Art and exhibitions 2021

Associate Artist – Tom Hammick (18 May – 18 September)

Waves of the Soul © Tom Hammick. All rights reserved, DACS 2021

British printmaker and a painter Tom Hammick (b.1963) is Glyndebourne’s Associate Artist for 2020-2022. Hailed as a ‘visionary artist’, Hammick’s works are informed by a reverence for nature, music, poetry, cinema and myth, woven together with personal memory.

Hammick studied Art History at the University of Manchester and later Fine Art Painting at Camberwell College of Art and NSCAD, Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in Canada. He has an MA in Printmaking, also from Camberwell and taught Fine Art Painting and Printmaking at the University of Brighton for many years. He now splits his time between his home in East Sussex and his busy print studio in Bermondsey, South London. He is represented by Lyndsey Ingram Gallery, London and recently collaborated with Paul Smith on an exhibition at their flagship store in London and a range of colourful accessories.

During his residency at Glyndebourne, Hammick has created a major body of new work comprising monumental woodcuts and accompanying etchings, all drawing on opera narratives from past and present productions. The music and mechanisms of opera have always been a central part of Hammick’s practice. He has been coming to Glyndebourne for 20 years, first seeing Die Zauberflöte in 1991, which left a lasting impression: ‘I loved the way that the stage at Glyndebourne became almost like a space to put things in, a kind of Giacometti table top piece with different objects. It was very exciting going to opera in my late 30s. It blew me away and set me free in the works I make’.

This summer, Hammick’s exhibition of woodcuts and a remarkable series of etchings will be presented both online and on site.

Halima Cassell MBE (18 May – 18 September)

Fire, Wind, Earth & Water, © Halima Cassell

In the gardens this summer are nine sculptures by Halima Cassell MBE. This will be Cassell’s first major exhibition of work since being recognised for her outstanding Services to Art in the 2020 New Year’s Honours List. 

Cassell was born in Kashmir in 1975 and moved to Lancashire aged one. She initially trained in 3D Design at the University of Central Lancashire, before training in Ceramics at Manchester City College. Cassell’s most recent solo exhibition, Electica – Global Inspirations (2019) at Manchester Art Gallery opened to critical acclaim and her work is now represented in many collections, including the V&A Museum, Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, Walker Art Gallery and Museum, Liverpool and The Hepworth, Wakefield. 

Cassell has a distinctive sculptural syntax, integrating biomorphic forms and complex surface patterns, referencing her fascination for nature and the patterns of her Islamic heritage. Although clay remains her starting point, she now works in a variety of other materials, including iron, jesmonite and concrete.  

Cassell has created four new, site-specific works for Glyndebourne, referencing the organic forms she discovered when first visiting the site two years ago. 

Cassell’s work will be exhibited alongside permanent sculptures in the gardens – Draped Reclining Woman by Henry Moore, Nic Fiddian-Green’s Fire, and Triangles 5 (Bridge) by Nicholas Hare, which is on display for another year. 

Forces of Nature: group show (28 June – 18 September)

Detail from Apus (Wild Honeysuckle) by Victoria Sebag

The Forces of Nature group show is Glyndebourne’s first all-women exhibition. Bringing together new works on paper and paintings, the show explores wo(man’s) relationship with nature, our fascination with its beauty and forms, its power and our fears about its current degradation.

The exhibiting artists are Lesley Birch, Kate Boucher, Katie Brookes, Morag Caister, Lara Cobden, Linda Felcey, Michele Fletcher, Christabel Forbes, Jelly Green, Melanie Goemans, Tyga Helme, Linda Jamieson, Kathryn Johnson, Rosie Lascelles, Kathryn Maple, Esther Donaldson Nyandwi, Jayne Sandys-Renton and Victoria Sebag. Also included are a selection of photographs of Glyndebourne gardens by pioneering émigré photographer Ilse Bing from 1937.