Announcing 'The Secret Members' Show'

Humbled by the response to our last two shows, we're most excited to finally pull the silk sheet off the next one: The Secret Members' Show.

Featuring specially-commissioned new work by one male and 17 female international artists and craftspeople, this is the first group created by Factoryroad, and will showcase work in a bewildering array of media by

Andrea Gibson, Boulder, Colorado

Anne Coleman, Hinckley 

April Ball, London

Beth Robinson’s Strange Dolls, Vermont

Caroline Allen, Brighton

Drew Jerrison, Leicester

Florence EMA Blanchard, Paris

Inkymole, Factoryroad Gallery

Jacquie O'Neill, Cornwall

Jill Calder, Kingdom of Fife

Kelly Merrell, Leicester

Lily Blythe, Stoke on Trent

Lisa Hayes, Hinckley

Melanie Tomlinson, Birmingham

Rebecca Lewis, Reading

Rebecca Lupton, Manchester

Shirley Gibson, Glasgow

Tracy Walker, Hinckley

Guests and contributors are invited to the opening night on

Saturday 24th September, 5pm till 11pm

Factoryroad Gallery

Hinckley

Leicestershire

t: 07545 599801

e: gallery@factoryroad.net

w: http://www.factoryroadgallery.net

The exhibits will remain on show until Friday 11th October. If you'd like to come during the week, just let us know. gallery@factoryroad.net

Since this is a living/working space as well as a gallery, attendance is strictly by RSVP to gallery@factoryroad.net

Once you email we'll send the full address! 

And if you need accommodation or help with travel plans, do email, we have information ready.

Please note that although youngsters are usually welcomed to our shows, this one contains adult themes, so is:

We cannot wait!

Blind One.

We've got a row of 8 blinds across the back of the new studio space, which are presently white and which cover the floor-to-ceiling glass doors. These can be opened out onto the garden which, once it's recovered from the devastation of building work, will be green and handsome and, we hope, full of birds!

Right now the snow covers only the beginnings of a pond and a half-built wood store, so the blinds are closed as early as four o'clock. We came up with the idea, some time ago, of having each of our artist friends decorate a blind for us, so we'd have a ready-made installation of eight pieces of art to continually feast our eyes on after dark. Since we can only remove one blind at a time (or face being exposed to the entire street 24/7), we're doing them one by one.

The first is by Kelly Merrell. Kelly works mainly in felt pens and fine liners, and doodles rather than draws - her work has an obsessive intensity which belies the fact that she creates it in actually a rather casual, relaxed way; in front of the TV, in bed, on the sofa...but to gaze into it, you might think it's the product of hours spent in a darkened room alone with one's own thoughts and demons, no books, no phone, no daylight, no...

We gave her a brief and she produced a sketch - not Kelly's usual way of working, since her pieces are nearly always the product of a spontaneous imagination and are essentially self-perpetuating - then she got stuck in with black Poscas (in different sizes, leaving plenty of space in which the really intense parts could breathe). Result! It's possible to stare at it for hours and see things you haven't spotted before. You can also see more of Kelly's doodles on her Flickr page.

We've got the next few artists lined up, but we'll leave it till the winter's over before starting the next one. Brrrr. By then, the back wall should be built, so far fewer nosy neighbours will get a look-in... they're missing out on some great art though, poor souls.

Kelly's sketch:

Work in progress:

In situ:

Close-ups: