Film Oxford presents the latest work by the Shadowlight Artists. In this exhibition across two venues, Old Fire Station and Modern Art Oxford, the group showcases work spanning installation, painting, digital media and theatrical production. The exhibition celebrates the group’s creative growth since their formation in 2009 with an artistically ambitious body of work which re-frames disability arts.

The exhibition features major new works by the core group alongside two new films produced by the wider Shadowlight Associates group. The work in the show represents a major upscaling of the group’s ambitions.

Mark Hemsworth’s print works represent a departure into large-scale print works reflecting his obsession with collecting images, and a new installation by Richard Hunt expands his painting practice into the realms of multi-media installation. A new animation by Tom Breach blends autobiographical experience with fantasy, and Lucy Skuce’s video installation blends her obsession with construction and the domestic environment. Danny Smith’s new film continues his interest into ancestral memory and the cultures of prehistory.

Friday 19 October join us here, and at Modern Art Oxford, to celebrate the opening of the exhibition.

The exhibition follows the premiere of Shadowlight artist Russell Highsmith’s play:

Singles Night
Wednesday 19 & Thursday 20 September, 7.30pm
Life is happening. Love is all around. Emma and James are flatmates; they’ve been friends forever, and are looking for their fairytale endings. When Amber pops up with her dating agency, “Friends ‘n’ Lovers”, what could possibly go wrong?
Tickets: £8.50/£6. Click here.

Since 2009 the group have done much to change the perceptions of artists with learning disabilities. The group has shown work at film festivals internationally, and were winners of the Haelo film festival award in 2016. Russell Highsmith became the first writer with a learning disability to have a play produced on stage in the UK in the same year, and in 2017 Richard Hunt won the Shape Open award for disability arts, the first time an artist with a learning disability has won the award.

“This fascinating and often moving exhibition made quite an impression on me. It has encouraged a less constrained and more honest approach to my own work.” – From Deborah Caulfield’s Disability Arts Online review of the group’s 2016 exhibition, Creative Bridges