Abstract Reasoning
Courtenay Welcome
A solo exhibition by Courtenay Welcome in the foyer space at free house.
Friday 2nd October, 6-8pm
82 Fazeley Street, Digbeth, Birmingham, B5 5RD
Venue: Free House
Reaching
‘Reaching’ shares new and recent work by Sophie Mackfall and Gwenan Davies. The work variously plays
Gwenan Davies is a painter based between London and Abergele. She has a BA from UWIC, Cardiff, and an MFA from Bard College, New York. She works in painting, drawing and writing, working diaristically to explore the ubiquitous everyday or mundane, its matter and its make-up.
Davies has exhibited within the UK and internationally, including at Paradise Projects, Philadelphia, Intermedia Gallery, Glasgow, Travelling Gallery, touring Scotland, Stoppenbach & Delestre, London and A-Place Gallery, Glasgow. Residencies have included Est-Nord-Est, Canada and UNIT(e), Cardiff.
Sophie Mackfall is a painter based in Birmingham. She has a BA in Painting from Glasgow School of Art and an MA from the Royal College of Art, London. Mackfall’s practice is concerned with the poetic potentiality of the edge, fold and line within an expanded painting practice.
Mackfall has exhibited within the UK and internationally, including ICA, London, Bluecoat, Liverpool, Whitechapel, London, Intermedia Gallery Glasgow, Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh. Residencies have included PADA, Portugal, Cove Park, Scotland and Arnis Residency, Germany.
Stitch’N’Bitch
An exhibition of embroidery and fury by Vicky Roden.
There’ll be medieval critters.
There’ll be sweary stitching.
There will be screaming into the void.
There may even be shenanigans.
It will also include the Birmingham debut of Woman In Black. Developed last summer at Live Art Ireland it’s a scream into the void via accapella singing and my dressing gown, and I’ll be randomly bursting into (screams? Song? Scrong?) throughout the night.
Milling Mulling
Coral Brookes + Sarah Karen
Milling Mulling
We will be showing new work and studio experiments in Birmingham as part of Digbeth First Friday including drawings, weavings and sculpture, thinking about textile production, memory & ways of making and learning. Some things have been made slowly, sensitively, carefully and others playfully, instantaneously and intuitively.
For one night only, hope to see you there!
Sam Wootton – A quick peck in your nans porch
A one-night exhibition in Birmingham.
https://www.instagram.com/samwstudio/
Open Studios
2025 welcomed a new era for free house. The past months have seen an expansion across floors, new artists and the building’s two hundredth birthday! 🎂🏚️
So much has changed in our third year, and we’d love you to pop by and see what we’ve been up to! 💚
Open studios will include:
Jaz O Donohue
EV Thresher
Sophie Mackfall
Emily Scarrott
Leah Hickey
Dinosaur Kilby
Alex Billingham
Find us at: 82 Fazeley Street, Digbeth B5 5RD
Cosmic Taxonomy – Exhibition Opening
Jennie Bates presents a solo exhibition at free house, showcasing sculpture, drawing and print, for one night only.
Cosmic Taxonomy is something between a DIY museum, a private study and a detective wall. The show attempts to understand and find meaning in an inherently disordered world, and capture the dissonance between that chaos and the artist’s need to carefully categorise everything.
This event is supported by Creative Scotland and Freelands Foundation (refreshments provided).
Poster by Lois Paton .
pub.lic characters
Come along and join us for pub.lic characters, a studio holder exhibition with work by Alex Billingham, Jaz O’Donohue Emily Scarrott, Ev Thresher, Dinosaur Kilby, Leah Hickey, Sophie Mackfall, Jaz Morrison.
In a pub, a cast of characters are at the table. They are talking about things. They are lic(king) one another in half formed, and undetectable sentences.
*a drink has split on grey cloth. everything is wet*
Curated by Lucy Grubb
FREE! EVERYBODY WELCOME! Bring friends x
Open Studio
Has it REALLY been a year since the last one?!
Lots has happened: new studio members, new kitchen tiles, & some other new stuff too! Come by as part of the monthly rounds and have a look 👀
Featuring artists: Sophie Mackfall, Forge House Collective, Jaz Morrison, Kristina Hall, Dinosaur Kilby, Emily Scarrott and Kevin Hunt.
Open Studio
Free House is a new artist’s studio complex in Digbeth, Birmingham.
Current Studio holders are; Kevin Hunt, Sophie Mackfall, Larissa Shaw, Fred Hubble, Jaz Morrison, Kristina Hall, Emily Scarrott and Dinosaur Kilby.
We are opening our studios for the first time on 06/10, 6-8pm. Come an av a look.