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Kevin Howbrook: Colour Coded
Saturday 25 January - Sunday 19 July 2020
10:00 am - 5:00 pm
Kevin Howbrook: Colour Coded is an exhibition of large-scale digital prints that show what familiar texts, like the ‘Bible’ or ‘The Empire Strikes Back’, look like if each word is represented by a colour. Kevin Howbrook is an artist…
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Unboxing Alex Frost
Saturday 8 February - Sunday 19 July 2020
10:00 am - 5:00 pm
Unboxing Alex Frost is an exhibition of videos and sculptures made from products that feed our ‘on-the-go’ lifestyle, like frozen pizzas and supermarket sandwiches.
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Boudicca: The Face of a Celtic World
Thursday 11 June 2020
6:00 pm
This event took place as a Facebook Live stream on 11th June 2020. Watch a recording of the talk above. A talk from historian and honorary fellow of the Department of History at The University of Essex, David Grocott,…
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Exhibition Opening Celebration: Tell me the story of all these things
Friday 27 March 2020
7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
Please note this Exhibition Opening has been cancelled as a precautionary measure due to the current coronavirus/COVID-19 pandemic.
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Antony Gormley: Field for the British Isles
Saturday 16 November 2019 - Sunday 8 March 2020
10:00 am - 5:00 pm
Experience this vast and iconic artwork at Firstsite, celebrating community, individuality and togetherness. Field for the British Isles, which consists of 40,000 tiny individual terracotta figures, is the largest single artwork in the Arts Council Collection and its arrival…
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Aidan Moesby | Sagacity: The Periodic Table of Emotions
Friday 15 November 2019 - Sunday 8 March 2020
10:00 am - 5:00 pm
Sagacity is a live and responsive installation based around the Periodic Table, reflecting the emotional state of its location. Its installation at Firstsite shows the current mood of our visitors, and will record the feelings of participants from November…
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Chance & Control: Art in the Age of Computers. Created by the V&A – touring the nation.
Saturday 26 October 2019 - Sunday 26 January 2020
10:00 am - 5:00 pm
Since the 1960s, artists and programmers have used computers to create prints, drawings, paintings, photographs and digital artworks. ‘Chance and Control’ draws on the V&A’s rich international collection of computer-generated art and includes work by pioneering digital…
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Super Black
Friday 11 October 2019 - Sunday 12 January 2020
10:00 am - 5:00 pm
In the first of its brand-new series of Arts Council Collection National Partner exhibitions, Firstsite is staging Super Black – an exhibition that asks, ‘What does it mean to be black in England today?’. Led by people from Essex’s…
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What’s the problem? A YAK & flyingleaps exhibition
Saturday 5 October 2019 - Sunday 12 January 2020
10:00 am - 5:00 pm
Climate change, politics, rights, capitalism and health – these are the pressing issues facing young people today, according to Young Art Kommunity (YAK), Firstsite’s young people peer-led group which organises events and activities within the gallery and the wider…
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Andrea Luka Zimmerman: Estate, A Reverie
Saturday 16 November 2019
1:00 pm
As part of Firstsite’s Arts Council Collection National Partner Exhibition, Super Black – exploring what it means to be black in England today.Nominated for Best Documentary at the East End Film Festival 2015 and filmed over seven years, ‘Estate,…
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Opening Celebration | Antony Gormley: Field for the British Isles
Friday 15 November 2019
7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
Join us for the Opening of Antony Gormley: Field for the British Isles on 15th Nov 7-10pm and see this vast and iconic artwork unveiled at Firstsite. Field for the British Isles which consists of 40,000 tiny individual terracotta…
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Lilah Fowler: Code Clay, Data Dirt
Saturday 20 July - Sunday 3 November 2019
10:00 am - 5:00 pm
London-based artist Lilah Fowler makes artwork that examines the effect and consequence of technology on our contemporary landscape, revealing how the ‘natural’ and the ‘man-made’ are interwoven a state that she refers to as ‘nth nature’. For Firstsite Fowler…
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Anna Berry: Breathing Room
Thursday 10 - Tuesday 22 October 2019
10:00 am - 5:00 pm
‘Breathing Room’, is a large-scale, experiential, kinetic light installation by artist Anna Berry and collaborator/engineer Clive Doherty. A tunnel lined with cones, the work creates a strange and otherworldly immersive experience through its apparent “breathing”. On the outside, the…
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Mark Titchner: Some questions about us
Saturday 20 July - Sunday 13 October 2019
Artist Mark Titchner explores the tensions between the different belief systems that inform our society, be they religious, scientific or political. He works across a number of media including digital print, wall drawing, video, sculpture, and often employs motifs…
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Siobhan Coen: Unknown Knowns
Saturday 20 July - Sunday 13 October 2019
10:00 am - 5:00 pm
Siobhan Coen creates immersive environments by reworking the component parts of digital communications—RGB light, the pixels that make up images, and the spoken word—inviting us to experience how their qualities, more than their subject matter, affect what we perceive…
