Join us for a free guided tour of Bonington Gallery’s latest exhibitions with BSL interpretation.
Book your free ticket and enjoy a guided tour of layt de kam, a solo exhibition by Ibiye Camp, led by the Gallery’s Director, Tom Godfrey.
Along with an introduction to the exhibition, Tom will talk through the accompanying Vitrines exhibition, Through Our Eyes, In Our Words.
This event will last up to an hour. Please meet inside Bonington Building in the foyer space outside the Gallery doors at 12.55 pm. Free and open to all, booking required.
Bonington Gallery presents A Semester in Nottingham, 1976, an exhibition of photographs by Baltimore-based John Dean. Captured during his time as a visiting student to Nottingham Trent University (NTU) in 1976, these photographs offer a powerful glimpse into Nottingham life during a transformative era.
This exhibition marks a poignant return to the institution — formerly Trent Polytechnic — where John studied as a visiting student nearly fifty years ago.
Armed with a camera and a quiet curiosity, John immersed himself in the rhythms of Nottingham life. Over the course of a single semester, he wandered the city’s streets and parks — Hyson Green, Market Square, the Arboretum — capturing striking black-and-white portraits of residents going about their daily lives. The resulting images are both documentary and deeply personal, offering a rare and intimate glimpse into the everyday lives of Nottingham’s people during a transformative era.
First developed in Trent’s own darkrooms (situated next door to the gallery), these photographs have remained largely unseen for decades. Now, they return to the place of their origin, standing as a testament to the power of observational storytelling, told through the eyes of a visitor to the city.
John has since built a distinguished career as a producer and videographer, creating historical and educational media for museums and non-profit organisations across the United States and beyond. Yet photography remains his first and most enduring creative language — a medium through which he continues to explore the intersections of memory, environment, and human experience.
John Dean is a Baltimore-based photographer, videographer who graduated with a BFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art. He regularly works with museums, non-profit organisations and editorial platforms on the creation of educational and historical media and content.
In addition to institutional work, John’s independent photographic practice has taken him across the world, exploring historic and cultural sites of significance, such as excavation sites in Greece and sacred spaces in Istanbul. As a long time mentor and arts advocate, John is consistently guided by a curiosity for human stories.
Join us for the launch of our latest exhibitions — a film and textile work by multi-disciplinary artist Ibiye Camp, exploring the complex interplay between infrastructure, care, and resilience along the coast of West Africa.
Layt de kam critically examines the deployment of temporary power ships along West African coasts as a response to energy shortages. The work reflects both hope and uncertainty, emphasizing the fragility of these energy solutions while honouring the resilience of coastal communities.
For the 29th instalment of the Bonington Vitrines series, we’re delighted to present Through Our Eyes, In Our Words, an exhibition presenting stories of ageing, belonging, and inclusion among middle-aged and older-aged LGBT+ people in Britain.
Enjoy a free welcome drink, delicious food (first come, first served!) and music.
All welcome but reserve your free ticket to avoid disappointment.
Bonington Gallery is delighted to present Through Our Eyes, In Our Words, an exhibition exploring stories of ageing, belonging, and inclusion among middle-aged and older-aged LGBT+ people in Britain.
What does it mean to belong? To grow older? To feel heard, seen, recognised?
Spanning LGBT+ History Month 2026, this exhibition from the IncludeAge project invites you to engage with the experiences of middle-aged and older-aged LGBT+ people in Britain today. Reflected through photographs, personal objects and testimony, LGBT+ people share what matters to them: the places they love and where they feel seen, and the everyday moments that shape who they are.
These artefacts don’t come from behind a lens held by someone else. They were taken by the people whose stories they tell. Some might identify as artists or creative practitioners, others not. Each photo and object is a choice – of what to show, how to show it, and what it means. Some speak of joy and celebration. Others quietly express frustration or longing—all of them reflect lives lived with strength, humour, creativity, and care.
