cbp-newsletter-december-2025

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Welcome to the December 2025 newsletter

Artist of the month

Lisa Denyer

Artist of the Month is an ongoing series where we highlight one of our members. This month we are pleased to introduce artist Lisa Denyer selected and interviewed by Paul Newman.

Lisa Denyer's practice explores the polarities of a slow, considered painting process against the speed and sensory perceptions of daily life. The work relates to the body, the spaces we inhabit, and the visuals we encounter on a day-to-day basis.

Surfaces are developed using paper cut outs in an approach that is both spontaneous and contemplative. Geometric elements and gestural marks are tested on a variety of substrates including weighty plywood, clay, canvas, panel, and sandpaper. These materials are selected for their textual qualities and for the way they assist, and disrupt the application of paint.

Read the interview

Masquerade, acrylic, emulsion, gouache and modelling paste on hardboard, 28 x 40cm, 2023

CBP Exhibitions

Graham Crowley: Orford Ness, Study 1, 2019, Oil on pegboard, 23 x 18cm

Unquiet Landscapes

Unquiet Landscapes is a collaboration between Contemporary British Painting and Yorkshire Artspace, curated by Joanna Whittle.

“The land will entrance us and in the end bury us, with impartiality. If it seems to have great beauty, that is because of what we are, not because of what it is… The unquiet country is you.” - Christopher Neve, Unquiet Landscape : places and ideas in twentieth-century English painting (1990).

Neve’s influential book 'Unquiet Landscape' provides the starting point for a conversation between artists working with landscape today, and those featured in Neve’s text, many of whom had experienced the trauma of war. Their themes and translation of the experience of landscape being as relevant now as they were then; seeking solace in the natural world and the picturesque is tempered by reality, mortality and fragility, as well as hope. The exhibition takes us on a journey into landscapes that are both real and imagined, psychological and metaphorical, opening up a terrain that reflects our relationship with the landscape today.

“It represents an endeavour not only to explore this continuing dialogue between painting and the landscape; how it inhabits us and our reflections of the world in uncertain and wounded times; but also to expand this dialogue between CBP and the wider discourse of painting and other artforms. The works included represent this wild and roaming landscape always changing and yet always somehow unquietly familiar in our minds.” Joanna Whittle

Artists: Susan Absolon, David Ainley, Jonathan Alibone, Iain Andrews, Amanda Ansell, Richard Bartle, Emma Bennett, Simon Carter, Graham Crowley, Angelina May Davis, Al Daw, Natalie Dowse, Thomas D Fowler, Sarah Grant, Heavy Water, Barbara Howey, Linda Ingham, Lisa Ivory, Christopher Jarrett, Anita Lloyd, Paula MacArthur, Nicholas Middleton, Christopher Neve, Paul Newman, David Orme, Mandy Payne, Julian Perry, Georgia Peskett, Chantal Powell, Narbi Price, James Quin, Conor Rogers, George Shaw, Judith Tucker, Simon Tupper, Jan Valick, Joanna Whittle and Sean Williams.

Yorkshire Artspace, Persistence Works, 21 Brown Street, Sheffield S1 2BS

Private view: 4 December, 5pm - 8pm

Walk & Talk: Thursday 4 December 3pm - 5pm

Finnisgae: Saturday 24th January, 2pm - 4pm

Exhibition Dates: 5 December 2025 - 24 January 2026

Opening times: Thursday - Saturday, 12 - 5pm (Christmas closures 24 Dec - 2 Jan)

Admission free

Group Exhibitions

Susan Absolon: Sleeping Alone 9, oil on canvas, 14.5 x 19.5cm, 2025 and

Cold Tap, oil on canvas, 19 x 14.5cm, 2024

Small is Beautiful

Flowers Gallery is pleased to present the 43rd edition of the renowned Small is Beautiful exhibition, taking place at their Cork Street galleries and online. Established in 1974, Small is Beautiful invites selected contemporary artists from all disciplines to contribute works with a fixed economy of size, each piece measuring no more than 7 x 9 inches.

Small is Beautiful will feature approximately 140 artists and includes the work of CBP member Susan Absolon.

Flowers Gallery, 21 Cork Street, London W1S 3LZ

Exhibition dates: 21 November 2025 - 10 January 2026

Opening times: Monday - Saturday 11am - 6pm • Admission free

Enzo Marra: Submission biro and sellotape on envelope, digital photograph altered and printed A4

The All Dressed Up but Nowhere to Show Show

This exhibition is based on an open call to artists and curators for a show of show proposals at Gallery DODO. Includes work by CBP member Enzo Marra.

