Modern Art Oxford

Modern Art Oxford One of the UK’s leading contemporary art spaces. We celebrate the importance of participation in the arts, offering inspiring creative opportunities.
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Modern Art Oxford is a leading UK contemporary art space with an international reputation for inspirational and innovative programmes. The gallery is located in central Oxford. We have an eclectic shop which holds a wide range of gifts, jewellery and cards, as well as a selection of art books, artists editions, exhibition catalogues and contemporary craft and design.

June at Modern Art Oxford • Divine Schism: Lucy Leave + Hannah Lou LarsenAn immersive evening of music presented by Divi...
02/06/2026

June at Modern Art Oxford

• Divine Schism: Lucy Leave + Hannah Lou Larsen
An immersive evening of music presented by Divine Schism.
Thurs 4 June | 6–10pm

• After Hours Studio: Dry Point Etching
Create your own drypoint etchings inspired by Olivia Plender’s work, plus a guided exhibition tour and complimentary drink.
Thurs 4 June | 6–8.30pm

• Make Play
Sensory play sessions for children aged 6 months–5 years and their carers.
Tues 9 & 16 June | 11am–12pm + 1–2pm

• Curator-led Tour
Join one of our curators for a 30-minute tour exploring the stories and ideas behind the exhibitions.
Fri 12 June | 1–1.30pm

• Kira Freije In Conversation
Jennifer Higgie joins Kira Freije to discuss Unspeak the Chorus and themes of kinship, grief and companionship within the exhibition.
Sat 13 June | 2–3pm

• Appau Jnr Boakye-Yiadom Artist In-Conversation
Discover the ideas and research behind Modular Merger.
Thurs 18 June | 6–6.30pm

• Preview Party: Appau Jnr Boakye-Yiadom
Celebrate the opening of Modular Merger with DJ sets from FLOW soundsystem in The Yard.
Thurs 18 June | 6.30–9pm

• Community Studio
A free collaborative session inviting visitors, artists and local communities to help shape the future of Modern Art Oxford.
Sun 21 June | 1–4pm | drop in

Click the link in our bio to book!

Open Call 2026 is now live.We’re inviting artist collectives, creative partnerships and collaborative practices based in...
01/06/2026

Open Call 2026 is now live.

We’re inviting artist collectives, creative partnerships and collaborative practices based in the South East of England to apply for a paid micro-commission and group exhibition at Modern Art Oxford this December.

Whether you’re an established collective, a duo, family members, friends, neighbours or collaborators working across disciplines, we’re interested in projects that explore what it means to create together.

Three collectives will be selected by our panel and guest judge Mike Nelson to develop new work for exhibition as part of our 60th anniversary programme.

South East England
Paid micro-commission
Group exhibition in December 2026
Deadline: 26 July

Want to find out more? Email [email protected] to receive the link to our online briefing session on Monday 15 June.

Find out more and apply via the link in our bio.

A bit of quiet and calm in the centre of Oxford. 🌿Come and catch Foraging Connections in our Ground Floor Gallery - a co...
01/06/2026

A bit of quiet and calm in the centre of Oxford. 🌿

Come and catch Foraging Connections in our Ground Floor Gallery - a collaborative exhibition with artists , .m.edward and .

Here's what Lili and Arbie discussed with Curator Holly Broughton about the title of the exhibition:

"It references the social, natural, and scientific. It's the people, the environment, and the history as well. We wanted to look at the connectedness between each other as well as nature.

Foraging is about the natural environment as a site of co-production. The project has been about the connectedness between us, as a group, with the natural world. And the family unit. We wanted to bring everyone into nature to have that respite. Breathe in the phytoncides – natural compounds emitted by trees that boost our immune system - have a moment of creativity, and experience the healing power of nature.

It's also about the strength found in togetherness. If you pick a single stem, it's fragile and you can't do anything with it. But if you dry it, rehydrate it, and twist it into cordage with other stems, you can get a rope strong enough to tie a horse.

It's amazing how the same material that is weak on its own becomes strong together. That is a key theme of this project. We wanted the sessions to offer a space of calm - to invite everyone to breathe in the air and experience that restorative power."

Read the full interview: https://www.modernartoxford.org.uk/blog/inside-foraging-connections-artist-interview?utm_campaign=coschedule&utm_source=facebook_page&utm_medium=Modern%20Art%20Oxford

Huge thanks to and for the full-page review in today’s paper.“Like one of Leonardo’s anatomical drawings translated in...
31/05/2026

Huge thanks to and for the full-page review in today’s paper.

“Like one of Leonardo’s anatomical drawings translated into stiff ribbons of steel… Freije has a true gift for three dimensional form.”

We couldn’t agree more…

31/05/2026

“A couple draped in old fabric are stumbling ahead, feeling their way, like the blind leading the blind. Or is it that the man is helping a poor bewildered woman along? With their eyes closed, meaning is occluded. You must study the tilt of a head or the splay of a foot to guess at what haunts them.”
- Laura Cummings, The Observer

Read the full review at the link in our bio! ⬆️

Kira Freije: Unspeak the Chorus is on show until 16 August

The year is 1966: England wins the World Cup, The Beatles release Revolver, and in Oxford a new art space opens its door...
29/05/2026

The year is 1966: England wins the World Cup, The Beatles release Revolver, and in Oxford a new art space opens its doors to the public.

