Ten artists from Sussex have had artworks selected for a high-profile upcoming national touring exhibition organised by arts charity Outside In (www.outsidein.org.uk).

They will have their work shown at Christie’s in London and The New Art Gallery Walsall in the West Midlands as a result.

Spokesman Matt Forbes-Dale said: “Also originating in Sussex, Outside In is now an award-winning national charity which has helped over 4,000 artists across the UK to set up online galleries and further their careers. The charity provides a platform for artists who encounter significant barriers to the art world, due to health, disability, social circumstance or isolation, and its biennial National Open exhibitions offer artists the opportunity to show their work in high-profile arts institutions across the country.

“Artists Sea (Brighton), Lila Wordsworth (Brighton), Kazmina (Bramber), Ana Christmas (Brighton), Frances Halsey (Littlehampton), Carolina Larrain-Pulido (Brighton), Chris Hoggins (St Leonards), Andrew Harston (St Leonards), Helen Bashford (Newhaven) and Melanie Hodge (Burgess Hill) all submitted work for Outside In’s seventh National Open exhibition following an open call last year. The exhibition has the theme of Shelter and 80 artworks, including work by these artists, were selected by panels choosing from over 600 submissions from around the UK.”

Brighton artist Sea submitted a multimedia, illuminated sculpture entitled We All Remember It Differently: “This is a sculpture depicting multiple perspectives on the home I grew up in. The past is complicated, especially in families wrought from inter-generational trauma and unspoken histories. In dysfunctional homes, there's a face that is presented to the outside world in contrast to the unseen dynamics and complex relationships which emerge behind closed doors. I hope this piece invites viewers to reflect on safe/unsafe homes and on the complicated experience of making sense of the past.”

Also from Brighton, Lila Wordsworth made an embroidered and mixed media artwork, Shrine To Failure, when life was falling apart: “I had left my marital home and had recently lost my grandmother,” says Lila. “During this period, I was going to the beach to swim and collect bits of rubbish. The beach became a second home, and, in the absence of any suitable ritual to recognise the process I was going through, I made a series of shrines featuring beach waste – transforming the sad and lost plastic into something of value. This quilt offered a spiritual home to put these feelings and offer thanks to the beach as a home when I desperately needed it.”

Brighton-based Ana Christmas made Cheetah whilst recovering after a traumatic time: “When I got back to my flat in Brighton in 2021, there was a Covid lockdown and I didn't leave the flat for months. I hid till long after the lockdown ended. I was doodling a lot and my doodles around this time were quite symbolic and made to soothe myself.”

Frances Halsey from Littlehampton has created a mixed media sculpture, Shelter Of The Tree, which is hand painted across two 1:78 scale model shipping containers, inspired by eerie forest mists and rendered in a street art style. Forests naturally provide a comforting shelter which Frances has always found calming.

Carolina Larrain-Pulido from Brighton had her mixed media piece Abode selected, an artwork which ignites questions around the difference between a ‘house’ and a ‘home.’ Incorporating flat-pack furniture instructions, a canvas, textiles and vacuum pack storage, it was born out of traumatic experiences with housing problems.

“A Section 27 No Fault Eviction launched me into the abyss of flat hunting in a city that became London By The sea”, Carolina said. “I felt vulnerable, unsafe and could get lost in translation with all the formalities, and after a period of housing instability, I realised I’d lost my home. My work acknowledges the need for ‘home’, along with all its complexities.”

Shelter is at The New Art Gallery Walsall in the West Midlands until October 19. It will then transfer to Christie’s London where it will be on show from January 12-22.