Artists

Tina Culverhouse | tinaculverhouse.com

Tina Culverhouse is concerned with memory and loss within her work and making sculpture.  By working with process and repetition she often deconstructs her materials from their original purpose,  reworking them into an alternate being.  Within this process, the materials are imbued with the memory and traces of thinking and the body through an intuitive relationship with the work.

Tina Culverhouse (b. 1969) is an artist based in London and France.  She has recently been awarded as a Fellow of Digswell Arts Trust (24-29), Hertfordshire.   Tina is currently on Turps Banana Mass Programme studio based 21/23 and off-site 23/24.  She graduated from the University of Hertfordshire Creative School as a Master of Fine Arts (Distinction) in September 2021.  Her Batchelor of Arts, in Fine Art and Art History(Distinction) was awarded from Middlesex Polytechnic in 1991.  Tina devises and runs award winning workshops for Open Art Box, who work for people living with dementia and mental health conditions,  alongside Museums Hertfordshire, recently winning the Creative Health Award 2024.

Image: Blue Smoke, Tina Culverhouse, 2023 | image: courtesy of the artist

Sarah Duyshart | sarahduyshart.com

Ever Grainger | evergrainger.com

Ever Grainger works with extruded silicone to make artworks that straddle sculpture, drawing and painting. Through adapted processes with an analogue extrusion or ‘caulking’ gun, their works in silicone are squeezed, squashed and drawn, using a range of techniques that negotiate tool-led outcomes with intuition and control – a dialogue between machines and the ‘artist’s hand’. The work has built on her long-standing interest in art histories and the entangled ramifications of the range of artists’ tools and materials at play: from the basic pencil to the recent advancements such as 3D scanning/printing and AI.

Ever Grainger (she/they) b. 1966, Liverpool. Currently based on the Isle of Wight. Graduated from Birmingham School of Art, UCE, BA Hons Fine Art, 2003. Previous selected group exhibitions include New Contemporaries, The Gothenburg Museum of Art, Sweden; The Photographers Gallery London, Gallery Works Osaka; ESC Gallery Graz, Austria, Occupy my Time, Brick Lane and Shoreditch Town Hall London; Recontre d’ Arles, Bearspace London, Glasgow International Art Festival and Phoenix Gallery Brighton. Recent group exhibitions 2022-24 include ‘Samples’ curated by Plinth, ING Discerning Eye, The The Royal Society of Sculptors Summer Show; Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition; Art_House_Life and Peer Studios, Ventnor Fringe, The Royal West of England Academy Open and Wells Art Contemporary. Self-initiated projects range from 1 hour long flash-installs in tidal sea caves, to a 2 year long home-gallery-install-space open to the public.

Image: The Smoothing V, Ever Grainger, 2023 | image: courtesy of the artist

Nick Grellier | nickgrellier.com

Practicing the roadside equivalent of mudlarking or beachcombing, UK based visual artist Nick Grellier (b.1966, Canada) uses detritus found on roads and footpaths as source material, and papers, photographs and textiles from house clearances and family archives as substrates for her work across drawing, collage, textile and assemblage. In a practice which makes use of low value materials and simple methods: drawing, glueing, cutting and stitching, Grellier’s work addresses a sense of familiarity and strangeness in found things, the energy and information held within human-made objects and the push-pull relationship between humans and stuff.  The works present a deadpan reflection on behaviours and responses to the awful and funny human condition, playing with misconception and jokes to describe serious subjects such as illness, ageing, relationships, authority and absurdities observed in communities and small town life.

Grellier is a selected artist at Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize, Unit 1 Gallery, Jerwood Drawing Prize, John Ruskin Prize, Wells Art Contemporary, RWA Open, ING Discerning Eye and Blackswan Open.  As one half of (both laughing) Collaborative with artist and PhD researcher Emily Lucas, she has work held in Tate and RA Print Archives and has undertaken residencies At The Garage Bristol. She collaborates on filmed performance and projection with film maker artist Anna Cady. Grellier studied at Chelsea College of Art BA1988 and UWE Bristol MA 2020.

Image: Precarious Shoulders, Nick Grellier, 2023 | image: Article Studio

Elspeth Penfold | elspeth-billie-penfold.com

Elspeth has a multifaceted arts practice that encompasses weaving, walking and spoken word poetry. She hand spins ropes and uses hapticity and psychogeography to connect threads and the spoken word. She believes that poetry provides a shared language that can help us to understand ourselves, and others, better. In her work she uses knowledge gained from living in Bolivia, Chile and Peru with her experience of life in the UK . Elspeth shares her knowledge of indigenous culture through quechua a preliterate language that, through weaving, offers a different perspective that connects us to the landscape. She introduces us to ‘Quipu’ (knot work) an ancient and nuanced form of communication used by Indigenous communities.

Elspeth Penfold is a Bolivian/Argentinian artist who has lived and worked in the UK since 1970. Her multi-disciplinary practice is influenced by her Andean background. It includes many voices, presenting a world view through the indigenous language of Quechua that is relational and complex. Elspeth has worked on projects with art galleries and major museums in the UK. Her work has been published by arts organisations and universities. In 2023 Elspeth became an artist in residence at East Kent Mencap. She has a large studio at their centre in Herne Bay. East Kent Mencap is a charity that supports adults with learning disabilities. Through Weave and Read, a project supported by The Margate Bookie book festival, Elspeth is sharing poetry reading with the adults who attend the centre. She is recording the experience on a 3 meter high loom. Elspeth is an elected member of the Royal Society of Sculptors, a member of the Memory Studies association and an alumni of the Turps Banana MASS correspondence program.

