paintings by fiona moate

mura ma summer salon

an evening of poetry and conversation with Kate Feld, Rebecca Hurst and Christine Roseeta Walker

5 July, 7-9pm doors open 6.30pm

Mura Ma is delighted to present an evening of poetry and conversation hosted by three north west writers who will transport their readers from Greater Manchester to Jamaica, Vermont, and the Sussex Weald.

Kate Feld is the author of the chapbook of poetry and photography, Deeryard, published by Death of Workers Whilst Building Skyscrapers. Kate grew up in in the U.S. state of Vermont and now lives outside Manchester, UK. Deeryard is a book ‘with its heart located somewhere between Central Vermont and the West Pennine Moors’, and reflects Kate’s interest in poetry, short fiction, essays and prose that sits between forms.

Rebecca Hurst grew up in Sussex Weald, spent her formative adult years in Fort Worth, Texas, and now lives in Marple. She is a writer, opera maker, and researcher, and in March 2024 published her debut poetry collection The Iron Bridge. Her poems engage with art and artisanal making, archival practices, and place-making through embodied experience and imagined inheritances.

Christine Roseeta Walker is a Jamaican poet and novelist living on the outskirts of Manchester, England. Her debut book, Coco Island, is a collection of astonishing, alchemical poems that, in the words of Rachel Mann, ‘transmute the stuff of a Jamaican childhood and heritage into a language which both invites and quietly disturbs.‘ Christine’s poems are visceral and vivid, recreating childhood experiences with the keen wit and eye for detail of a born storyteller.

Following readings, the three writers will discuss transnational poetry, place-myth, and creative collaborations.

£8 per ticket includes refreshments.

an exhibition of paintings by Helen Thomas

3-18 May 2024, Artists Talk, Friday 17 May 7-8.30pm

Mura Ma is excited to be presenting a new body of work by Wakefield-based artist, Helen Thomas.

Helen is inspired by plants and their locales and her work specifically focuses on unplanned plants and organisms that grow haphazardly in carparks, on pavements, walls, edges of paths – the margins of our urban environment.

Helen Thomas is a contemporary British painter based in Wakefield, England. She graduated from Falmouth School of Art (BA Fine Art) and completed a year of postgraduate study with Turps Art School.

Now booking for artists talk Friday 17 May, 7pm-8.30pm £10 per ticket includes refreshments.

Precious Little Paintings in Manchester

4 – 23 April 2024

Paintings from our Precious Little collection will be on display  at 285 Deansgate, Manchester, including new works from Ghislaine Howard, Jen Orpin and Nan Collantine.

Featuring paintings by Sue Asbury, Nan Collantine, Rob Hall, Ghislaine Howard, Kate Jacob, Josie Jenkins, Joe Kiney-Whitmore, Alison Friend, Jen Orpin, Joe O’Rourke, Georgia Peskett, Jayne Simpson, Helen Thomas, Mike Thorpe.

 All are small paintings and are available in our online shop.  For the catalogue, see link below.

Studio 8 Collective

28 March – 20 April 2024

For the next four weeks, Mura Ma will be hosting a collective of 6 artists, who will be challenging the traditional presentation of art, by revealing the making, conversations and experimentation usually reserved for the artist’s studio.

Participating are six of eight members of Studio 8 Collective, Suzanne Bethell, Bernadette Bone, Sarah Connell, Mair Doyle, Suzie McDaniel and Yvonne Norworyta who will be developing new work and collaborating in the gallery space throughout the residency.

Visitors to the gallery are invited to witness the artists’ work in progress and meditate on the production of artwork under the unique conditions.

Open Thurs-Sat, 11am-4.30 pm

Artists’ Talk: 18 April 7-9 pm

Exhibition Finale; 18-20 April

Closing party 20 April 11 am-4 pm

Fiona Moate, Naqsh Raj, Vic Wright

8-23 March 2024, preview Thursday 7 March 7-9pm

An exhibition of artworks by three artists, Fiona Moate, Naqsh Raj and Vic Wright opens on Friday 8 March.

Titled, ‘Holding Up’ the exhibition draws together artists devoted to process, place and form and have each developed their own visual language in their art-making, be it painting or sculpture. 

Opening on International Women’s Day 2024, the theme of this exhibition has been inspired by the book of illustrations and writing by American artist Maira Kalman, called ‘Women Holding Things’.

The exhibition’s premise is to celebrate the idea of women holding space for art making.  All be it a something else to hold, it is for many artists, a place in which to escape, take refuge and for creativity to flourish.  Finding that time and place to create in the clamour of everyday life of things to hold and to carry.

 All work will be available, for an advance catalogue please email below.