Gallery DODO, c/o Phoenix Art Space, 10-14 Waterloo Place, Brighton BN2 9NB

Exhibition dates: 22 November 2025 - 11 January 2026

Opening times: By appointment

Emma Tod: Orbit, watercolour on watercolour paper, 7cm x10cm (framed 28 x 30cm) 2025

Small Things With Big Ideas

Group Exhibition curated by Paul Carey-Kent and Yuki Miyake.

An infinite world can exist in a condensed object. ‘An exhibition of SMALL things with BIG ideas’ attempts to uncover the maximal imaginary perspectives secreted in the minimally-sized works of more than 60 participating artists with 100 works. Included work by CBP member Emma Tod.

White Conduit Projects, 1 White Conduit Street, London N1 9EL

Exhibition dates: 30 November 2025 - 18 January 2026

Opening times: Wed 11am - 6pm, Thu 11am - 6pm, Fri 12pm – 5pm, Sat 12pm – 6pm, Sun 11am – 4pm • Admission free

Emma Tod: Accelerator (425.65 parts per million), oil on wooden panel, 50 x 40cm, 2025

Photo: Benjamin Deakin

Open Cruel

OPEN CRUEL is a group exhibition chosen by selectors, artist Marianne Keating and curators Daniella Rose King and Jessica Taylor.

The inaugural Open Cruel artists are COS AHMET, HARRIET ARMSTRONG, ANNIE ATTRIDGE , RUSSELL BAMBER, ALAINA CHERRY, KIM CHIN, ROBIN CLARE, DEXTER DYMOKE, THEO ELLISON, LEO FITZMAURICE, LEAH GORDON, CHARLIE GODET THOMAS, TOBIAS GUMBRILL, STEPHEN HARWOOD, LIZZIE HILL, JONAH HOFFMAN, JEREMY HUTCHISON, LEASHO JOHNSON, ANOUSHKA KHANDWALA, VERA KOX, FABIO LATTANZI ANTINORI, SAM NG, TRINE STRUWE, EMMA TOD, JOYCE TREASURE, ZOE WILKINSON, MONTOYA WILLIAMS TRALEWSKI, SAMAR F. ZIA

Ruby Cruel, 250 Morning Lane, London E9 6RQ

Exhibition dates: 30 November - 21 December 2025

Opening times: Sat & Sun 12 - 6pm or by appointment: [email protected]

Admission free

Enzo Marra: Break, nail varnish, enamel paint, hammerite, wood, 5cm x 5cm, 2025

Winter show at The Lido Stores

The Lido Stores’ final show of 2025 celebrates the fifth anniversary of the gallery’s opening. Owner Kristen Healy has curated a vibrant selection of new contemporary artworks by 26 artists, most of whom have exhibited solo or in group shows at The Lido Stores.

Artists: Jackie Askew • Suzanne Baker • Dorota Bouali • Gavin Dobson • Julie Caves • Roberta Cialfi • Sue Cohen • Robin Dixon • Sarah Grant • Lesley Greening-Lassoff • Chris Hagan • Julia Hamilton • Paul Hazelton • Kristen Healy • Elisa Hudson • Mandy Hudson • Gregg Longstaff-Scales • Louisa Longstaff-Scales • Enzo Marra • Susan Montgomery • Meera Palia • Henrietta Roeder • Jack Shearing • Dorry Spikes • Rhys Trussler • Charles Williams.

The Lido Stores, 2 Ethelbert Terrace, Cliftonville, Margate CT9 1RX

Private view: 6 December, 5pm - 8pm

Exhibition dates: 6 December 2025 – 29 January 2026

Opening times: Thursday-Saturday, 11am-4pm and Sunday 10am-1pm

Day Bowman: Vertical Landscape 19, oil, charcoal and conte on canvas, 30cm x 25, 2025

Winter Group Show at Linden Hall Studio

Over the years this exhibition has become one of the highlights of Linden Hall Studio's exhibition programme. It is a source of enormous pride for the gallery which provides our audience with the opportunity to view a complete spectrum of works across the entire visual language. The exhibition showcases over 250 artists including work by CBP members Day Bowman and Enzo Marra.