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David Olusoga: Blackness, Britishness and the Windrush Generation
Tuesday 8 October 2019
5:00 pm
+ Q&A and book signing To coincide with the opening of Super Black, an exhibition co-curated with members of Colchester’s Black African and Caribbean communities, David Olusoga OBE, a British-Nigerian historian, broadcaster, film-maker and award-winning author, is coming to Firstsite…
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Adorn: Jewellery and Identity
Thursday 5 - Monday 30 September 2019
Come and learn about how objects have played a huge part in expressing identity and gender throughout history. There may also be the opportunity for some of your stories to feature in Colchester Museums’ displays and the brand new…
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Ian Giles: Outhouse
Thursday 5 - Friday 27 September 2019
Ian Giles: Outhouse FREE Outhouse is a mobile queer space traveling across East Anglia. The transparent walls of the cylindrical structure feature photographs and ephemera related to historic and contemporary LGBTQI+ culture from the East of England. This space…
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Elsa James: Black Girl Essex
Saturday 22 June - Sunday 22 September 2019
Drawing on the original conception of the gallery surrounding the Berryfield Mosaic as ‘Colchester’s sitting room’, Firstsite has re-conceived the space as a working studio for the next 3 years— a site for not only the presentation of art,…
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Cory Arcangel: BACK OFF
Saturday 4 May - Sunday 7 July 2019
Thoughts on violence, aggression, and surveillance; as seen through retro gaming, military technology and fashion. A survey featuring drawing, photography, lorry lights, a laser, a drum machine, and a baby monitor, as well as a new series of prints…
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Roy Colmer: An Optical Haze of Colour
Friday 3 May - Sunday 7 July 2019
Roy Colmer (1935-2014) was a London-born artist known for photomontages, films and colour intensive paintings. Responding to the widespread availability of new, electronic media in the 1970s, Colmer sought to reproduce in paint, the patterns and effects familiar to…
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Magda Archer | Problems with Modern Life
Friday 5 April - Sunday 23 June 2019
Problems with Modern Life is a new poster exhibition by artist Magda Archer. Bursting with colour and a love of typography, Archer’s artworks juxtapose retro and often optimistic imagery with popular words or phrases; mimicking online memes in their…
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Courage Calls To Courage Everywhere: The Making of the Millicent Fawcett Statue for Parliament Square by Gillian Wearing
Saturday 10 November 2018 - Sunday 2 June 2019
Courage Calls To Courage Everywhere is an exhibition documenting the creation of Turner Prize-winning artist Gillian Wearing’s recently-unveiled statue of Suffragist leader Millicent Fawcett, situated in Parliament Square, London. It features a number of artworks drawn from Wearing’s celebrated photographic…
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susan pui san lok | A Coven A Grove A Stand
Friday 8 February - Monday 22 April 2019
Rediscovering the persecution of witches, reimagining the landscape. An evolving installation combining sculpture, sound and moving image, with hand-crafted pieces from local communities. A Coven A Grove A Stand is a major exhibition by the artist susan pui san lok. The…
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Zoe Beloff | Emotions Go to Work
Saturday 19 January - Monday 22 April 2019
‘Emotions Go to Work’ is an interactive installation by New York based artist and filmmaker Zoe Beloff. It investigates how technology is used to turn our feelings into valuable assets. Ever since the 19th century, people have been collecting…
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flyingleaps: Art on the streets (II)
Saturday 12 January - Sunday 24 March 2019
Following the success of the initial presentation in 2018, Firstsite is pleased to present a second collaboration with ‘flyingleaps’, an organisation that commissions artists to create posters in response to contemporary politics, events and ideas. Launched on the day of…
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Raqs Media Collective: Not Yet At Ease
Friday 28 September 2018 - Sunday 20 January 2019
Co-commissioned by 14-18 NOW 2018 Not Yet At Ease explores the history of psychological disorders resulting from conflict and the stigmas attached to them. Using poetry and performance, this immersive artwork is inspired by letters written by soldiers during…
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Legacy: Two works on hope and memory
Saturday 22 September 2018 - Sunday 6 January 2019
Legacy: two works on hope and memory is a Crafts Council touring exhibition showcasing ceramic installations to commemorate the centenary of the First World War. The exhibition brings together work by ceramic artists Julian Stair and Clare Twomey. For Stair and Twomey, clay is a material that is…
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BRONZE AGE c. 3500 BC – AD 2018
Saturday 17 March - Sunday 28 October 2018
Phyllida Barlow • Louise Bourgeois • Martin Creed • Alberto Giacometti • Diego Giacometti • Subodh Gupta • Eva Hesse • Jenny Holzer • Thomas Houseago • Matthew Day Jackson • Hans Josephsohn • Bharti Kher • Anna Maria…
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Play It Again: The art of remaking
Saturday 30 June - Sunday 9 September 2018
‘Play It Again: The art of remaking’ features ‘remade’ objects, events and films, produced by artists and the public. The exhibition showcases how history, contemporary culture and our own everyday experiences inspire repetition, remaking and reenactment in different forms….
