New Ashgate Gallery champions the best of contemporary art and craft providing an unparalleled resource in Farnham, Surrey and beyond
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New season of exhibitions and events
Known for selecting art and craft of the highest quality, the gallery team has handpicked artists from across the UK. Our exhibitions present glass, ceramics, jewellery, sculpture, print and painting.
View our Winter Season Leaflet
New Ashgate Gallery curates a programme of 20-30 annual exhibitions and related events, often working in partnership with local and national organisations. In addition to our lead exhibitions in the Pavilion Gallery, affordable Craft Collection, Maker in Focus and projects in the Balcony Gallery are worth the visit.
While we show work by artists at all stages of their careers, supporting emerging talent in the market place is close to our heart.
Also, explore and enjoy our curated online shop.
Shakspeare Glass, Hedgerow Conglom
9 November 2019 to 4 January 2020
Maker in Focus: Will Shakspeare: Shakspeare Glass
We are delighted to exhibit a large selection of Shakspeare Glass this Christmas - from larger sculptures to beautiful vases and festive baubles.
Will Shakspeare is one of the country's best known glass blowers. He has been featured regularly in the press and on TV including Inside The Factory, Kirstie's Homemade Home and Kirstie's Homemade Christmas with Kirstie Allsopp, and in the Telegraph Magazine with David Nicholls. Will says:
It is interesting to see how a thread of an idea expands into a body of work, and in which direction it takes me. Sometimes I am not happy with where it is going, and at others I am pleased with where it has got to. At present I am in a landscape 'period' and enjoying a different way of looking at glass and bringing my inspiration home.
Will set up Shakspeare Glass over 25 years ago and has supplied many galleries and well-known stores in that time. He has also worked in Central and South America as a consultant in glass production and design.
Sally Ann Fitter, Evening Table, acrylic and mixed media on canvas
Ilona Sulikova ceramics
9 November 2019 to 4 January 2020
Winter Exhibition: Art and Craft with Local Heart
Art and Craft with Local Heart
At Christmas thoughts turn to home so our Winter Exhibition presents a range of unique, local art and craft that you won't find anywhere else. Treat yourself to something new for your home or buy gifts for loved ones. Pop in, browse and shop away from the crowds. You'll be supporting local gallery and small creative arts and crafts businesses if you do, as well as finding something different and special this Christmas.
Painting by Tim Burns, Emma Dunbar, Graham Evernden, Sally Anne Fitter, Debbie George, Susie Lidstone, Fiona Millais, Vicky Nigoumi, Fiona Pearce, Victoria Potts, Ray Sheldon, Alexander Randall, Virginia Ray, Catherine Warren and Suzanne Winn.
Limited edition prints by Neil Bousfield, Ann Burnham, Janet Curley Cannon, Caroline Jackman, Jane Peart, Tessa Pearson, Hugh Ribbans and Jenny Seddon.
Sculpture by Celia Allen, Marina Baumgail, Gin Durham, Faye Mayo, Liane Matthews, David Mayne, Ilona Sulikova, Gwen Vaughan and Ed Willis.
Ceramics by Alice Funge, Adele Goulty, Richard Heeley, Claire Lardner Burke, Hilke MacIntyre, Rhian Malin, Jode Pankhurst, Bryony Rich, Katalin Szallas and Charlotte Voaden.
Jewellery by Ruta Brown, Shimara Carlow, Kaya Cohen, Rebecca Halstead, Rachel Jones, Losa Lou, Angie Mehew, Guy Royle, Thea Smartt Hen, Katie Timson and Melanie Tomlinson.
Festive decoration by Fleur Grenier and Susan Trevor.
Woodwork by Kevin Stamper and Surrey Woodsmiths.
Glass by Theo Brooks.
Textiles by Miss Knit Knat.
Jeni Ross, Observers Scattered (detail), woven tapestry
9 November 2019 to 4 January 2020
Hygge: the art of intimacy and simple acts
Hygge is a Danish word used when acknowledging a feeling or moment as cosy, charming or special. It requires consciousness, a certain slowness, and the ability to not just be present - but recognise and enjoy the present. Hygge is about an art of creating intimacy. While there's no one English word to describe hygge, several can be used interchangeably to describe the concept such as cosiness, charm, happiness, contentment, security, familiarity, comfort, reassurance, kinship, and simplicity.
Our festive Hygge exhibition presents handcrafted work that helps us to survive the cold, dark and sameness of the winter time. These objects will celebrate, acknowledge and break up the mundane. With so many cold, dark, days, the simple act of a lighting a candle and enjoying a beautiful cup of coffee could make a huge difference to one's spirit.
Some of the highlights in the exhibition include Ekta Kaul's special embroidered Story Maps rooted in narrative, handwoven tapestry by Jeni Ross rich in colour, warm homewares from Judeworks, atmospheric lighting by Amy Cooper and Liz Scrine, beautifully crafted mini houses by Fiona Findley, delightful ceramics by Isobel Higley and ceramic sculpture by Alison Proctor, exploring the natural word in a series of tactile festive terracotta vases decorated with leaves and flora.
11 January to 29 February 2020
Craft Town Public Art Commission: Public Voting to Select the Winning Proposal
We are delighted to invite the local community to vote and select the winning proposal for a new Craft Town Public Art commission.
Proposals were invited during the autumn for a public sculpture / artwork that is inspired by the heritage and tradition of crafts in Farnham. The artwork will celebrate crafts that have been practised in the area during the Roman period: the district was known as a pottery centre due to its supply of gault clay, oak woodland for fuel and good communication links. Kilns dating as far as AD 100 have been found in the area. Today, Farnham hosts a remarkable number of major institutions and makers who dedicate time, resources and creative energies to sustaining craft as one of the great defining features of place here. The sculpture aims to enhance the public knowledge and understanding of the heritage while also bringing pleasure to the community and visitors alike.