Linden Hall Studio, 32 St Georges Road, Deal, Kent CT14 6BA

Exhibition dates: 6 December 2025 - 31 January 2026

Opening times: Tuesday - Saturday 10am till 4pm

Sleight of Hand

Seven artists engaged in alchemy, magic, performance and subterfuge. There are works in this exhibition that show you one thing and do another; that perform a kind of ocular magic or material transformation before your eyes. Others conjure up the quiet spectacle of rehearsed actions and ritualised production.

The ‘hand’ of the painter-alchemist is never far away, even in its perceived absence. The show is a paean to manual production, to the special place that the hand-made artefact holds in our collective consciousness.

Artists: Natasha Brown, Eva Dixon, Ross Hansen, Roland Hicks, Marc Hulson, James William Murray, Christina Niederberger.

Terrace Gallery, 4-17 Frederick Terrace, London E8 4EW*

Private view: 11 December, 6pm - 8.30pm

Exhibition dates: 11 December 2025 - 11 January 2026

Opening times: Sat/Sun 12 - 6pm • Admission free

*This is the new Terrace Gallery venue that is run by CBP Member Karl Bielik.

Enzo Marra: Solution, card tempera household paint glue nail varnish found fabric form, 6.5 x 6.5cm, 2025

States of Assemblage

States of Assemblage’ is an open call exhibition curated by Laurence Tidy, the show offers a current view of assemblage art and assemblagist artist practices. Its aims are to celebrate, contemplate, and consider contemporary assemblage art and assemblagist methodologies. Includes work by CBP member Enzo Marra.

Unit 2, 8-10 London Road, Saint Leonards, East Sussex TN37 6AE

Private view: Friday 12 December, 6pm - 10pm

Exhibition dates: 13 - 14 December 2025

Opening times: 11am - 6pm

International Exhibitions

Miranda Boulton: Garlands and Wreaths I, oil and acrylic spray paint on canvas, 150 x 120cm

Miami Art Fair

New Art Dealers Alliance (NADA) Art Fair Miami

Miranda Boulton, solo booth with Patricia Fleming Gallery, Glasgow.

New Art Dealers Alliance (NADA), Ice Palace Studios, 1400 North, Miami Avenue

Private view: 2 December, 4pm - 7pm

Exhibition dates: 2 - 6 December 2025

Opening times: 11am - 7pm

Iain Andrews: Megaera, acrylic on canvas, 50 x 60cm, 2024

Thirty Years of Galleria Gaburro

An exhibiiton to commemorate Galleri Gaburro's thrity year anniversary featuring work by Iain Andrews, Marina Abramovic, Liu Bolin, Leyla Cardenas, Marco Cingolani, Andrea Cusamano, Jan Fabre, Emilio Isgro, Andrea Mastrovito, Ruben Montini, Hermann Nitsch, Ferdinando Scianna and Daniel Spoerri.

Galleria Gaburro, Via Cerva 25, Milan, Italy 20122

Exhibition dates: 8 October 2025 - 10 January 2026

Opening times: 10am - 4pm, Wednesday - Saturday • Admission free

Continuing Two-person Exhibitions

Narbi Price: You Don't Know Where it Went. It Was Over in a Flash, acrylic on Canvas, 40 x 50cm, 2025

Going Back Brockens

Going Back Brockens is a major exhibition from award-winning artist Narbi Price and acclaimed writer Mark Hudson, sharing stories of hope and aspiration in mining communities 40 years after the Miners’ Strike.

The show features 43 new paintings by Narbi depicting locations across County Durham connected to the mining industry as they are now, alongside a sound installation created by Mark using interviews recorded with the people of Horden between 1991 – 92, several years after the Miners’ Strike.

The exhibition also features Where We Belong, a series of short films by Carl Joyce inspired by Mark Hudson’s evocative book Coming Back Brockens.

Sunderland Museum & Winter Gardens, Burdon Road, Sunderland SR1 1PP

Exhibition dates: 12 September 2025 - 3 January 2026

Opening times: Monday - Saturday, 10am - 4pm • Admission free

Continuing Group Exhibitions

Image: Reflections on the Aire – on strike [detail], 1879 by John Atkinson Grimshaw. © Leeds Museums & Galleries, acquired through the Patricia Hurst bequest (Leeds Art Fund)

Don't Let's Ask for the Moon... Nocturnes and Atkinson Grimshaw

John Atkinson Grimshaw's Moonlights from the 1880s brought the Leeds artist success and recognition, even from the crusading modernist American artist James McNeill Whistler.

