Fine Art lecturer to exhibit at Brighton’s Artists Open Houses this May

Christopher McHugh, who lectures on Fine Art at the University of Chichester, is among the organisers from artists’ collective Red Herring Studios. He will be showcasing new creative work as part of SHOALING at the Regency Town House from May 16 to 26.

SHOALING will exhibit new artwork in response to the vividly layered fabric of the Regency Town House, with imaginative reworkings of furniture, paintings and objects from this unique venue. Works include a range of media such as collages, prints, drawings, ceramics, clothing, mixed media, interactive displays and site specific interventions.

Christopher McHugh, who has been a lecturer in Fine Art since the beginning of the millennium, is one of the founding members of Red Herring, an artists’ studio collective in Brighton since 1984. Red Herring is still going strong, having set up in eight different buildings since then, currently with 16 members in Wellington House overlooking the eastern end of Shoreham Harbour. In this exhibition McHugh is showing paintings from a series called Raw Stratigraphy.

Christopher said: “SHOALINGis a great opportunity to produce work for a space with a distinctive period character. The high walls of the Regency Town House seemed to call out for extremely tall paintings but the making of them has been a challenge, especially in the ongoing task of appraising the marks made and their accumulative effect.

"There’s lots that could be said about these works but in the end what they mean (with their loose, mostly horizontal, bands of colour) can only be assessed by experiencing the work in the flesh.’

The exhibition is supported with a series of events including artists’ talks, demonstrations, a children’s workshop and music.

Other exhibiting artists include Andy Ash, Bryn Pratt-Boyden, Bryony Rumble, Christopher McHugh, Elizabeth Bourne, Helen Rebecca Lucas, Julie Sharman, Katy Schnetler, Louis TF, Mattie Griffiths, Nick Gardner, Ratna Jan Bibi, Rebecca Angel, Tracy Roberts and Trisha Stone.

SHOALING runs from May 16 to 26 and is open from 11am to 4pm Monday-Thursday and 11am to 6pm Friday-Sunday at the Regency Town House, 13 Regency Square, Hove, BN3 1EH. Admission is free.

For full details of the exhibition visit redherringstudios.org