The IncludeAge project (2022-26) explores experiences of inclusion and exclusion among diverse middle-aged and older aged people (40+), in physical places and online spaces..
The project specifically engages with LGBT+ individuals and people with learning disabilities. Its goal is to build on the insights shared by participants and use them to develop solutions that foster more inclusive communities.
The project is led by Professor Judith Sixsmith at the University of Dundee, in partnership with the University of Hertfordshire, Liverpool John Moores University, and the University of Edinburgh. Several organisations are also involved in the project, including Tonic Housing, Sleeping Giants, and Outside the Box, among others.
At Bonington during LGBT+ History Month 2026, Through Our Eyes / In Our Words showcases the richness of LGBT+ voices, histories, and imagery emerging through the project. Exhibitions elsewhere in the country will showcase material relating to the participants with learning disabilities.
For more information, please contact Dr Richard Vytniorgu (r.vytniorgu@herts.ac.uk).
Photo: Rosie Gardener
Join us for the launch of the first exhibition of the academic year, a two-person exhibition by William English and Sandra Cross bringing together film, photography, sculpture, sound, and archival material formed independently and collaboratively over several decades.
To Farse All Things offers a rare opportunity to explore the intertwined lives and practices of two artists whose work resists categorisation. Through a shared and uncompromising commitment to experimentation, hospitality, and social engagement, English and Cross have cultivated a body of work that is as generous as it is radical.
As part of the 28th instalment of the Bonington Vitrines series, we’re delighted to present Someone’s Doing Something, a project by London-based curatorial, research, and archival platform Gestures, developed in dialogue with writer Isabelle Bucklow.
Enjoy a free welcome drink, delicious food (first come, first served!) and music.
All welcome but reserve your free ticket to avoid disappointment.
For the 28th instalment of the Bonington Vitrines series, we’re delighted to present Someone’s Doing Something, a project by London based curatorial, research and archival platform Gestures, developed in dialogue with writer Isabelle Bucklow.
This project, featuring artists such as Stuart Sherman, Simon Moretti, and Yvonne Rainer, will present a selection of work that explores gesture as a form of artistic expression. Whilst some gestures are recorded through notation or residue, others survive only in documentation or retelling.
The works in Someone’s Doing Something reflect a broad range of these approaches, from the formal to the informal, the scripted to the instinctive, and considers these against shifting times and contexts.
In considering the location of the Bonington Vitrines, as a space that is moved through by 100’s of people each day going about their daily business, this quote by theatre director Peter Brook is considered:
“I can take any empty space and call it a bare stage. A man walks across this empty space whilst someone else is watching him, and this is all that is needed for an act of theatre to be engaged” – Peter Brook.
Gestures is a London based curatorial, research and archival platform that has organised exhibitions, interventions and projects in locations as diverse as sidewalks in New York and Travelodge hotel rooms, as well as exhibition spaces such as the Postal Museum in London and 47 Bedford Street in London.
Gestures is currently conducting long term research into Situation, a space in London that existed in the 1970s that did early exhibitions with artists including On Kawara, Bruce McLean and Bas Jan Ader.
Along with colleagues WC2E9HA, The Everyday Press aka Bunker Basement and Whatever Anderson, Gestures will open the shared exhibition space Chequers in Summer 2025.
Image credit: Stuart Sherman, The Twelfth Spectacle (Language), photo by Nathaniel Tileston, 1980, as included in The Stuart Sherman Papers, 2025.
Join us for a free guided tour of Bonington Gallery’s latest exhibition with BSL interpretation.
Book your free place and enjoy a tour of Bonington Gallery’s first exhibition of the season, To Farse All Things a joint exhibition by William English and Sandra Cross, led by the Gallery’s Director, Tom Godfrey.
Along with an introduction to the exhibition, Tom will talk through the accompanying Vitrines exhibition, Someone’s Doing Something.