Known then as the Museum of Modern Art Oxford (MOMA), our first self-generated exhibition was Space Place: Constructed Space Participation by Maurice Agis and Peter Jones.

Far from a traditional gallery exhibition, Space Place was imagined as an environment people could move through, gather inside and activate themselves. Bright geometric structures in red, blue and green stretched across the gallery, accompanied by taped soundtracks of “hoots and booms.” Visitors were encouraged to explore, interact and participate.

Art critic Andrew Forge described the exhibition as declaring the museum’s intention to become “a place where things can happen… music can be played or children can run about, people can talk.”

Artists, musicians and poets including Yoko Ono, Adrian Mitchell and John Tilbury performed within the installation, turning the gallery into a constantly shifting social and creative space. One local reporter wrote: “perhaps it was a happening at the Oxford Museum of Modern Art last night, because certain things happened, though it’s hard to explain exactly what.”

Agis and Jones believed people needed spaces that could bring them together, places to “look - to feel - to listen - to laugh - to cry - to love - to protest.”

Nearly 60 years later, that idea still sits at the centre of what Modern Art Oxford can be: not simply a place to look at art, but a place where people meet, experiment, question and connect.

‘Hag Nag Harpy Hen’This work by Olivia Plender considers patriarchal and misogynistic language that has been used to des...
29/05/2026

‘Hag Nag Harpy Hen’

This work by Olivia Plender considers patriarchal and misogynistic language that has been used to describe women throughout history and continues to linger in everyday speech today.

Plender created these paintings specifically for this exhibition, drawing on a 1970s school reader filled with nostalgic educational scenes of domestic and daily life. Set against this imagery, the loaded language and stereotypes reveal how ideas around gender are quietly taught, absorbed and repeated across generations.

In the gallery, the paintings are accompanied by the sound work ‘Mastering the Voice’ (2023), inspired by Plender’s experience of undergoing speech therapy after a virus left her unable to speak for a year.

Through a series of rehearsed vocal exercises performed by a group of women and non-binary people, the work explores how gender is performed and reinforced through the voice. As the group repeat the exercises, they begin to resist the language itself - shifting pitch, choking, laughing and cackling until the piece builds towards a chaotic crescendo.

Together, the installation examines the ways gendered expectations are learned, embodied and challenged.

Olivia Plender: Unspeak the Chorus is on show now until 16 August

Kira Freije casts hands and feet from her own body, while the faces belong to people close to her, friends, family, and ...
27/05/2026

Kira Freije casts hands and feet from her own body, while the faces belong to people close to her, friends, family, and loved ones.

“Their gender is vague. I ask Kira if they’re expanded self-portraits. She says they’re more like combinations of herself, loved ones and people she’s conjured up...”

Throughout the exhibition, human and animal worlds intertwine: dogs sleep beside figures, birds appear in flight, and bodies lean into one another for support.

A figure could seem to be grieving, laughing, collapsing, or dancing. Freije leaves space for viewers to bring their own emotional interpretations to the work.

Kira Freije: Unspeak the Chorus is on show now at Modern Art Oxford, co-commissioned by

How do you forest bathe? Slow down. Touch the bark of a tree. Listen to the movement of leaves overhead. Notice the smel...
27/05/2026

How do you forest bathe?

Slow down. Touch the bark of a tree. Listen to the movement of leaves overhead. Notice the smell of damp earth, plants and rain in the air. Forest bathing is the practice of immersing yourself in a woodland environment through the senses - not hiking or exercising, but simply being present.

These works were created during sessions at Wytham Woods with Children Heard and Seen, where the group explored the landscape by touching, smelling, listening to and hugging the trees around them. The sessions encouraged the inhalation of phytoncides; natural antimicrobial compounds released by trees and plants, scientifically linked to reducing stress and supporting immune function.

Using handmade inks made from alder, avocado, blackberry, buddleia, elderberry, nettle, raspberry, rose and walnut, the resulting photographs capture moments of connection between people, plants and place.

The positions of specific trees were recorded using what3words addresses, linking each image to poems featured in the Locational Poems zine also on display in the gallery.

Part of Foraging Connections, on display in our Ground Floor Gallery until 14 June

Moments from Kira Freije: Unspeak the Chorus, now open at Modern Art OxfordThis exhibition brings together a shifting co...
24/05/2026

Moments from Kira Freije: Unspeak the Chorus, now open at Modern Art Oxford

This exhibition brings together a shifting community of sculptural figures, animal companions, glass vessels and atmospheric light installations. Suspended somewhere between companionship, grief and tenderness, the works resist any singular narrative - instead inviting visitors to form their own connections and interpretations.

Hand-welded steel figures carry visible marks, stains and traces of their making, while pools of murky reflective glass and carefully staged lighting create an immersive environment that feels both intimate and uncanny. Freije describes light as a “gathering point”, something that can guide viewers towards a new feeling or idea.

Co-commissioned by The Hepworth Wakefield.

Open now until 16 August - this is one you need to experience in person.

Address

30 Pembroke Street
Oxford
OX11BP

Opening Hours

Tuesday 10am - 5pm
Wednesday 10am - 5pm
Thursday 10am - 5pm
Friday 10am - 5pm
Saturday 10am - 5pm
Sunday 12pm - 5pm

Telephone

+441865722733

Website

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