Artists residency with Sophie Nixon and Nan Collantine

19 February – 1 March 2024

The gallery is closed during this period for an artists residency with Sophie Nixon and Nan Collantine. 

 Open day Friday 1 March 11am-4.30pm

To make an appointment to visit the artists’ work in progress please email below.

at 285 Deansgate, Manchester, 6 February – 5 March

An exhibition window on one of Manchester’s most iconic thoroughfares will feature monoprints and paintings by Stockport-based artist, Suzanne Bethell.

The works in Through the Eye of the Storm explore the artist’s immersion in the elements. Storms aren’t always grey affairs and Bethell’s paintings are vivid proof, transposing sensations of all kinds—not just visual—into a nuanced palette and gestural brushwork.

The paintings displayed are from the artist’s series These Moody Days (2022-2024); the monoprints alongside are from The Prussian Blue Winter (2018, ongoing) series. Originating in meditation practice, the monoprints were begun as Autumn faded into Winter, reflecting a pared-back time of stillness before regrowth. They share with the paintings a heightened affinity with seasonal time and the raw elements, and an awareness of how these enchant our interior life.

Rain breaks light apart, precipitating colour into the eye of the observer. 

Wind tugs at bodies with elastic cords, snapping back onto the skin with an acerbic bite of lemon.

The red thread of the last light flickers in the wind, unweaves itself from the horizon, and trails along wet streets behind cars and trams.

Friday 9 February, 7pm-9pm

Every other Monday starting 29 January

Join us for a shared creative session in which you bring your creative pursuits into the gallery and work alongside other makers, crafters and artists.

An evening to share a creative space, drink tea (other refreshments provided) and chat.

£5 donation.  Refreshments provided.

Drop in or book in advance.

Option to book five sessions for the price of four.

bi-weekly programme starts 20 January 2024

There are three places left on the Start your creative practice programme, starting in January 2024.

This is an in-person course for anyone who feels creative, who loves to make and create and would like to take it further and start their own creative practice. 

A supportive artist-run group that will encourage and nurture your first steps in finding what and how to start, and importantly, how to keep going. 

The emphasis is on independent and peer-group development that will form a strong support network for when you are developing your own ideas.

Starting on Saturday 20 January 2024,  and based at the gallery, the programme is a 3 month programme comprising 6 fortnightly sessions Saturday morning 9am-11.00am

First and last session is half a day from 9am-12.30pm

26 January – 10 February 2024

A new solo exhibition of paintings by Sheffield artist, Kate Jacob is the first exhibition of the year.

Titled “How to knit a nebula”, this will be our first exhibition of 2024.  Catalogue of works available from 7 January email using the button below to request.

The gallery is closed over Christmas and until 26 January.

Exhibition dates

26 January – 10 February 2024

Opening night: Thursday 25 January, 7pm-9pm

Artist talk:  Friday 9 February, 7pm-8.30pm

17/18/19 November

Mura Ma will be exhibiting at this year’s Manchester Contemporary.

We will be showing new work by three Mura Ma artists, Emma Richardson, Kate Jacob and Nan Collantine.

The Manchester Contemporary is a collegiate platform for young galleries, artist-led spaces, charitable organisations and partner institutions providing a critically engaged environment for artistic exploration and development.

Immerse yourself in art on 17-19 November 2023 at Manchester Central. 

OPENING TIMES

Friday 17 November 17:00-21:00 (Preview)
Saturday 18 November 10:00 – 18:00
Sunday 19 November 10:00 -16:00

Preview days 16/17/18 November

Opening night Thursday 23 November 7-9pm

with Cara MacWilliam and Candice Swallor

2-11 November 2023

Mura Ma is delighted to be handing over the gallery to the Jennifer Lauren Gallery for a  joint exhibition of artwork from Cara Macwilliam and Candice Swallows entitled Instinctive Energies.  There are some fantastic events to accompany this exhibition:

Saturday 21 October 2.00pm-4.30pm

Join us for a drink to celebrate the final day of Live with it!  This Saturday artists Jane and Nancy will be on hand to talk about the artists house installation and guide you around the exhibition.  

As exhibition concept Live with it will begin with a series of unseen performative elements, starting with the activation of the space with sculptures by Kat Button and Jane Fairhurst.  More than 40 artists have been featured in this blockbuster show, all of whom are artists practising in Manchester and surrounding areas, so this is a great way to see art made locally and by professional artists.

Gallery opens as usual at 11am and the party starts at 2pm.

