Curated by Laurence Tidy, the show offers a current view of assemblage art and assemblagist
artist practices in and around Sussex. It aims to celebrate, contemplate, and consider
contemporary assemblage art and assemblagist methodologies.
It does so with a local lens, focusing on artists within East and West Sussex. The focus on the
place of making is intended to raise the question of how assemblagist artist practices relate to
site and context.
The exhibition also aims to bring together assemblage art and assemblagist artist practices to
create a temporary community of potentially like-minded artists. In the opinion of its curator,
‘assemblage’ can be taken to mean many things; as a term, it is generally less well-known than
associated terms such as collage and it is able to include a vast array of art and artist practices,
dimensions, styles and intentions. It is hoped that an open-call format will allow for a diversity of
approaches to shape the exhibition’s content.
The timing of the show looks towards the weeks leading up to 2026 – a year which marks 65
years since The Art of Assemblage at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Seen by writers,
curators, and gallerists as pioneering in popularising the term assemblage, this exhibition looks
back to 1961 and considers changes and consistencies since then by examining our current
‘States of assemblage’.
Exhibition at Unit2 St. Leonards on Sea – 2025