This event will last up to an hour. Please meet inside Bonington Building in the foyer space outside the Gallery doors at 12.55 pm. Free and open to all, booking required.
In our latest archive display we take a closer look at Descendants of the Dragon, 1991. This exhibition highlighted the Chinese community within Britain, looking at the importance of the dragon within celebrations. The exhibition showed many sculptural/puppet works which were related to the dragon and other animals that are present in ritual celebrations in Chinese-British culture.
Descendants of the Dragon showcased Chinese artists based in the East Midlands, as well as works from China. The majority of the space was filled with sculptural works that were used in ritual and festival settings featuring a large dragons head at its centre, and a long boat to the side. The ceiling of the gallery was covered with kites of different animals, including cranes, eagles, owls, and butterflies.
Curated by Alex Jovčić-Sas, the Archive cabinet contains photographs from the original exhibition, alongside condition drawings/reports for the main piece which sat in the centre of the gallery. There are also some of the original captions which have been written in mandarin and translated into English.
This exhibition has recently been researched by Dr Vivien Chen who was looking into diasporic East Asian artists in the East Midlands.
For an exhibition in March 2025, we are running an open call for materials that relate to Nottingham’s independent fashion scene in the 1980’s.
This period was an exciting time for homegrown fashion and style culture. Brands such as G Force, Olto, Cocky’s Shed plus others combined local talent & style discernment, with entrepreneurism & DIY attitudes to start labels, open shops and form connections and influence on a global level.
Do you have any Nottingham labels in your wardrobe? Did you start/run/work for a local label? Did you shop at G Force? Do you have photos of you and your friends wearing garb to The Garage? Did you pick up copies of Nottingham’s style pages Débris or Despatch? etc etc! If so, we’d love to hear your anecdotes, see your photos and materials (Eg. photos of night out, flyers, receipts, magazines, brochures) that relate to the scene and time.
The intention is to build a collection of material that will become part of the exhibition, and if contributors are happy, have this preserved within a growing archive of material going forwards.
In the first instance please email boningtongallery@ntu.ac.uk with any information and digital copies of materials (just snaps on your phone is fine) and we can take the conversation from there.
Representing Lives was a conference that took place in July 1997. The theme explored the multiplicity of women’s identities through the medium of writing biographies and autobiographies, and was funded by the English and Media Studies department at Nottingham Trent University (NTU).
Alongside the conference was an exhibition at Bonington Gallery titled Representing Lives, curated by Pauline Lucas. The exhibition showed four artists, who responded to an open-call which mirrored the themes of the conference, and showcased a mixture of sculpture, painting, photography, and fashion works. The motivation was to examine different perceptions of women in fact and fiction to create a female space within the gallery. To explore this idea, the exhibition featured Hilary Cartmel, Lubaina Himid, Sonia Lawson, and Denise Weston – a mixture of established artists and NTU graduates. Denise Weston studied alongside Donald Rodney, who is the focus of our Bonington Vitrines #25 exhibition.
In addition to the exhibition, Representing Lives was one of the first exhibitions to be documented on Bonington Gallery’s new website. The show lasted for a month in the physical space, but its legacy remained for much longer due to its online presence. In the words of exhibition organiser, Stella Couloutbanis, it was a show “enjoyed by visitors, and computer buffs!”.
On display in the Bonington Archive Cabinet (which can be found in the foyer space outside our main gallery) is the original exhibition proposal by Pauline Lucas, a call for papers for the conference, a memorandum from Stella Couloutbanis to Nick Freestone, a postcard from Pauline Lucas, and images from the original exhibition.
Curated by Alex Jovčić-Sas
Hilary Cartmel graduated from Nottingham Trent Polytechnic in 1980 with a degree in Sculpture. Hilary’s juggler series created out of her customary medium of steel, represents the chaos of modern life. ‘The Clumsy Juggler’ is an androgynous figure which suggests the turmoil of coping with the demands of children, running a busy household whilst pursuing a career.
