Talking Sculpture Making (TSM) are delighted to announce that they are curating an exhibition of abstract sculpture and painting, opening in October 2026 at: 

The Margate School of Art
31-33 High Street
Margate, CT9 1DX

Pre-Show artist tour 8 October 3-5pm

Private View  8 October 2026, 5-8pm 

Exhibition open  8 – 18 October 2026, Tuesday – Sunday, 10-4pm 

Free public discussion chaired by artist and writer John Bunker
Saturday 17 October, 1.30-4pm.
Everyone welcome. 

For this exhibition, TSM have invited London and Margate based artist Melanie Ahmed to show with them. Melanie’s paintings and deconstructed painted objects offer a bridge between the more familiar genre of abstract painting and the compositions of form, materiality, colour and surface in the works by the TSM sculptors.

Throughout their careers, the TSM sculptors have chosen not to make work about women’s issues and domesticity, preferring instead to focus on material, process, space and visual connections. For the exhibition and discussion event at The Margate School, TSM want to interrogate and open up conversations about the visual languages of abstract sculpture and painting and how much this can be understood as gendered, fuelling discussions that explore and dissect the content and nuance of the artists’ respective practices and how they each engage with ideas, offering an exchange of ideas around these languages and the evolving nature of women’s art practices. 

This exhibition is a partnership between TSM and MAST. 

TSM are holding a free public discussion as part of their exhibition
‘Abstract Vernacular – Continuing Conversations’.
18th January 2025, 2 – 5pm. Everyone Welcome

Hypha Studios
Sugar House Island Gallery 1
6 Sugar House Lane,
London E15 2QS

Each time TSM exhibits they host a free public discussion about their practice, ideologies and experiences of working as women abstract artists, aiming to provide an inclusive environment for audiences to engage and respond on their terms.

The discussion for Abstract Vernacular – Continuing Conversations is chaired by eminent curator and writer Natalie Rudd, offering an exchange of ideas around the languages of abstract art and the evolving nature of women’s art practices, including the parallels between abstract painting and sculpture. We will investigate how the visual and material languages the artists in the show use in making abstract sculpture and painting connect or diverge, and where their concerns meet.

The nine multigenerational women and non-binary artists in the show share their practices and the role their gender, education, location and age has played in the development of their artistic voices. We want to engage with the future of women and non-binary artists working in abstract art and how by capturing the experiences and knowledge of current artists working in the genre, we are able to build a community of support and nurture. The audience will have plenty of opportunities to participate in the discussion.

Natalie Rudd is a curator and writer. In her former role as Senior Curator of the Arts Council Collection, she managed the sculpture collection at Longside, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, and produced many UK touring exhibitions, including ‘Breaking the Mould: Sculpture by Women since 1945‘. Natalie has published widely on art and artists including Tess Jaray, Permindar Kaur and Veronica Ryan.

Natalie is currently a Midlands4Cities PhD researcher at University of Birmingham, studying preciousness in sculpture.

The recording of the discussion will be available in the Recordings section of this website, where you can find recordings of previous discussion events.

TSM’s latest exhibition, hosted by Hypha Studios, opens in December 2024.

Abstract Vernacular – Continuing Conversations
Sugar House Island 1
6 Sugar House Lane,
London E15 2QS

Private View: 12th December, 6-9.
Exhibition open:
12th December – 18th January.
Open Thursday – Saturday, 12-6.
Closed 22nd – 29th December.

TSM are curating an exhibition of abstract sculpture and painting by nine multigenerational women and non-binary contemporary artists from London, the North and Ireland.

TSM have invited three sculptors and, for the first time, three painters to show with them. 

Jackie Askew, painter (Ireland)
Day Bowman, painter (London)
Katrina Cowling, sculptor (Bradford/London)
Charlotte Cullen,sculptor (Leeds)
Beatrice Galletley, sculptor (London)
Ellen Ranson, painter (Durham)

Many contemporary artists make works that are abstract, yet they do not define them as such. TSM want to reclaim the word and open up conversations about how abstract sculpture and painting speaks to many through their visual languages which, through use of material and space refers indirectly to the complex world we live in. Visual concepts of form, spatial relationships, presentation and visual independence will become apparent across the works in the show, fuelling discussions that explore and dissect the language surrounding the artists’ respective practices and how they each engage with ideas.

There will be an informal artists’ tour on Sunday 15th December, 2-4

A public discussion, chaired by curator and writer Natalie Rudd will take place on 18th January, 2-5. Everyone welcome.

Public transport to get to Sugar House Island
Nearest stations:
Pudding Mill Lane DLR is just a five-minute walk away. Other stations within walking distance are Stratford (Central, District, DLR, Elizabeth, Jubilee)  Stratford High Street, (DLR)  Bromley-By-Bow, Bow Road, (Hammersmith and City, District) Bow Church (DLR) and Stratford International (DLR and mainline from Kings Cross).  

