Venue 153 Drinks Reception - A Devon Open Studios Event

Join us on Friday 24th September as we celebrate the final weekend of Devon Open Studios 2021. We'll be welcoming you for a drink at Venue 153 where you can enjoy a showcase of work from The 21 Group of Artists, as well as discover the working studio of artist William Mills.

RSVP essential.

About the Exhibitions

William Mills Studio

‘My work is bold, expressive, and atmospheric, capturing something simultaneously fluent and graceful, yet towering, turbulent and contemplative.’ William Mills is a prize-winning artist based in the United Kingdom whose works have been featured in several solo and group exhibitions nationally. Born in Torbay, he has continued to study, work and live across Devon and Cornwall for most of his life, graduating from Falmouth University in 2015. His works have sold as far away as Australia, and he has completed numerous commissions. In 2020 he won the New Elizabeth Bovill Trophy and Joanna Radford Prize. His abstract compositions capture the development of identity over the passage of time. William believes that life shapes and alters our paths, and that we all wrestle with understanding ourselves, as well as our drives and motivations. His expressive and multi-layered paintings can be viewed as seascapes, skyscapes, or a world in between. The central theme underpinning William’s work is the ongoing journey in understanding personal identity and how it is shaped over the passage of time.

www.art-hub.co.uk/ap/williammills

The 21 Group of Artists

Artizan Collective Gallery is excited to welcome the esteemed 21 Group of Artists to Torbay for Devon Open Studios, the first time the group will exhibit collectively for the event.

Formed in 1967, the 21 Group of Artists is now one of the longest established groups of exhibiting professional artists in the South West. In 1963 the painter Harry Pye organised the first of a series of Open exhibitions at Torre Abbey in Torquay. These annual exhibitions, entitled simply VISION, showed selected work by artists from all over South Devon. The more committed painters whose work was invariably selected included, amongst many others, Beryl Clark, Elsie Holliwell, Kenneth Fernee, Jane Prout, Joyce Earle, Colin and Rosemary Bigwood, Christine Raikes, and Vincent Wilson. In 1966 the Vision exhibition confined itself to invited artists only, many of whom were outstanding painters. That exhibition, presenting the work of a nexus of fine artists, prompted Harry Pye to think in terms of consolidating their connection within a regular exhibiting group. Thus, in 1967 the 21 Group of Artists was born.

More than fifty years on, the 21 Group is one of the longest established exhibiting groups in the South West. Its members are now drawn from a wide area stretching from beyond Exeter in the east, to Cornwall in the west, and northwards towards Okehampton.

The 21 Group presents two or three exhibitions of professional work each year in the south Devon and surrounding areas, but this will be their first time returning to the group’s formative town for many years.

www.art-hub.co.uk/ex/21group21