Image: Magnificent in Decay, a quipu poem, Elspeth Penfold, 2024 | image: courtesy of the artist

James Shreeve | plastictigerfactory.org

The personal identity of the artist who holds the pen is immaterial to the dreamer drawing or the pen that is being used, what matters is the transcendent nature of the patterns James creates. Each creation acts as a direct translation of the maelstrom of thoughts, feeling, ideas, fears and values swirling around in the dreamers head. When seen in isolation each creation acts a multilayered diary entry or hypnotic unspoken manifesto. When each pattern is viewed as an entity, they are an honest, visceral and transgressive snapshot into the fragmentary nature of the Autistic/ADHD mind that the dreamer rents.

James Shreeve is a queer nerodivergent artist living on the South Coast, with a keen obsession with creating accessible art involving patterns and narrative. Their work is offered up as a snapshot of how they see the world and navigate through life. The two key tenants of James’s work are “make things pretty and help people”, they are a freelance autism trainer and workshop leader with a background in mentoring. There is no hierarchy of for James, during their time studying for an MA in Digital Media Art they developed a set of rules to govern the creation of highly detailed A4 pen and ink patterns

Sharne Tasney

Sharne Tasney is a multidisciplinary artist whose work encompasses installation, film/video, textiles, drawing and print. At the age of 23 Sharne discovered that her biological father was different from the one who raised her, a revelation that has profoundly influenced her artistic journey. This personal discovery transformed her identity from ‘White British’ to ‘Other please specify,’ igniting an exploration of her mixed-race heritage and the complexities of racial identity. Sharne employs an autoethnographic methodology to delve into her ruptured mixed-race identity, reflecting on the historical shame and secrecy surrounding her heritage. Her art is influenced by the practices of Forensic Architecture, Sean Edwards, and the writings of Tim Ingold, Zadie Smith, and Roland Barthes. Through these influences, she explores themes of otherness, racial passing, and the impacts of untold family secrets. Drawing on a background in fine art and fashion textiles, Sharne incorporates stitching, weaving, and folding techniques into her practice. These elements symbolise the weaving of personal and historical narratives, as well as the uncovering of family secrets. Her work often features personal digital imagery, layered with childhood photographs and woven materials, creating a poignant tapestry of memory and identity.

Sharne Tasney is a multi-disciplinary artist living and working in Bristol. Sharne has studied a BA in Fashion Textiles at UWE. In 2021 she graduated from UOG with a MA Fine Art (Distinction). Since graduating from her MA she has taken part in various shows and commissions: Together We Make – March 2022 – Group show at Centrespace Gallery, Bristol; exhibited at Spike open Studios May 2022; Commission for Midsomer Norton Town Council – Bench Trail September 2023; Group Show – Diaspora Festival The Island Bristol – April 2024. Sharne is in receipt of a WEVVA Bursary to attend a residential writing course with Arvon to introduce writing as part of art practice. She is an active Spike Island Associate member.

Simon Woolham 

Simon Woolham’s work is concerned primarily with interpretations and relationships to occupied (or pre-occupied) spaces and the personal and collective narrative that unfolds in them. He explore layers of history, drawing out narrative, glimpses of speech. At the core of his practice is the collaborative exploration and encouragement of hidden human details, shared histories, stories associated with belonging and the relationship to specific places and spaces, providing a voice to often unheard vistas of history. Simon explores a variety of processes, specifically around expanded drawing and through the concept of creating a physical, virtual, and psychological artistic residency of the mind, mixing live and digital platforms, encouraging narrative associated with a multitude of spaces and times. In his attempts to unearth this unpredictable and fragile process of layers of history, he utilises and unites both traditional and non-traditional processes, graphite rubbing, sculpture, performance, song making, paper interventions, animation, video and collaborative/collective walking.

Dr Simon Woolham studied Fine Art at from Manchester Metropolitan University followed by an MA from Chelsea College of Art in London (2000). Simon’s practice as an artist, curator and academic is centred around expanded drawing research and methodology and this was the focus of his practice-led PhD from 2012 and awarded in 2016 at Manchester Metropolitan University. The PhD explored walking (in the broadest sense) and narrative in physical, virtual, and psychological space, expanding on the notion of an artists’ residency of the mind. Between 2000 and 2012 Simon exhibited widely, including a residency and solo exhibition at The Lowry in Salford and Chapter Gallery in Cardiff, as well as numerous national and international group exhibitions. In 2008 he was included in the first Tatton Park Biennial and in 2006 he was Artist-in-Residence at Baltic – Centre for Contemporary Art in Gateshead, he won the Mostyn Open 11 at Oriel Mostyn, Llandudno in 2001. Since 2012 Simon has developed and initiated projects with Super Slow Way, Drawing Projects UK and Cultures of Place amongst others. Between 2012 and 2022 he was curator and artistic programmer of the artist-led gallery PAPER in Manchester.

Image: The Remains of the Day, Simon Woolham, 2023 | image: courtesy of the artist