Buses along Stratford High Road:
25, D8, 425, 276 and 108. From Stratford bus station, take a bus towards Bow, 3 stops

The C2 Cycleway and Q22 Greenway cycle path are both close.

Parking is limited to blue badge holders.

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/talking-sculpture-dialects-of-making-symposium-tickets-802821499717

21st March 2024

A collaboration between TSM and Vessel at York St John University, the symposium
Talking Sculpture: Dialects of Making presents a distinctly community-driven and collaborative practice to extend the overdue conversation offered by the current exhibition in Vessel of the same name. In refusing historical practices which have denied women artists space, community building is integral to the ongoing feminist repositioning of abstract sculpture. Talking Sculpture: Dialects of Making supports a national and intergenerational dialogue of abstract sculptors working across the UK today, and holds space for ongoing discussion.

Keynote Speaker: Prof Griselda Pollock, art historian, writer, Emeritus Professor, University of Leeds.

Panel 1:  The Matter of Materials
Introduction – Jack Morton
Speaker – Dr Victoria Sharples, artist, curator & academic
Chair – Becky Gee, curator
Artists Alexandra Harley (TSM), Katrina Cowling

Panel 2: Translating Making
Introduction – Emilia Manship
Speaker – Dr Julia McKinlay artist & academic
Chair – Sam Metz artist
Artists Sheila Vollmer (TSM), Hannah Honeywill

Panel 3: Contextualising Practice
Introduction – Adrian Westgarth
Speaker – Natalie Rudd curator and academic
Chair – Sarah Roberts artist and curator
Artists Gillian Brent (TSM), Dr Charlotte Cullen

Hosted at York St John University, the symposium coincides with, and acts as, the closing event for the exhibition Talking Sculpture: Dialects of Making at Vessel Gallery. This group exhibition includes TSM members Gillian Brent MRSS, Alexandra Harley MRSS, and Sheila Vollmer MRSS, alongside sculptors Katrina Cowling, Hannah Honeywill MRSS, and Dr Charlotte Cullen MRSS.

This national and intergenerational exhibition of abstract sculpture will initiate a material discussion of women making abstract sculpture and situate the public discussion to be held through the symposium.

This method builds on TSM’s commitment to exhibiting as a space to initiate dialogue. These discussions have been recorded and made accessible through TSM’s website. The symposium will continue this action, recording the conversations held within the panel discussions so to reach a further public audience.
https://talking-sculpture-making.co.uk/symposium-recordings-york-st-john-university-2024

This symposium has been made possible with support from the Henry Moore Foundation and York St John University.

Image credit: Peter Griffiths

The TSM artists are co-curating a sculpture exhibition at Vessel, the exhibition space at York St John University, December 2023 – March 2024.

The exhibition ‘Talking Sculpture: Dialects of Making’ a group exhibition supported by Vessel in association with Talking Sculpture Making (TSM) brings together a national and intergenerational group of artists working in abstract sculpture. ‘Talking Sculpture‘ forefronts the material investigation and material conditions of making sculpture engaged in formal and material conversations of the medium and reasserts the importance of feminist legacies in understanding the ongoing importance of abstract sculpture. 

Alexandra, Gillian and Sheila are showing alongside Katrina Cowling, Charlotte Cullen and Hannah Honeywill.

Private View: 5-8pm, 7th December
Exhibition open:
8th – 15th December 2023, 10 – 5.
8th January – 21st March 2024, 10 – 5.

There is a Symposium also titled ‘Talking Sculpture: Dialects of Making’ on 21st March 2024.

Key note speaker is the renowned feminist art academic Grizelda Pollock.

This one-day symposium supports an overdue conversation to reassert the importance, histories and future legacies of abstract sculpture made by women artists, including artists with lived experience of misogyny and gendered oppression.

There is still an underrepresentation of women sculptors working in abstraction. This symposium aims to address this imbalance and examine abstract sculpture and the ways it is and can be understood within the contemporary sculptural field. In collaboration with the artist collective Talking Sculpture Making (TSM), this symposium supports intergenerational discussion from abstract sculptors across the UK working today.

Drawing from a presentation of abstract sculpture at Vessel, York St John University’s public art gallery, the symposium forefronts the embodied experience of viewing sculpture with the purpose of; questioning the role language plays in making sense of and asserting representation, the material conditions of making, the histories and context of abstract sculpture; to reflect on legacies and propose support structures to address the underrepresentation of abstraction within the ongoing feminist repositioning of sculpture.

More information on the day and details on how to register coming soon.

The TSM artists have been having a period of reflection after their exhibition at APT Gallery in March 2023.

Due to some feedback they have decided to change the name of the group from This Stuff Matters to Talking Sculpture Making (TSM).

To reflect this change and to give a new impetus to their ambition to create an accessible archive of their history and current activities as women abstract artists, this new website has been developed.