have a graphic and playful nature in their off-kilter combinations of figures and space. Rothenstien creates instinctively, combining elements to tell herself a story, removing the ‘noise of the painting’ as she calls it, to get to the truth of what it’s trying to say.
This exhibition is the first showcase of her work in a UK institution and includes both collages and paintings.
Installation view of Phoebe Cummings’ Sculptures
Phoebe Cummings: I Hear Myself With My Throat
Pallant House Gallery
Until 20 October
This special installation in the gallery from Pheobe Cummings responds to the building itself. Using raw clay, Cummings’ has created large organic sculptures which mirror features of the 18th Century town house, the work exploring themes of fragility and impermanence. These delicate yet sizable pieces are created by hand, bearing the impression of her fingerprints. At the end of the exhibition, the sculptures will be destroyed and clay reused for Cummings’ next project. Both aspects are a comment on how humans interact with the natural world, leaving imprints and traces, the recycling of the material an intention to reverse our impact.