Since April 2023, Katherine Howes has been a member of AMASS, an artist collective, based in the West Midlands. We create and curate exhibitions and shows as a group, as well as arrange regular meet-ups to share news and individual achievements, make art, and generally nurture our homegrown artistic community. Our values are based on a culture of collaboration, support, and possibility.
"In a post-Elizabeth II, post-Brexit, post-pandemic era, we make art that reflects on our dramatically changing times. AMASS is an international, diverse group of artists connected to Birmingham, the Black Country and the Midlands. We create work that is multidisciplinary and intersectional; responding to time and place."
ABSENCE
Our second, and most recent, group exhibition took place at Stryx Community Cafe, Jewellery Quarter on the 22nd-28th January 2024. The gallery was open daily 9am -3pm, with a Private View on January 28th at 7pm.
This exhibition is kindly sponsored by @cafestryx and @stryx_gallery
My work, Legacy (2024), featured on the show marketing. Shown hung in the gallery space (right)
"LEGACY is a multi-generational mixed media piece. The original oil painting layer is by the Artist’s grandfather, Robert Whitmore, and was one of the last things he created in his 80s, after a successful career as an artist and art educator. Howes feels there were many barriers to her relationship with her grandfather during his lifetime, as her only memories of him were visits to hospitals and care homes in the later stages of his life, when communication was difficult. A teacher and artist herself now, Howes continues in her grandfather’s footsteps; making, encouraging and sharing imagery. In the absence of real memories of conversations, a virtual, ethereal relationship is developed through the completed image; creating a collaboration between living and dead kin. What work will we leave unfinished when our time comes?"
"ABSENCE is the second show of the Amass Artist Collective. The week-long show, at Stryx Gallery, in Vyse Street, is supported by Stryx and brings together the multidisciplinary work of 13 artists from the collective, each responding individually to the theme of ABSENCE and to the space. The Collective brings together graduate artists from the West Midlands, and around the world, who studied together at Birmingham City University during the pandemic. This latest exhibition continues the collectives' commitment to developing a thriving community of artists by providing opportunities to collaborate on group shows as well as supporting individual artistic practice through critique, discussion and knowledge sharing. Artists have responded to the theme of ABSENCE in different, and often very personal ways, exploring memory, loss, connections, stories, people, places, rituals and more."
@styrx_gallery
@amass_collective
YouTube @Amass_Artist_Collective
@amass_collective
YouTube @Amass_Artist_Collective
Exhibition Events:
24th January 1pm Live music from Me and Thee
25th January 1pm Artist talk: Aqsa Khan Nasar
26th January 1pm Drawing workshop with Michelle Foley
27th January 7pm Private view with Artists' Q&A,
More information about the exhibition can be found @stryx_gallery and @cafestryx
AFTERMATH
Aftermath was a group art exhibition that launched on May 12th 2023 at Asylum Art Gallery and ran for 2 months in Wolverhampton.
The exhibition was an evolving, rotating dialogue of self-reflective expression with each other and the viewer, using sculpture, digital art, painting, sound, technology, and a variety of found materials to communicate and share ideas, perspectives, and individual expression.
My digital prints, entitled Staring at the Sky, Lying in the Clovers, and Wading in the Water (left to right respectively) featured in this exhibition. They were still images taken from my original film from my installation Khora, which I produced in 2022. A version of Khora was available to view via the QR code in the gallery.
Exhibition Events:
12th May First iteration opening night 6-9pm with
Artists' talk from Katherine Howes, Ian Green, Jingyn He and Chantal Pitts
21st May Artist's talk Ryan Asbury 2.30pm
2nd June Second iteration opening night, 6-9pm
23rd June closing party and Zine launch 6-9pm
More information about the exhibition can be found at www.theasylumartgallery.com/portfolio
More images and information about the other members of Amass can be found on Instagram at @amass_collective and on our YouTube channel @Amass_Artist_Collective.