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Viewing Festival of Quilts 

A festival of quilts. As the rising awareness of the craftsmanship of Quilts takes form, why not take a trip to Europe’s leading patchwork and quilting event, The Festival of Quilts, as it returns to the NEC to celebrate its 20th Anniversary. 
 
Launched in 2003 in partnership with The Quilters’ Guild, The Festival of Quilts sees individuals worldwide come together and share their passion for quilting. Two decades on, and it is now the biggest quilting show in Europe, with an expected attendance of over 22,000 quilting fanatics. Featuring a global quilt competition, workshops, talks, and a vast array of quilting materials, find your perfect patch this weekend. 
 
Incoming from the States is a quilter, author, teacher and host of the hit YouTube channel ‘The Midnight Quilt Show’, Angela Walters. Describing quilting as her therapy, Walters will share her various skills in a series of workshops and talks. So sewing machines at the ready, start tapping that peddle, and hear the sweet tune of the Singer sewing machine as you glide into the NEC this weekend. 

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Dates
03 August 2023 — 06 August 2023

Viewing Dave White: Extinct

Travel back in time and head to Hampshire to wonder at the gigantic dinosaurs as contemporary artist Dave White presents ‘Extinct’ at Kiklo Spaces.
 
Breathing new life into a childhood obsession with Dinosauria, ‘Extinct’ is a series of works that have taken form through lifelong research and the imagination of White. Starting as a pencil to paper in small sketchbooks, White worked from skeletons and specimens. Developing these studies and harnessing their personality over time, White presents large-scale and rich oil paintings that span a lifetime from the artist and the world. 
 
“For the past decade I have created works that focus on the inhabitants of the natural world, their beauty is something we take for granted in the abstracted world we live in. Their fragility and scarcity and their fight for survival has been the catalyst and focus of my work.” – Dave White
 
Produced in secrecy over 18 months and hiding in the confines of White’s studio, these paintings now stand firm in a new environment at Kiklo Spaces. With some paintings standing over 7ft tall make way to Hampshire to stand in the presence of these immense reptiles, as White imprints the beauty of what could be lost in our world today.
 

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Dates
31 July 2023 — 09 September 2023

Viewing Cinga Samson: Nzulu yemfihlakalo

Prepare to be transported into the world of South African artist Cinga Samson as he unveils his new body of work at White Cube Mason Yard. Completed in his Cape Town studio, the exhibition includes large and small-scale paintings that explore the idea of spirituality and ritual. Between heaven and earth, the works create a sense of another world, an intangible metaphysical realm that impacts human existence.

‘Nzulu yemfihlakalo’ is a borrowed term from an isiXhosa phrase which loosely translates to ‘the depth of mystery’ and is used to express devotion while also being a description of God. Leaving the door open to interpretation and spirituality, Samson’s work is hyperreal with a hallucinatory quality that creates a feeling of the unknown. With piercing blank white eyes, a sense of the sublime dismisses the viewer’s gaze.

Bringing the viewer back down to earth, cultural references are scattered throughout the works. Samson’s works are figurative in nature with objects or memento mori frequently appearing, such as bouquets of proteas – the national flower of South Africa. In ‘Nzulu yemfihlakalo’, the human form is equal to nature and drives forward together in the creation of life.

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Dates
07 July 2023 — 26 August 2023
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The Wick Culture - Yeonjoon Yoon, Gavin Poole, Conrad Shawcross, Tristram Hunt at UMBILICAL

Happenings Conrad Shawcross: UMBILICAL at Here East

Happenings
The Wick Culture - Gallery view of the 2025 Summer Exhibition
Photo: © David Parry/ Royal Academy of Arts

Happenings RA Summer Party

Happenings
The Wick Culture - Katy Wickremesinghe at Dulwich Picture Gallery

Happenings Rachel Jones at Dulwich Picture Gallery

Happenings
The Wick Culture - Katy Wickremesinghe at Dulwich Picture Gallery

Happenings Rachel Jones at Dulwich Picture Gallery

Happenings
The Wick Culture - The Weston Collections Hall at V&A East
Storehouse, including over 100 mini
curated displays ‘hacked’ into the ends
and sides of the storage racking. Image by Hufton + Crow for V&A

Happenings V&A East Storehouse

Happenings
The Wick Culture - Shezad Dawood

Happenings Chain of Hope at Saatchi Gallery

Happenings