Hilary has produced sculpture for exhibitions and has shown her work in galleries all over the UK. She has exhibited many pieces of public sculpture on the street, including Carmen which resides outside Nottingham’s Theatre Royal. Hilary has recently completed the gates to the Nottingham Fashion Centre on Convent Street and has produced 27 screens for Rotherham’s Transport Interchange as part of the Interchange’s upgrading.
Denise Weston graduated with an honours degree in Fine Art. She then took an MA in Fine Art at the former Birmingham Polytechnic. Denise currently teaches at Basford Hall College in Nottingham and is a visiting lecturer at NTU. She has exhibited across the country since graduating and is proactive in nurturing artistic talent in Nottingham, notably, by helping to co-ordinate the ‘Oldknows Gallery Exhibitions’ from 1988 – 1993.
Using images of clothing, Denise illustrates her own personal experiences of being a woman whilst escaping the direction of the female form. Flaneuse is a multimedia work which incorporates an image of Denise’s own jacket.
Denise said: “The word ‘Flaneuse’ is the female equivalent of the french word ‘Flaneur’ meaning the spectator and depictor of modern life. The work was inspired by a walk home from the studio late one evening and the realisation that there are still avenues – quite literally – which women feel they cannot explore.”
She elaborated: “I am concerned with using the process of painting as a metaphor; taking the blank canvas and ‘injecting life’ in a similar way that one gives life to inanimate objects, such as toys.”
Lubaina Himid, is a prolific artist who has exhibited across the UK and abroad and currently teaches Fine Art at The University of Central Lancashire. Lubaina has chosen three sets of paintings which challenge the common stereotype of ‘the architect’. For each set there are three paintings – the architect, model, and plan. The series challenges preconceptions of the archetypal architect, by depicting a black woman as the architect in each of the paintings, expressing her vision of a particular building.
Sonia Lawson exhibited six emotive paintings which conveyed the themes of injustice, grief and dignity which are integral to the Representing Lives exhibition.
Her Grieving Women painting (1991) depicts two female figures, one white, one black, standing serenely together as if in mutual and mute understanding of perhaps some deep grief or irrevocable loss. A situation holding no age or time gap.
Lawson’s Boadicea and her Daughters (1991) employs rich and sombre colours which convey a sense of serenity and a monumental dignity in the face of pain, persecution and injustice which they were made to suffer. An earlier work, Homage to Emily Bronte/Night Writing (1982) (from a series of five), is a tribute to the author of Wuthering Heights whose spirited intellect and stout resolve created something so bold and outlandish for its time, a novel that shook, shocked and delighted its readers. When Sonia first read it at the age of 11 it made her feel “wildly liberated” – she didn’t realise it was because she was empathising with one of our early feminists. One of the most striking themes prevalent in the exhibition, is the exploration of the bond between parent and child. Sonia’s painting Gallant Child depicts a child reaching up to the mother figure in a gesture of reassurance.
Sonia explained: “This painting is partly autobiographical, but many people will empathise with the notion of the child as the protector or comforter of a parent.”
Pauline Lucas studied Fine Art at the University of Reading in 1960, and later undertook an MA in Arts Criticism at Birkbeck Collage. Lucas began her career teaching art and art history at at a variety of different institutions across Nottingham and the East Midlands, while also maintaining a career as a freelance curator and exhibition maker.
Lucas’ curatorial work covered many aspects of feminist practice, working primarily with women’s groups who were producing works in a number of different mediums. Her shows were hosted across a number of Nottingham galleries, including Nottingham Castle and Angel Row Gallery. Lucas also published works in a series of catalogues which and publications such as Artline Newspaper.
Bonington Archive is a revolving display of material drawn from the Bonington Gallery Archive. If you have any materials relating to the programme, especially before 1989, please email boningtongallery@ntu.ac.uk