This new exhibition brings together Leeds Art Gallery’s impressive collection of nocturnal pictures by the celebrated artist, including the latest acquisition Reflections on the Aire - on strike (1879) - likely to be one of the first paintings depicting the consequences of industrial action.

The show aims to shift our perceptions from Atkinson Grimshaw as a painter of place, providing a window of nostalgia onto a Victorian world. Alongside evocative images of nocturnal themes by four contemporary painters - Elizabeth Magill, Selma Makela, Judith Tucker and Joanna Whittle - and neon and photographic works by Roger Palmer, Atkinson Grimshaw can be seen here as a painter of modernity, possessed of a powerful poetry.

Leeds Art Gallery, The Headrow, Leeds LS1 3AA

Exhibition dates: 14 November 2025 - 19 April 2026

Opening times: Monday: Closed Tuesday - Saturday: 10am - 5pm (note: Upper galleries close from 4pm on Saturdays) Sunday: 11am - 3pm • Admission free

The Stolen Orange

Enzo Marra: Sunshine, nail varnish on wood, 9.5cm x 5cm x 1cm, 2025

The Stolen Orange brings together a multitude of painters, sculptors, writers, poets. Makers of all stripes responding to Brian Patten’s poem of the same name. The exhibition includes CBP members: Daniel H Bell, Deb Covell, Enzo Marra, Geraldine Swayne, Gordon Dalton, Paula MacArthur, Paul Smith, Susie Hamilton.

The Stolen Orange is a collaboration between Sarah Shaw and Hal Maughan.

Bond Street Gallery, 4 Bond Street Cottages, Bond Street, Brighton BN1 1RP

Exhibition dates: 15 November - 14 December 2025

Opening times: Mon to Sunday 11am - 6pm • Admission free

Truth or Lies

How does the concept of truth and lies fit with making art?

Artists: Diane Gerrard, Gabriella Hall, Ann Hulland, Fiona Masterton, Valerie Merlo, Rachel Pearcey, Paul Scully, Paul Smith.

ASC Gallery, The Handbag Factory, 3 Loughborough Street, London SE11 5RB

Exhibition dates: 21 November - 2 December 2025

Admission free

Into the Fold

'Into the Fold' draws on the powerful symbolism of the folded letter and the layered history of place.

This exhibition is available for viewing both in-person at the Montcalm Royal London House and through Rise Art's exclusive online gallery.

Artists: Ruth Philo, Sabrina Brouwers, Taya de la CruIz, Jo Hummel

Montcalm Royal London House, 22-25 Finsbury Square, London EC2A 1DX

Exhibition dates: 1 October 2025 - 1 January 2026

Opening times: Please see hotel website • Admission free - ticket via Eventbrite

Watercolour Now

Charlotte Verity: CV 4 7, 2025, watercolour monotype. 23.5cm x 21cm. Image Stephen White and Co.

Watercolour Now explores the distinctive qualities of painting in watercolour. Selected by the artist Simon Carter, the exhibition brings together an exciting range of contemporary approaches to watercolour in the Timothy Gurney Gallery at Norwich Castle. The eight artists featured share a fascination with how watercolour can capture diverse and often fleeting relationships with light, colour, landscape and history.

Artists: Simon Carter, Christoper Le Brun, Alf Löhr, Barbara Nicholls, Melanie Russell, Mark Stewart, Charlotte Verity and James Faure Walker.

Norwich Castle Museum & Art Gallery, Castle Hill, NR1 3JU

Exhibition dates: 4 October 2025 - 1 March 2026

Opening times: 10am - 5pm daily

Admission: Ticketed entry to Castle (please see website for details)

Juliette Losq: Kong, the Cave Serpent and Claude Glasses, ink and watercolur on paper, mounted on canvas

The Landscape Open

CBP member Juliette Losq will be exhibiting in the Landscape Open at Salisbury Museum, a new annual opportunity for artists working contemporaneously within the distinguished genre of landscape painting.

The Salisbury Museum, The King's House, 65 The Close, Salisbury SP1 2EN

Exhibition dates: 18 October 2025 – 25 January 2026

Opening times: 7-days a week from 10am - 5pm.

Standard Entry Adult: £12.00. Standard Entry Child: (5 to 15 yrs) £6.00 Donation/Gift Aid* / £5.40 Standard Entry Under 5’s: FREE Museum Members: FREE – for details click here Adults with disabilities: £8.90 – carer has FREE entry. Children with disabilities have FREE entry.

