Shelter Exhibition At The New Walsall Art Gallery

Shelter – The Outside In National Open Exhibition is currently taking place at the New Walsall Art Gallery and is well worth a viewing. Taking it’s place across the whole of the third floor of the gallery, it showcases a range of art work that has been created in response to the theme ‘Shelter’.

The charity Outside In was established in 2006 to support artists who meet additional barriers to the art world. This might be due to health, disability, social circumstances or isolation. Shelter is their 7th national open exhibition, and the first that I have had the pleasure of seeing, and I was really impressed by the interpretations of the theme.

“The theme of ‘shelter’ is open to a variety of interpretations and seems particularly apt in a world where safety and security are increasingly in jeopardy for so many. Shelter could be used to describe a physical structure that provides protection, a place of refuge, somewhere that summons feelings of safety or belonging, such as a sanctuary or a ‘safe haven’, or the act of offering protection to others.”  Director and Founder of Outside In, Marc Steene OBE

The Exhibition

The exhibition is very varied in the use of mediums. There are large scale models and sculptures, some of which quite literally represent a building that could be considered to be a shelter – for instance, a home or building. There are paintings that represent shelter in either a traditional form – a house or building, or a more abstract concept – family for instance, or a birds nest, which could certainly represent shelter for an animal. There are also lots of representations of a country as being a place of shelter, with images and models that allude, both overtly and more covertly, to shelter for refugees, and what it means in that instance, i.e. a place of sanctuary and safety.

Thoughts

I really enjoyed this exhibition, which has a theme that is so open to interpretation, and therfore offers something for everyone to enjoy, whilst also serving to be thought provoking. One of my personal passions is architecture, so I personally enjoyed the drawings, paintings and photographs that look at shelter in the traditional sense, that of a building of some sort.

My personal favourite piece is the brilliantly surreal Helter Skelter by Helen Grundy which has a feel of a pop art piece and is just beautifully bright and vibrant. It sums up the theme brilliantly.

Shelter is at the New Walsall Art Gallery until 19 October 2025.

Entrance to the exhibition is free.

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