cbp-newsletter-january-2026

Is this email not displaying correctly? View it in your browser.

Happy New Year!
Welcome to the January 2026 newsletter

Artist of the month

Sally Taylor

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

Sally Taylor’s work affirms a desire to understand more about human relationships, specifically her own interaction with others. They are equally about a balance between formal concerns and the communication of emotional resonance. Using found materials enables the superimposition of marks in relation to the personal history of the surface. Materials such as cardboard from old jigsaw boxes are well-worn grounds with tears and imperfections, and the process embraces the awkwardly constructed items they become. Geometric shapes become ‘blockages’ or ‘openings’; the recurring motifs of facial features / ‘smiling mouths’ aim to unravel social constructs surrounding the unsaid / non-verbal interaction.

Read the interview

Head with Shapes and Black Stone, ink, acrylic, graphite, oil bar and collage on found cardboard, 2024

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
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

Solo Exhibitions

Poster image: Now I am Free, oil on linen, 100 x 100cm, 2025

All of your Demons will Wither Away

"This body of work emerged from a sustained engagement with the Pacific Ocean, particularly along the shores of Del Mar and Malibu, where I often watched the sunrise at Big Rock. In those quiet hours, I became absorbed by the mutable relationship between light and water - a continual dialogue of reflection, rhythm, and dissolution. Through this experience, light revealed itself not merely as a visual phenomenon, but as a vessel for perception, emotion, and presence.

Here, light becomes both subject and metaphor - a way of approaching the numinous, that state of awe Rudolf Otto described as an encounter with the “wholly other.” I am drawn to the threshold where seeing transforms into feeling, where representation gives way to resonance, and silence becomes a language of its own." - Marguerite Horner

Clare Hall, Herschel Road, Cambridge, CB3 9AL

Private view: Thursday 15 January, 6pm - 8pm. Please RSVP to [email protected]

Exhibition dates: 16 January - 26 February 2026

Opening times: 10-4pm • Admission free

Group Exhibitions

Day Bowman: Full Flood 2, oil, charcoal and conte on canvas, 25 x 30cm, 2024

Gallery Artists: Act 1

Gallery artists' group exhibition includes work by CBP member Day Bowman.

Vanner Gallery, 45 High Street, Salisbury SP1 2PD

Private view: Thursday 8 January, 6pm - 8pm

Exhibition dates: 9 - 31 January 2026

Opening times: Tues - Sat. 10am - 5pm • Admission free

Anglian Abstract

This exhibition celebrates the legacy of modernism in East Anglia through a curated selection of contemporary artists working in abstraction, with Margaret Mellis’ vibrant painting, 'Lilac Yellow,' (held in the Victor Batte-Lay Foundation Collection at the Minories) as a focal point. Mellis, who was born in China and raised in Scotland, immersed herself in the artistic movements of the time, particularly during her influential years in St Ives, Cornwall. Her interactions with prominent figures like Ben Nicholson, Barbara Hepworth and Naum Gabo shaped her artistic journey, as she explored the realms of colour and abstraction.

Artists: Amanda Ansell, Matthew Chambers, Prunella Clough, Peter Collingwood, Liam Hennessy, Clare Iles, Margaret Mellis, Ruth Philo, Marion Piper, John Plowman, Ron Sims, Telfer Stokes, Molly Thompson, Lu Yu.

The Minories, 74 High Street, Colchester, Essex CO1 IUE

Private view: Saturday 10 January, 12-3pm

Exhibition dates: 7 January - 22 February 2026

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

Sophia Vigne Welsh: Field Levitation, acrylic, spray paint on unprimed canvas, 80 x 100cm, 2024

Resolution

Resolution is not a promise - it’s a pressure point.

This exhibition brings together artists from London and Los Angeles at the turn of the

year, a time shaped by shifting political realities and suspended between intentions

and outcomes. Includes work by CBP member Katie Pratt.

Here, resolution is not an endpoint but an ongoing negotiation, a restless search for clarity that embraces the fragments and contradictions of both making and social ethics. Some gestures strain toward coherence; others break into dissonance. Surfaces remain unsettled, edges unresolved, and materials hold the weight of decisions not yet made. Each work marks the friction between the desire to conclude and the impossibility of closure - from quiet acts of resolve to deliberate refusals. Together, these artists trace the fault lines of process, where experimentation, uncertainty, and even failure become not obstacles but raw material for

transformation and a metaphor for wider struggles.

Thames-Side Studios Gallery, Harrington Way, London SE18 5NR

Private date: 16 January, 5pm - 8pm

Exhibition dates: 17 - 31 January 2026

Opening times: Thursday - Sunday 12-5pm • Admission free

Simon Carter: A Tree in Suffolk, acrylic on paper, 76cm x 84cm, 2025

Painting: A Changed Environment

Messums' second international open call for painters exploring our relationship with the environment, this curated exhibition reflects on how artists respond to the landscapes around us. Through contemporary painting, it examines changing ideas of beauty, ecology, and sustainability, as well as themes of place, memory, and identity, revealing how connections to the natural world can inspire both understanding and hope. This exhibition began in London in November and continues at Messums West in January 2026, featuring an expanded presentation of works by 38 artists. Includes work by CBP member Simon Carter.

Messums West, Place Farm, Court Street, Tisbury SP3 6LW

Private view: 17 January from 11.30am

Exhibition dates: 17 January - 9 March 2026

Opening times: Thursday - Saturday: 10am - 5pm, Sunday and Monday: 10am - 4pm

Admission free

Enzo Marra: Uprising, household paint and sharpie on panel, 2025

BRIGHTON SHOWCASE

Enzo Marra has had a painting included in the Brighton Showcase organised by the Arrival Gallery. A calm, focused exhibition in the heart of Brighton's creative community.

Arrival Gallery, 18 Lower Rock Gardens, Brighton BN2 1PG

Exhibition dates: 23 - 26 January 2026

Jo Berry, winner of the 2025 open call. The Machine, acrylic on wooden board, 2024.

Irving Open Call 2026

The Irving Open Call Exhibition is an exciting group exhibition of artists working across all media selected by Irving Gallery's curator, Vanessa Lacey. Exhibitors include CBP members Paula MacArthur and Paul Smith.

A winning artist, announced at the Opening Party on Saturday 31 January, will be awarded a solo show at the gallery in 2027. The winner of the 2025 Irving Open Call was artist Jo Berry, featured here, who has a solo show in 2026.

Irving Gallery, 28 Essex Street, Oxford OX4 3AW

Private view: 31 January, 3pm - 6 pm

Exhibition dates: 31 January - 28 February 2026

Opening times: Thursday - Saturday 11am-5pm, Sunday 10am-1pm and by appointment

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

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.
Includes 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

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

Winter show at The Lido Stores

Owner Kristen Healy of The Lido Stores 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. Includes work by CBP member Enzo Marra.

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

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

This 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

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

Sleight of Hand

Seven artists engaged in alchemy, magic, performance and subterfuge.

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*

Exhibition dates: 11 December 2025 - 11 January 2026

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

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

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

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

Continuing International Exhibitions

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

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

You are receiving this email because you signed up to our mailing list using our online signup form. You may unsubscribe at anytime.

Contemporary British Painting Ltd, registered in England and Wales with company number 15947307. The registered office address is Station House, North Street, Havant, Hampshire, United Kingdom, PO9 1QU.

If you would like to unsubscribe, please click here.