Gallery walls in Coventry to be transformed into eye-catching works of art

The walls of a Coventry gallery and museum will themselves become eye-catching works of art when an exhibition opens this summer.

Work on Walls will see some of the walls in the Herbert Art Gallery & Museum transformed by contemporary artists, in response to the Herbert’s own collections.

Over the past few months, exhibitions manager Dominic Bubb has been commissioning artists who have all had opportunities to explore and be inspired by the Herbert’s collections and develop ideas for several of the galleries.

It builds on a similar, successful exhibition back in the summer of 2020 called Work on Windows where artists developed works that featured on the external windows of the museum.

Each of the eight artists chosen for Work on Walls will bring their own unique identity and will, in the main, create a ‘street art’ feel to the galleries.

Four artists – Annatomix, Phill Blake, Scribblefiti and Window Artists – will bring colour and life to the walls of Gallery 1.1 at the Herbert.

Another artist, Jemima Graham, has been working with Art Riot, which is based at FarGo Village and supports neuro-diverse artists, and will be creating wall hangings for Gallery 1.2 based on visits to Coventry Cathedral.

Similarly, Roo has worked with Escape Arts’ Stratford youth group, to develop street art based on what has inspired the group’s members from the Herbert’s collection.

The work of the first six artists in the Work on Walls exhibition will open on Friday, June 23, with a further two to follow before the start of the school summer holidays.

Roots, a regionally based artist, has been working with the Herbert’s learning team to help bring to life this year’s early years installation. It will include UK-based marine, wildlife and bird’s nest inspired installations.

Finally, Andy Council will take inspiration from Dippy the Dinosaur being based at the Herbert and from Coventry’s skyline and will produce a striking mural for Gallery 1.3 that will see famous city landmarks springing out from a colourful dinosaur.

Dominic said Work on Walls is the perfect summer exhibition for the Herbert as it brings something new to the galleries but based on existing works and objects.

He said: “Work on Windows was a fantastic way of using the Herbert’s collections to create new works when it was difficult to gather indoors at the height of the pandemic.

“Work on Walls builds on that success and will transform some of galleries for the next few months and bring striking, colourful images to the walls.

“All of the artists that we are working with will create really eye-catching works and it’s going to be a great way of attracting a whole range of audiences this summer.

“On top of that, when people are visiting to see Dippy it’s a great opportunity for them to explore the rest of the Herbert too.”

He added: “We’ve given all of the artists time with our collections and they’ve really been inspired by what we have and, because many of them depict animals and wildlife in their work, they’ve been particularly interested in some of the taxidermy we have.

“As part of the exhibition, we’ll be showing the particular works or objects that have inspired the artists to help get more of our collection on display and also to bring context to Work on Walls.

“We are very much looking forward to it.”

For more information on Work on Walls go to https://www.theherbert.org