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Scott King | A New Life in Frigg
Saturday 16 June - Sunday 9 September 2018
Do you remember:When you knew your neighbours?When shop assistants were not machines?When you could still telephone your bank?When a holiday was at home, not abroad?When summer seemed to last forever?When you felt that you belonged? If you answered YES…
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Lata Upadhyaya | Transit: The Identity of a White Van
Saturday 12 May - Sunday 24 June 2018
Transit: The Identity of a White Van’ is an artwork by Essex based artist Lata Upadhyaya. An ordinary white Ford Transit van has been transformed; now enveloped in a graphic design that reflects the rich diversity of contemporary Britain and the…
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The Britishness Project
Saturday 17 March - Sunday 17 June 2018
‘The Britishness Project’ is a groundbreaking exhibition that explores national identity through art. From September to December 2017, eight professional artists undertook residencies for one term at seven schools and education organisations in Colchester, Harlow and Harwich. During this…
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Chip Night
Sunday 1 April - Sunday 3 June 2018
The Koestler East of England Exhibition curated by Firstsite’s Young Art Kommunity Firstsite, in partnership with the Koestler Trust, is delighted to present Chip Night, an exhibition of artwork, writing and music from prisons, secure hospitals and people on community…
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Float. | NUA showcase: Each To Their Own
Saturday 5 May 2018
Float. have teamed up with BA(hons) Fine Art students from Norwich University of the Arts for a one day pop up exhibition. Experience live art installations all day, with an open critique at 3pm. Float. is an open platform inviting…
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Rose Finn-Kelcey | Power for the People
Monday 1 January - Sunday 4 March 2018
Power for the People brings together over four decades of work by highly-acclaimed and influential British artist Rose Finn-Kelcey. Born in Northampton in 1945, Finn-Kelcey attended Ravensbourne College of Art and Design before moving to London in 1968 to study…
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Wunderkammer: A cabinet of curiosities from Colchester collections
Saturday 11 March 2017 - Sunday 25 February 2018
Exhibition opening event 10 March, 6 – 8pm In collaboration with Colchester and Ipswich Museums. Firstsite is making its very own Wunderkammer; a cabinet of curiosities that will grow over the coming years to surround the Berryfield Mosaic sited…
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Grayson Perry: The Life of Julie Cope
Saturday 18 November 2017 - Sunday 18 February 2018
Grayson Perry ‘The Life of Julie Cope’ is a unique presentation consisting of tapestries, woodcuts, ceramics and tiles designed by the Turner Prize-winning artist for ‘A House for Essex’ (2015), the building designed by the artist in collaboration with FAT…
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Film and Video Umbrella: Lawrence Lek
Monday 2 October - Thursday 30 November 2017
Geomancer As part of a new partnership, Firstsite is screening selected works from Film and Video Umbrella’s (FVU) impressive back-catalogue based on the gallery’s yearly programme themes. In 2017/2018 Firstsite is exploring identity and the second film to be…
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We: You, Me
Saturday 14 October - Sunday 19 November 2017
Emerging curators explore identity This autumn Firstsite has invited three emerging curators based in the east of England to explore contemporary identity through their own areas of research. In a unique group exhibition JMC Anderson, Charlie Bryan and Laurie Taylor Straiton bring together…
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Lubaina Himid: Warp and Weft
Saturday 1 July - Sunday 1 October 2017
Warp and Weft is a survey of works by the 2017 Turner Prize winner, Lubaina Himid. A key figure in the Black Arts Movement, Lubaina Himid first came to prominence in the 1980s when she began organising exhibitions of…
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Ed Gold: Other Worlds
Saturday 1 July - Sunday 17 September 2017
We are celebrating the work of Essex-based documentary photographer Ed Gold in a major exhibition. Entitled Ed Gold: Other Worlds, the presentation is made up a hundred photographs taken over a period spanning almost thirty years. These have been…
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BP Portrait Award 2016
Saturday 8 April - Sunday 18 June 2017
Selected from 2,557 entries by artists from eighty countries around the world, the BP Portrait Award 2016, organised by the National Portrait Gallery, London, represents the very best in contemporary portrait painting. From parents to poseurs, figurative nudes to famous…
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Zhang Enli : Gesture and Form
Saturday 11 March - Sunday 4 June 2017
Firstsite is delighted to host a major solo exhibition by the celebrated Chinese artist Zhang Enli. The centerpiece of the presentation will be a site-specific intervention that will span the entirety of the gallery’s 140-metre curving wall. This monumental…
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Gee Vaucher: Introspective
Saturday 12 November 2016 - Sunday 19 February 2017
Introspective is Gee Vaucher’s first major institutional show in the UK, and spans the artist’s career of more than forty years. It charts Vaucher’s journey from local activity to international ambition, from domestic concerns to world politics, and from healing…
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Cultural Traffic
Saturday 18 February 2017
Firstsite is delighted to announce that it will be staging Cultural Traffic, a fair for counterculture material, alongside a day of performance, poetry, music and film, on Saturday 18th February. Free and open to all, the fair will feature over 40 dealers…
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Flipside: Circuit Festival
Saturday 15 - Sunday 30 October 2016
YAK’S two week takeover of the gallery. Exhibitions, interactive installations, gaming café, dance battles, film screenings and workshops spin new perspectives as you encounter a shifting world of opposites, thresholds and scale. Don’t stay in the dark – join…
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