Miniature Worlds: Little Landscapes from Thomas Bewick to Beatrix Potter

Joanna Whittle: Hollow tree with stays, oil on panel, 10cm x 10cm, 2020 (Photo Credit, Will Roberts)

Miniature Worlds: Little Landscapes from Thomas Bewick to Beatrix Potter explores the intricate beauty of small-scale landscapes across three centuries of British art. The exhibition has a particular focus on vignette format illustrations and the changing relationship between text, illustration, and publishing.

Highlights of the exhibition include seven highly detailed watercolours by JMW Turner, whose 250th birthday is being celebrated this year, a dramatic and diminutive drawing by John Martin, and nine intricate watercolours by Beatrix Potter. The exhibition includes over 130 objects, 90 of which are loans from other UK collections.

The exhibition features paintings and prints by artists including JMW Turner, Beatrix Potter, Thomas Bewick, William Blake, Agnes Miller Parker, Eric Ravilious, Joanna Whittle, and more.

Laing Art Gallery, New Bridge Street, Newcastle NE1 8AG

Exhibition dates: 18 October 2025 - 28 February 2026

Opening times: Monday - Saturday, 10am - 4.30pm Closed Sunday and Bank Holidays

Admission charges apply - please see website for details

The Painted City

Mandy Payne: Ventilation Shafts At Golden Lane, Spray paint and oil on concrete, 30cm x 30cm

An exhibition of urban landscapes by Michelle Heron, Ryan Everson, Jen Orpin, Mandy Payne, and Andrew Torr.

In a world increasingly mediated by technology, where quick consumption and throwaway experiences are the norm, The Painted City brings together five painters who choose to slow down and look closely. Through direct observation and lived experience, they explore the urban environment as a space filled with memory, meaning, and emotional weight.

Well Hung Gallery, 239 Hoxton Street, London N1 5LG

Exhibition dates: 31 October - 22 December 2025

Opening times: Tues - Fri: 10am - 5pm, Sat: 12 - 4pm. Sun & Mon: Closed • Admission free

Molly Thomson: Proposition (10 discardings and one void), acrylic on panel construction, 33cm x 43cm, 2024

John Moores Painting Prize 2025

Showcasing the very latest in painting across the UK, the competition culminates in a major exhibition every two years in Liverpool.

The exhibition includes CBP members Joanna Whittle and Molly Thomson.

Walker Art Gallery, William Brown Street, Liverpool L3 8EL

Exhibition dates: 6 September 2025 - 1 March 2026

Opening times: Tues - Sun 10.00 - 5.00 • Admission free

Curatorial Projects

Mirco exhibitions at Bloc Studios curated by Sean Williams

Bloc Studios, 198 Arundel Street, Sheffield S1 4RE

Opening times: Please contact Sean Williams @swseanwilliams to arrange a viewing.

Admission free

Stephen Carley: 'Three Hooked Hanging Forms/Lumps Triptych', acrylic, tape, wax, latex, 30 x 15cm, 2025

(ir)REVerance

(ir)REVerance is a micro exhibition in the Prosaic Projects Gallery within Bloc Studios in Sheffield. It sees a collaboration between Kate Jacob and Stephen Carley. There is alchemy at work here. Both working with what others might consider ‘detritus’, the found, the left behind and the collected, elevating and transforming the meaningless debris, celebrating and raising it to something of value. This shared (ir)REVerance to material and matter comes partly from a place of frustration with contemporary art but also because rules and paradigms are there to be challenged and broken. The show is curated by Sean Williams.

Exhibition dates: 16 December 2025 - 30 January 2026

Alison J Carr: The In Between (Grace), watercolour, 25cm x 18cm, 2025

Adorned in Dreams

For November, the Prosaic Projects Gallery will host Adorned in Dreams, a micro exhibition by Alison J Carr curated by Sean Williams. In the show Carr presents drawings from three series: Crown / Halo, Spirit of a Muse, and The In Between - that explore self-image, transformation, and feminine display. Using her own body as both subject and symbol, Carr renders herself in moments of reflection, poise, and performance. Across these works, she adorns, transforms, and abstracts the figure-tracing stills from her own dance videos, reimagining the chorus girl as contemporary stripper, and positioning herself within sacred geometries of gold. Carr’ s practice reclaims the glamour of performance as a space of self-actualisation and intimacy.

Exhibition dates: 5 November - 10 December 2025

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