In Proximity: Norwich Castle Open Art Show – Norwich Castle Museum & Art Gallery
A new exhibition featuring the work of 87 artists working in East Anglia will open at Norwich Castle Museum & Art Gallery in February. In Proximity: Norwich Castle Open Art Show will bring together some of the most exciting artists working across the region today and includes sculpture, painting, drawing, ceramics, photography and film. The exhibition, supported by Jarrolds, is the result of an open call issued in partnership with East Anglia Art Fund (EAAF) and is one of the largest open art shows ever held at Norwich Castle. All the works on show are available for sale, with the proceeds going to the artists and towards EAAF’s support for exhibitions and art education in the region. Jarrolds are sponsoring a prize, that will be awarded to one of the participating artists in April.
The exhibition takes experiences of closeness as its theme. Using careful observation and a range of approaches, the exhibiting artists delve into real and imagined relationships with the places, objects, people and other life forms that make up our surroundings. The first gallery foregrounds work featuring encounters between people and animals, and with urban and rural environments. Artists on show include Norwich-based Maria Pavledis, who presents a monumental image of a vigorous bear, created using burning and scratching on hand printed paper. Robert Sherratt’s Museum Birds and Jane Kearney’s Dawn Siren depict birdlife; whilst Tessa Newcomb’s painting of goats and the hunted creatures in Nessie Stonebridge’s clay sculpture We Bleed Together, form a fantastical menagerie of animals.
Shared concerns with the fragility, power and mystery of the natural world emerge. Tor Falcon’s May Blossom, Dusk and Barbara Howey’s Marsh suggest formal experiments with nature at close range. Sculptural works on display include Carolyn Brooke-Davies’ Steel Bound Razor Stack, a composition incorporating dozens of razor clam shells and Gwyneth Fitzmaurice’s Stem with Seven Stalks, which is carefully crafted in papier-mâché. Urban and built environments are depicted in works such as Craig Frost’s Collision Course and Jack Mckenzie’s California Road, Norfolk which engage with the vernacular architecture of our region.
Artworks in the second gallery explore objects and materials, and how experiences of proximity can be shaped by time, space, colour and light. Matthew Richardson’s ceramic work Settlement is inspired by finds in an archaeological dig, while the ink for Raphaella Pester’s meticulously patterned aquatint print Currents, has been made using soot from the fireplace of her father’s home in Essex. Tefler Stokes exhibits Vécu, an abstract sculpture made of polychrome welded steel, shown with Brenda Unwin’s painting Magenta Quinacridone, Quinacridone Gold which explores the proximity of colours and Mellow Square, a striking geometric composition by Mary Mellor. Sophie Standford’s film Dialogue with my Father investigates the complex emotions that we attach to objects, as does Clare Jarrett’s sculpture Impermeable, which is made from a tightly compressed garment that belonged to her mother
The broad range of work celebrates the ambitious scope of creative practice in East Anglia. Artists who have connections with Norwich University of the Arts are well-represented, with work by Matthew Benington, Neil Bousfield, Lizzie Kimbley and recent graduate Rollo Timothy George on display. John Kiki and Mary Mellor have previously exhibited at Norwich Castle and have work in the permanent collections of Norfolk Museums Service.
The open call for works took place in the autumn, with artists working in Cambridgeshire, Essex, Norfolk and Suffolk invited to submit up to two pieces each. Submissions were selected anonymously in December 2025 by writer and curator Sarah Lowndes and artist Daniel & Clara, alongside Amanda Geitner, Director of EAAF, and Lisa Newby, Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at Norwich Castle Museum & Art Gallery.
In Proximity: Norwich Castle Open Art Show attracted almost 900 entries. It is the latest in a long line of open call shows which have been developed in partnership with EAAF at Norwich Castle over the past twenty years. Building on their commitment to art in the region, EAAF administer and promote the open call and the sale of artwork in the show.