The sculpture will be located next to a busy car park in the courtyard of the grade II listed building of the New Ashgate Gallery Trust in Waggon Yard.
Proposals by three shortlisted artists will be exhibited at the New Ashgate Gallery from 11 January to 29 February and the public will be invited to vote and select the winning proposal - to be announced on 7 February. The sculpture will be installed in October 2020 - during the craft month in Farnham.
The public art commission is supported by Arts Council England.
Jacky Paynter, Behind Porthmeor
11 January to 29 February 2020
Jacky Paynter: Returning to Look
Jacky Paynter's work is based on her experiences in St Ives throughout the year: wild weather and stormy seas, sunny days and rugged walks. Jacky also finds inspiration in the working history that makes St Ives such a unique place, and in how today's pristine holiday cottages were once home to the poorest fishermen and their families. Information from sketches and the odd photographic reference are often the starting points. The paintings evolve in an intuitive, expressive way; layers will go on and come off again. Jacky seeks out unusual viewpoints and compositions. Her paintings, in acrylic, oil or mixed media, capture the atmosphere of St Ives and show her love of colour, texture, line and drawing.
Born and educated in East London, Jacky moved to Cornwall at the age of 16. She studied Graphic Design at Redruth School of Art, which is now part of Falmouth University. Returning to London at the age of 20, she worked in small design groups before moving into publishing. Jacky became an Art Director for Walker Books (Children's Books) and enjoyed working with many talented illustrators. Art in some form has always been a significant part of Jacky's life. Now retired, she is able to develop her painting style, attending Morley College in London and various workshops at the St Ives School of Painting. She recently completed the Porthmeor Programme. Although she now lives in Hampshire, Jacky appreciates the deep connection she has to Cornwall, returning as often as possible to look and respond again.
Ruth Taylor, Running Wild, oil
11 January to 29 February 2020
Ruth Taylor: Colouring in the Landscape
Ruth Taylor trained as a textile designer at West Surrey College of Art and Design in the early 80s and after many years working with fabric in many forms she discovered a love of oil painting which has become her main form of artistic expression. The influence of her work with textiles is evident in her work, her love of colour, texture and pattern is as much an inspiration as the English countryside. Ruth loads the surface with paint, moving it around with brushes, combs and even her hands looking to capture a particular light or the effect of the weather and seasons on the land.
This exhibition focuses on Ruth's work on landscapes: the volume of the colours is turned up high, the marks are exaggerated and the views are mystical. However, beneath the volume and marks, there is the framework of the English landscape; whether it is a Sussex marsh, a deserted beach or the South Downs of my childhood. As Ruth says: I paint the images of this land that have imprinted themselves in my mind over the years.
Yo Thom ceramics
11 January to 29 February 2020
Maker in Focus: Yo Thom: Clothes for Food
Yo Thom's work is thrown and hand-built functional stoneware with influence from both UK and Japan, but mostly from Japanese food culture. She creates tableware, which will become clothes for food, as Rosanjin once said. It performs as a background for the food you serve as yet retains strong personality. The harmony of her tableware with food is the essence of Yo's ceramics.
Danniella Wilde, Anemones
18 January to 18 April 2020
Spring Craft Collection: Crafts with the Local Heart
Our specially selected collection of ceramics, jewellery and textiles. All items are beautifully hand-crafted by some of the UK's most talented designer-makers: they are perfect pieces for any home or to give as beautiful gifts if you can bear to part with them!
Mitch Pilkington, Two Pink Point Sculptural Vessels
7 March to 18 April 2020
One Year On: Mitch Pilkington: Winner of Rising Stars 2018
Drawn to the organic, natural forms of coastal forays in her home of North Devon, and the worn, dry spirals of weathered conch shells, gathered on warm Caribbean beaches, Mitch communicates the sculptural qualities of these influences. Her ceramics are instinctively handformed in an emotionally intuitive and mindful process using methods such as coiling and pinching. Each piece, a vessel for her emotional journey. Working in grogged stoneware clay, with a palate of coastal shades, and using various stains, slips and oxides, she enhances the natural stone-like quality of the clay.
For Mitch, hand-building is what drives her passion to create her sculptural ceramics. The rhythmic, meditative and mindful process of coiling, and the many hours scraping and sculpting, provide her with the emotional salve to the stresses of life's everyday challenges. Each piece is an emotional response to the clay, hosting their calming solice.
Within her work, Mitch tries to create a haptic aesthetic that communicates a sense of calm, serenity and connection.
7 March to 18 April 2020
Rising Stars 2020
Rising Stars is a platform for some of the most exciting new crafts by emerging makers in crafts, design and applied arts. This curated, selling exhibition will be showcased at the New Ashgate Gallery and also include a programme of makers' professional development events and a £500 prize. The participants are graduating students, recent graduates or at a pivotal moment in their early career due to changed circumstances.
Many of the graduating makers are at cross roads: they have a full portfolio of fabulous ideas, but are yet to establish their business skills and a network of collectors. Rising Stars offers just the right platform, and for many, it is a starting point for an exceptional career. Rising Stars is an opportunity for both makers as well as art collectors who wish to support and collect work by future stars.
Rising Stars is organised by the New Ashgate Gallery and supported by the Billmeir Charitable Trust. We work in partnership with the University for the Creative Arts, Farnham.