Instinctive Energies with Jennifer Lauren Gallery

2-11 November 2023

Sunday 15 October 4-6pm

£20, 15 places available

David Roscoe-Rutter will guide you through a 2 hour workshop designed to help you understand the fundamental principles of photographing your artwork using your camera or smartphone for the purpose of promoting and selling your work through instagram or your website.

During this 2 hour creative workshop expect:
– A short presentation highlighting some of the key ways to get the most out of your camera phone
– Tips for composition and working with light
– Editing from your phone
– Posting to social media
Plus you will have the opportunity to ask questions and put your new found skills to the test by exploring the current exhibition ‘Live With It’ – artist’s house and art take away.

Artwork by Jane McKeating, photographed by Dave Roscoe-Rutter.

Wednesday 27 September, 7pm-8.30pm

£13.50 includes supper and drink

Sara Riccardi, founder of Art Across invites participants to actively inhabit the space, interacting with the pieces on display and developing a reflection on the relation between art and the home, as a physical and metaphorical concept.

We will consider artists who have integrally merged their domestic spaces and their art, such as the members of the Bloomsbury Group, and we will ask ourselves, and each other, questions around the aesthetic experience of the home, from a sensory to a philosophical point of view. What feels like home? What role does art have in this? What do we consider art within our living spaces?

The evening will be rooted in ultimately very simple concepts – those of home, safety, belonging, on the one hand, and those of creative expression and experience, on the other. Just like the exhibition itself, it will be an open-ended, co-created event.

A bowl of warm food and refreshments is included in the event price ticket.

Wednesday 4 October, 7pm-9pm

£25 

Unlock the secrets of using colour in the home with decorating and colour consultant Ashley Aspin.

This is an introduction to discovering the secrets of colour and how it influences our emotions and behaviours in the home.

How colour psychology and tonal colour harmony can be applied to great effect in your own living spaces. You’ll find out why you are drawn to certain colours over others and there will be plenty of hints and tips for creating colour schemes for the rooms in your own home.

£25 refreshments included.

Thursday 21 September 12-2pm

Free

Mura Ma artists monthly get together to discuss art, the scene, opportunities, ideas and bring along some work in progress – max ten people.  Bring some food to share, brews are on the house.

Email to confirm you are coming as numbers capped at 10 per meet up.

Wednesday 6 September, 7pm-8.30pm

Tickets £10

Learn more about the inspiration behind the Live with it exhibition from the co-un-curators, Jane Fairhurst and Nan Collantine.

This talk will investigate the home as a place of creative endeavour, observe and discuss the practice of collecting and arranging, and explore how domestic labour and caring can be reframed as valuable creative capital.

More facilitation than curation, Jane and Nan handed over the installation process for ‘Live with it’ to the artists themselves, beginning with a pre-booked installation slot.  Firstly though Jane activated the space with soft sculptures and invited another Cross Street artist Kat Button to join her.

Jane and Nan will consider their own roles in the process and refer to texts and  work of artists from the past that have fed into their thinking and the process of putting together the exhibition.

Delving into the work of Francis Bacon, the Art Povera movement, Kirsty Bell, Gaston Bachelard The Poetics of Space, Soetsu Yanagi The Beauty of Everyday Things, artist Sol Calero’s exhibition Casa Encontrada, Shaun McNiff, Trust the Process, this talk promises to be an enlightening evening of discussion.

Refreshments included.

2 September – 21 October

Preview Friday 1 September 7pm-9pm

Mura Ma has invited 30 artists from across the North help to co-create our latest exhibition, ‘Live with it’ – an art installation, exhibition, performance piece, art take-away and home store rolled into one to explore the idea of the home as an artistic practice. 

Facilitated by artists Jane Fairhurst and Nan Collantine, who have handed over the installation process to the artists themselves, Live with it will begin with a series of unseen performative elements, starting with the activation of the space with sculptures by Kat Button and Jane Fairhurst.

The exhibition will be accompanied with a varied events programme and workshops.  Join our mailing list to find out more.

Thursday 17 August 2023

7pm-8.30pm

This artists talk will offer an insight into the MYE collective, and their respective painting practices and what brings them together for this project.   

United in a deep engagement with the practice of painting and a willingness to dig deep into their medium to develop their own vision, this talk will reveals the results of a challenging unpacking and rebuilding of their practices over the past three years whilst studying for the MFA in painting at Manchester School of Art.   

Free event, includes refreshments.

21 July – 5 August

Preview 7pm-9pm

Thursday 13 July

7pm-8.30pm

£12 plus booking fee

Emma Richardson’s paintings are an expression of the artist’s ideas and research about female desire.

This evening, facilitated by art historian Sara Riccardi, founder of Art Across, will provide a space to explore personal responses to the paintings, contextualising them within the artist’s influences, and in the broader context of representations of intimacy, sexuality and desire in art.

Sara has worked on the theme of intimacy and art for a few years, and is passionate about the idea of self-discovery through the experience of responding to art. She will share her own journey with the paintings in the exhibition, and her responses to them, both from a personal and from an art-historical point of view. Participants are invited to join in, share their own responses, and discover something new about themselves and others in the encounter with the art.

Includes refreshments.

Friday 23 June

7pm-9pm

£48

An immersive evening, inspired by Emma Richardson’s paintings exploring the relationships and experiences of rapture.

Claire Woodier, Market Chef will be serving an exciting amuse bouche, followed by perfectly and imperfectly intertwined flavours and textures, ending with a luxurious and heady dessert. 

To see the menu and to book tickets click the link below.  Limited availability.

Thursday 15 June 12-2pm

Mura Ma artists monthly get together to discuss art, the scene, opportunities, ideas and work in progress – max ten people.  Bring some food to share, brews are on the house.

Email to confirm you are coming as numbers capped at 10 per meet up.

9 June – 15 July, preview Thursday 8 June, 7-9pm

Mura Ma is delighted to present a brand new body of work by artist Emma Richardson.  The title of the exhibition is taken from the 1980’s Blondie track, ‘Rapture’ and reflects the artist’s interests in themes relating to desire, transcendence and connection.

Emma Richardson is a painter who graduated from Wimbledon School of Art, London with a BA Honors in Fine Art in 2004. She has exhibited in solo and group shows in London, Southampton, Hong Kong and Barcelona.

Her paintings are held in private collections in Canada, America, Italy, Spain and the UK. Alongside painting Richardson is also a musician, and previously wrote and performed worldwide with Band of Skulls for over ten years. Her paintings appear on a selection of their album and single releases. She lives and works in London, UK.

13 April – 6 May

Preview Wednesday 12 April, 7pm-9pm

A solo exhibition of paintings by Dublin artist, Louise West.

 The exhibition, titled ‘Aevum’ presents a significant body of work in which West combines a contemporary perspective on the still life tradition, with her sublime use of paint to imbue forlorn and forgotten objects with a force of love, humour and hope.  

The preview will take place on Wednesday 12 March, RSVP using button below.

Thursday 18 May

7pm-8.30pm

£12 plus booking fee

What inspires artists to create pieces that celebrate common objects?

Still life is a centuries-old subject in painting, and it has been re-interpreted infinite times – yet, it is still a very fertile and stimulating source of creative expression.

In this event, art historian Sara Riccardi, founder Art Across, will bridge the personal, contemporary still lives created by West with the historical tradition of still life painting. Examples from the Dutch Golden Age, through to the 20th century, will contextualise the pieces in the exhibition. The evening will be an opportunity to explore the many conversations that still life can inspire, and to bring our own perspective, stories and responses to a very rich subject that was instead, in past centuries, placed at the bottom of the artistic hierarchy.

Includes refreshments.

Saturday 13 May

7pm-9pm

£48

A very special dining experience in response to the current exhibition of paintings by Louise West.

Created by Claire Woodier, Market Chef in response to the nostalgic memories Louise West refers to in her paintings, the objects and the traditions of growing up with her extended family of aunts and grandparents in Ireland.

To see the menu and to book tickets click the link below.

NEW OPENING DATE: 18 March – 1 April

Preview Friday 17 March 7pm-9pm

Mechanical Confection is a solo exhibition of new work by Manchester artist, Joey Collins.

A significant exhibition of Joey’s most recent body of work which embodies layered and laboured processes of drawing, screenprinting, collaging and digital compositioning.

The preview will take place on Friday 17 March, RSVP using button below.

Saturday 25 February 2023, 11am – 4.30pm

Free event

Join us to celebrate the final day of our debut exhibition, Edgelessness.  All four painters will be here for our closing party for the chance to talk to them about their work and the exhibition.

Sunday 12 February 2023, 10am – 5pm

£76, including materials

Join one of our opening exhibition artists, the Royal Academy of Arts trained artist, Rachael Addis for a tranquil creative day in which you can explore a range of creative techniques that can help your health and wellbeing. Techniques will include meditative drawing, journaling and colour therapy.

Rachael Addis’ creative practice has been informed by meditation. During the day she will give insight into the techniques developed to promote wellbeing in her practice.

Rachael has exhibited both nationally and internationally and has 20 years’ teaching experience.

Sunday 19 February 2023, 10am – 12.30pm

£20-£25

A morning of yoga and mindfulness practices with Helen Roscoe designed to inspire creative thought.

Fully booked